An anguished question from a Trump supporter: “Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?”
The serious answer: Here’s what we really think about Trump supporters – the rich, the poor, the malignant and the innocently well-meaning, the ones who think and the ones who don’t…
That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought “Fine.”
That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, “Okay.”
That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, “No problem.”
That when he made up stories about seeing muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, “Not an issue.”
That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn’t care, you chirped, “He sure knows me.”
That when you heard him illustrate his own character by telling that cute story about the elderly guest bleeding on the floor at his country club, the story about how he turned his back and how it was all an imposition on him, you said, “That’s cool!”
That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw.
That when you heard him brag that he doesn’t read books, you said, “Well, who has time?”
That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn’t commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, “That makes sense.”
That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, “Yes!”
That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man’s coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, “What a great guy!”
That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, “Thumbs up!”
That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, “That’s the way I want my President to be.”
That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they’re supposed to be regulating and you have said, “What a genius!”
That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, “That’s smart!”
That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was the middle of water and you have said, “That makes sense.”
That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, “falling in love” with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, “That’s statesmanship!”
That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids. has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas – he explains that they’re just “animals” – and you say, “well, ok then.”
That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise.
What you don’t get, Trump supporters in 2018, is that succumbing to frustration and thinking of you as stupid may be wrong and unhelpful, but it’s also…hear me…charitable.
Because if you’re NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are *less* flattering.
Located just outside of Herculaneum, the enormous seaside Villa dei Papiri may have been owned by the father-in-law of Julius Caesar, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus. Built around 30-20 BC, the villa had four levels terraced into the hillside and an extremely long peristyle garden. It is named after the library of 1800 Greek and Latin papyrus scrolls, containing texts related to Epicurean philosophy, found on the site. Along with Herculaneum, the villa was buried under 30 meters of ash and rock in A.D. 79, and, over the centuries, its existence was forgotten.
The site was accidentally rediscovered in 1750. The goal of the first exploration of the site, authorized by the Bourbon King of Naples and directed by archaeologist Karl Weber, was not excavation, but the recovery of antiquities. To achieve this end, tunnels were cut through the compressed volcanic matter into the rooms of the villa, which were then cleared of rubble.
These subterranean labors paid off handsomely. The largest statuary collection from antiquity to have survived intact, comprising over 80 bronze and marble statuary of the highest quality, was discovered, scattered around the large peristyle and tablinum. The masterpieces, now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, included a copy of the Doryphorus of Polykleitos, a bust of Scipio Africanus, and a Seated Mercury. Once these works, along with deposed frescoes and the papyrus library, were removed, the site was sealed and within a few decades its exact location once again forgotten.
Weber’s reconstruction of the villa was published in Le Antichità de Ercolano esposte(1752-92), a deluxe eight-volume catalogue of the antiquities unearthed in the region. Those conjectural drawings served as the master plan for oil magnate J. Paul Getty’s full-scale replica of the Villa dei Papiri in Malibu. Built in 1972-74 as a museum to house Getty’s collection of antiquities, the Getty Villa was intially dismissed by critics as a kitsch exercise in Hollywood historicism.
Following a lengthy renovation, the Getty Villa currently serves as the home of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s ancient art collection and as a center for the study of classical antiquity. With it oceanside setting, temperate climate, and impressive works of ancient art, the opulently-restored museum today is frequently praised by architectural historians for its convincing and compelling recreation of a luxurious Roman villa maritima.
In 1986 the location of the Villa dei Papiri was rediscovered and in the early 1990s, a portion of the building was scientifically excavated. Other than a limited incursion in 2007, no further work has been done, leaving over 2800 sq ft untouched.
The excavated portion of the Villa dei Papiri, seen above, is situated 30m below the modern city of Ercolano. The Packard Humanities Institute, which supports research in fields of study related to classical antiquity, has indicated a willingness to fund the excavation of the rest of the villa. Because further work on the site would require the relocation of the current residents, the demolition of buildings and the re-routing of roads in a region infamous for its ability to circumvent official policies, not to mention the expense involved in maintaining yet another monument, the Italian government has no immediate plans to accept that offer.
Ignisfilimundi 