If you tried to tell someone from 50 years ago that international diplomacy in 2018 was being conducted more or less entirely on Twitter, they’d ask you what the hell ‘Twibbler’ is before discreetly calling emergency services on a rotary phone to have you taken away for good. We live in a very different time that is, in a lot of ways, much better: better healthcare outcomes, less racial and gender inequality, better TV, it’s legal to be gay now, etc – the list goes on. But in other ways, it’s much, much worse. For one, it is profoundly stupid.
[jwplayer CkP9AWwW]
The man with a finger hovering over the big red button marked ‘destroy the planet with nuclear weapons’ is so divorced from reality and so frequently subject to fits of paranoia, rage, and emotional instability that we could all die at any second. Whether or not apocalyptic war breaks out at any second is entirely dependent on the whims of someone whose number one hobby is tweeting about who he thinks has a low IQ.
At the height of the Cold War, people were convinced that the last thing they were going to see before they died was a distant mushroom cloud. Right now, the last thing we’re probably going to see before we die is a story like this about Trump tweeting that Kim Jong-un has a smelly penis, seconds before we’re obliterated by a shockwave. It is, if not anything else, a very, very silly time.
All that to essentially say: this tweet from Trump is completely unhinged, but also perfectly normal for the reality we live in now.
To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2018
If this wasn’t in the context of a loosely tethered despot threatening anything from full-on war to total nuclear annihilation, you’d almost have to admire the surprisingly metal eloquence of “YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH“.
The comment was seemingly made in response to a speech made by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday, warning the US to tread carefully:
Mr Trump, don’t play with the lion’s tail, this would only lead to regret. America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars. You are not in a position to incite the Iranian nation against Iran’s security and interests.
Iran is not currently believed to be a nuclear power.
