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Donald Trump, as even some of his die-hard fans will admit, is not always a a paragon of personal virtue. Although the president’s aides sometimes treat him as a baby, as a political scientist Daniel Drezner has seenhe is not a very good-natured person. Trump often behaves in ways that would result in detention or other punishment for an elementary school student: dishonesty with a bald man, name-calling, unkindness, refusal to participate, and incompetence. use internal voice. In other words, Trump sometimes seems as if he missed all the lessons that children should learn from stories and fairy tales. (At the same time, his administration seeks to expel others lessons on tolerance from classrooms.) But maybe that’s not enough: Trump doesn’t ignore the myths; he just takes different lessons from them than the usual ones. Here is a set of folk tales and their values, reinterpreted for MAGA’s political correctness.
“The Three Billy Goat Gruff”
Program: Three goat brothers must cross a bridge guarded by an evil troll who wants to eat them. Walking in tandem, they can trick the greedy troll into waiting for the third and oldest brother, who throws the troll into the water, killing him. With the trolls killed, the bridge is free for all to pass.
Values: Goats could save time and earn money for scary destroy the bridge and kill the troll, then suggest a partnership along with the trolley to divide the income paid by those who want to cross the bridge.
Rainbow Fish
Program: The fish is covered with fine colored scales. The scales make him very proud, but also alienate him from the community, because the other fish are jealous of them and hate the Rainbow Fish for not participating. After giving one level, he makes his first friend. Recently, he has shed all but one of the scales, and has formed a social group connected to other fish.
Values: Friendship is basically an activity.
“Goldilocks and the Three Bears”
Program: A family of three bears, when preparing their breakfast, find it too hot to eat and decide to walk. When they return, they discover that a girl named Goldilocks has sampled their breakfast, sat on (and broken one of) their chairs, and is now sleeping in one of their beds. Goldilocks, startled by the bear’s arrival, jumps out the window and is never heard from again.
Values: People with golden hair are entitled to whatever they want and they must not face the consequences of their actionsespecially if those are official acts.
“The Pied Piper of Hamelin”
Program: Residents of a small German town that has been infested with rats hire a man with a magic pipe to lure the rats out, and have them coax them to their deaths in a nearby river. But when he comes to collect his reward, the authorities refuse to pay him. In revenge, the piper uses his instrument to lure the children of the town, who are never seen again.
Values: Always pay vendors what they owe. Charitable European leaders are a threat to the future of your community.
“Nyerere and the Grasshopper”
Program: The diligent ant spends all summer gathering food for the winter months, while the lazy grasshopper dances and sings. When winter comes, the grasshopper is cold and hungry, and goes begging for food from the ant, who refuses to share any of his bounty, scolding the grasshopper for failing to plan.
Values: Ants are small and weak, and grasshoppers are rightful destroy them and take the food he needs. He may also consider levying taxes.
“Hansel and Gretel”
Program: Two small children have been abandoned in the wilderness by their parents who are unable to feed them. They arrive at the witch’s house, who locks them up and arranges to cook and eat. But when the witch tries to put Hansel in the oven, Gretel pushes him instead, burning him to death. The children, being released, take the witch’s treasure and return home with a way to live.
Values: Unaccompanied minors it is a danger of violence and must be banished.
“Rumpelstiltskin”
Program: After a foolish miller falsely claims that his daughter can spin straw into gold, the king imprisons her and says that he will marry her if the story is true and kill her if it is not. Crying in her cell, she is visited by a witch who offers to turn leaves into gold for her as payment for her first born. The ruse works, and she marries the king and gives birth to a child. The imp returns to the child, and the queen is hidden. The subject agrees to stake his claim if he can guess his name, the unlikely “Rumpelstiltskin”. Although he can’t guess the name, he hears her talking to herself and can place her child.
Values: If you are doing business of turning things into goldtrying to keep a low profile is counterproductive. Only call your name above everything.
“Cinderella”
Program: The girl is mistreated by her stepsisters, who call her Cinderella. One day, an invitation comes for all the girls to come to the ball so that the prince can choose a wife. The wicked stepsisters force Cinderella to stay at home working, but her fairy godmother provides a magical gown and a carriage—with the warning that she must leave at midnight, when she will return to her normal form. At the ball, the prince is smitten but can’t find his name before he storms out before midnight, leaving behind a single slip of glass. The next day, he organizes the kingdom until he finds the right woman in the shovel and marries her. They live happily ever after.
Values: The message of this story is confusing, full of mysteries and contradictions. Why should that be? it doesn’t matter if the shoe fitsand why would a rich prince want to stay married to the same person forever? And how big was the king’s ball room anyway?
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Today’s news
- The The Strait of Hormuz has been reopened to commercial trafficaccording to Iran’s foreign minister. However, President Trump said on social media that US sanctions against Iranian ships will remain in place until “OUR PAYMENTS WITH IRAN ARE 100% COMPLETED.”
- A A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has come into effectcausing thousands of displaced families to return to southern Lebanon. Israeli forces remain in Lebanon and have warned residents not to return, and Hezbollah has not publicly endorsed the deal.
- Testifying before members of Congress, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that a new study that finds no relationship between the use of Tylenol in pregnancy and autism is “garbage” and should be deleted.
Dispatches
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Evening Read
Iran Had Doomsday Weapons All along
Written by Alan Eyre
President Trump has said he went to war to prevent Iran from ever having a nuclear bomb. Unfortunately, the war he started led Iran to discover that it already had a very effective doomsday weapon—one that promised the economic equivalent of mutual annihilation. The Strait of Hormuz has always been at risk; The US has always known that Iran could try to shut it down if attacked. But neither Washington nor Tehran imagined how easy it would be for Iran to do so, how difficult it would be for the United States to reopen it, or how wide and fast the economic consequences of a closed channel would spread.
More From Atlantic
Cultural Breakdown
Take a look. David Sims on the real crisis of Pittof season two (now streaming on HBO Max).
Read on. Humans have invented a a new form of humiliationThe eighth deadly sin, James Parker writes.
Rafaela Jinich contributed to this magazine.
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