Saving Mr. Trump the Effort

I considered using this post to bemoan Donald Trump's most recent hate-mongering.  I considered using it to express my (very real) concern for the safety of The Squad, and especially that of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).  Mr. Trump's statements of the past few days make me genuinely afraid that some particularly weak-minded member of his base will take it upon themselves to carry out an attack on her.  Then, I remembered advice originally attributed to Mohandas Gandhi:

First they ignore you.  Then they ridicule you.  Then they fight you.  Then you win.

I've always understood that as saying that humor, and in the current context even satire, can be formidable weapons.  That caused me to remember  ...

Back in the day (the late 90s, to be precise) , when I was still active as a geek extraordinaire, I co-authored a book published by IDG called Hip Pocket Guide to Unix.  In the section of the book called Shell as Programming Environment, I included the complete text of a script that could generate jargon or buzz-words for almost any environment or situation.  I've modified it to act as a simulation of what probably goes on inside Mr. Trump's head, when he's coming up with his blatantly hateful buzz.  I offer it below to show how devastating humor can be, if used without malice.  (It's worth noting that Gandhi also said The weak cannot forgive.  Forgiveness is a virtue of the strong.)

One last note: if you're not a geek or a Linux-o-phile, don't puzzle over the code.  Pay attention to the lines that begin with a pound sign; those are internal documentation,that explain the techier stuff.  Read the comments, as they're known.  That will give you a feel for the overall.  And, if you have access to a Linux or Unix system, try to load and run the script.  Hopefully, few modifications will be needed.

=============================================================

#script buzzbuilder
#the next three lines
#each create another line that contains
#a tab, and the indicated message

echo "\\n\\t Welcome to the Buzzword Builder!"
echo "\\n\\t Amaze your friends!"
echo "\\n\\t Mystify your colleagues!"

#The next line, because it uses the colon ( : )
#causes the program t run until and unless the user
#presses the <ENTER> key.

while :
do
echo "\\n\\t Enter a three-digit number, or press <ENTER> to quit."
echo "\\n\\t 0  Joe Biden     1 Ilhan Omar     2 The Squad       3 Rashida Tlaib    4 AOC"
echo "\\n\\t 0  hateful     1 dangerous    2 low-energy    3 low-IQ   4 stupid"
echo "\\n\\t 0  our country     1 our Constitution    2 our way of life    3 your President   4 Donald J Trump"

#take a value into the script variable we'll call numbr

read numbr

#look for the user's signal to end the program
if test (number)  =  ""  then exit

#Otherwise, parse what the user has typed
#to create a buzz-phrase.

word1 = `echo numbr | cut -c1`
word2 = `echo numbr | cut -c2`
word3 = `echo numbr | cut -c3`

case $word1 in
0 buzz = $buzz | Joe Biden
1 buzz = $buzz | Ilhan Omar
2 buzz = $buzz | The Squad
3 buzz = $buzz | Rashida Tlaib
0 buzz = $buzz |AOC
esac

case $word2 in
0 buzz = $buzz | hateful
1 buzz = $buzz | dangerous
2 buzz = $buzz | low-energy
3 buzz = $buzz | low-IQ
0 buzz = $buzz |stupid

esac

case $word3 in
0 buzz = $buzz | our country
1 buzz = $buzz | our Constitution
2 buzz = $buzz | our way of life
3 buzz = $buzz | your President
0 buzz = $buzz |Donald J. Trump
esac

#Now, put the pieces together.
#Determine what digits the user has typed.
#Let's assume a 1, 1 and 3.
#Display the results, as a single phrase that could be
#Mr. Trump's next exercise in demagoguery.
#A bit further into the geekie weeds.
#Then we'll note that the digits cited
#would produce the phrase below
#echo "\n\\t  $word1 `is` $word2 `who wants to destroy` $word3" 
\
done

Or, in English -

Ilhan Omar is a dangerous person who wants to destroy your President.

Sadly, I probably put in many more hours on this post than Mr. Trump does on his insults.  For a very stable genius he's got a very, very limited repertoire.