Stephen King predicted rise of Trump 40 yrs ago-but says reality scarier than anything he's written

[kpete]

StephenKing predicted the rise of Trump 40 years ago — but he says the reality is scarier than anything he’s written

In his 1979 novel “The Dead Zone,” King imagined the political rise of “real estate con man” Greg Stillson, whom he described as “a huckster from the word go.”

“I was sort of convinced that it was possible that a politician would arise who was so outside the mainstream and so willing to say anything that he would capture the imaginations of the American people,” King explained in the clip.

King, a fervent critic of Trump in recent years, didn’t believe he’d “necessarily predicted” Trump’s political ascent with the book, however.

“I know that American voters have always had a real attraction to outsiders with the same kind of right-wing ‘America First’ policy,” he noted. “And if that reminds people of Trump, I can’t be sorry because it was a character that I wrote. It was a boogeyman of mine and I never wanted to see him actually on the American political scene but we do seem to have a Greg Stillson as president of the United States.”

VIDEO:

Link to tweet

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/stephen-king-donald-trump_n_5d29a1f7e4b02a5a5d5b2d7d

[edhopper]

1. Spoiler!!!!

the difference is if Trump were to use a baby as a shield from an assassin, his followers and the GOP would praise him for his quick thinking.

[Bettie]

2. I've always said that

Stephen King understands humanity better than anyone else. He has a frightening understanding.

[RKP5637]

6. K&R!!! Absolutely!!! And another one was George Carlin!!! n/t

[Bettie]

10. George Carlin was also scary in

an entirely different way.

But, both of them told us we could ultimately win.

[RKP5637]

11. Yep!!! n/t

[Bettie]

12. I hope we can still win

but it is looking really unlikely.

Every day, more of our norms, the basic building blocks of society slip away.

[RKP5637]

15. Stephen King's video is so on track it is truly frightening. n/t

[Doc_Technical]

3. Donald Trump reminds me of President McCloskey

in the movie adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's story "Harrison Bergeron".

WARNING STRONG LANGUAGE

start AT 2:35

[MuseRider]

19. I have never even heard of this!

Wow, that is something.

[dalton99a]

4. Kick

[Beringia]

5. Great vid. I really think Trump has about 2 brain cells, but apparently that is enough

[Caliman73]

20. It isn't about Trump. It is about American society

We elect people that reflect our emotional state and the desires of the most motivated groups of people among us. I am sounding more and more like a far left person but it seems like the reality is pointing to the fact that liberal (and I mean that in the original meaning of "individual rights, representative democracy, free market capitalism, reason and scientific approach&quot institutions have been subverted by both the most wealthy and powerful people, and by extremists, who work together to maintain a hierarchy based on race, religion, and gender.

We want things to go back to "normal" but the right wing has been able to use our "normal" processes to subvert normalcy. They shout about "free speech" and the "free press" backs down for fear of appearing bias (also for fear of losing access and revenue). Our politics moves to the "middle" while the extremists continue to pull to the right so the "middle" moves continuously to the right. They called President Obama a Marxist and a Socialist; come on, he is a good man and had progressive intentions, but he was barely left of center. They called the ACA a socialist takeover of health care and Democrats ran from it. It was a damn conservative idea of intervening slightly into the free market by putting up some parameters. Yet here we are, with groups like United States of Care being at the forefront of a push toward "healthcare for all" when it is really just muddying the water on the need for actual non-market based, HUMAN RIGHTS, healthcare for all people. Celebrities and Liberal politicians and influencers are all over it.

In the absence of a clear difference, people are going to choose something that makes them "feel" safe and powerful, even if that system will ultimately destroy them. We wonder how the Germans in the 30's, The Russians and Chinese, the Italians and Spanish got to the point where totalitarian thugs took over their governments and instituted fascism, because enough people felt scared enough to support it, and not enough people felt strongly enough about an opposite direction to fight it.

Trump is not a mastermind. He is a stupid con man, but he knows enough, or the people around him do, to manipulate the feelings of enough people to get us to where we are, and to keep us moving further into extremism.

[misanthrope]

26. YOU GET IT

Everything you wrote seems exactly on point to me. Trump isn't a "mastermind" at all. It's just that too many Americans are as willfully ignorant and apathetic as he is.

I would also add that from my experience, your comment about media -- "They shout about 'free speech' and the 'free press' backs down for fear of appearing biased (also for fear of losing access and revenue)" -- is about the revenue and access to power most of all. Any appearance of bias is basically a consideration for how it affects the financial ledgers.

[Boomerproud]

29. Brilliant post Caliman.

I've been reduced to angry pessimism. Thoughful and important words.

[Caliman73]

35. Thanks for the kudos and sorry. Not my intention.

It is difficult to think about people, even though it is a minority of the people in our society, that are actively trying to make it a place that is inhospitable to diverse people and their experiences.

It can be even harder to consider that there are some structural flaws within our own system of thinking that can bring about its demise. The foundations of our current society, that gave us advanced technologies, relative peace, intellectual pursuits, comforts, and the structures that we appreciate have this built in backdoor that can be exploited by extremists.

I don't want to spread propaganda that may not be appreciated around here but here is a post from YouTube that has given me some hope. The channel is called Philosopy Tube. The author is a leftist British actor/philosophy student. He had a post about why the left will eventually win against right wing extremists. Here it is:

[Beringia]

30. Thanks for sharing this, a lot to take in

[Bayard]

7. I've thought about The Dead Zone

Ever since tRump came on the scene--especially the part where Stillson says, "The missiles are flying". Doesn't that sound like him bombing Iran?


I think tRump is very capable of holding a baby in front of him. He's already doing it with migrant children.

[Aristus]

9. Here:

[Bayard]

14. That's the one....

I can so see tRump in that role.

[MuseRider]

8. I read that book when Reagan was running

and I could not help getting all freaked out. It has remained relevant.

[RKP5637]

17. And it's so damn freaky now, in fact, scary and frightening. Imagine if he were to win. As is

often said, one can trust the American people to often vote for the wrong person for the wrong reasons.

[Honeycombe8]

13. I love him. Such a talented writer.

I was glad to discover he's a liberal.

I started reading his books waaaaay back when. I was pretty young and describing to an older guy I was on a date with...telling him about the book and how exceptional it was. He was so patronizing and dismissive of me, implying I was an idiot & juvenile for reading a trashy "B" horror book. I was not an airhead. I knew the difference between quality fiction and "B" trashy novels. He wasn't listening. I was trying to explain the creativity, the level of writing, the descriptive passages, etc. For that genre. I mean, it was no Madame Bovary. But for modern horror fiction, it stood out.

LOL. I liked King right off the bat, for that genre. His books haven't translated to movies very well, though.

[Bayard]

16. Salem's Lot

My boss gave me that book to read on my first real job. I stayed up all night reading it, then called in sick the next day. Been a huge fan ever since.

[Honeycombe8]

18. I read that one, too, way back when.

I don't remember which was the first one I read. But I do remember reading Salem's Lot. I read it straight through, like you did. It was a page turner.

[leftyladyfrommo]

21. Salem's Lot scared me to death. nt

[MuseRider]

22. I used to get that too.

I read all the "good books" as well but just the thought of reading King made these people flip out. I felt cowed by that for a long time and made sure what company I was in before I mentioned that I had read each and every one of Kings books and several of them 2 times or more. I find them highly engaging, the man can tell a story. Now I answer that he is my favorite, not of any genre but of all the authors but then I love many of the others as well. As far as being entertained, mesmerized and just joyous to start a story it is King in my mind first. Man can weave a story right into your soul.

[Honeycombe8]

23. You put it so well. My thoughts exactly. nt

[demigoddess]

24. very similar to me. I think my husband cringed when I read King,

my favorite author. But then he saw Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile and he liked them. I like the fact that in many of his novels the hero of the story is a normal person, a loser, a person who is bullied or something like that. Shows that normal people can be the best, not rich famous folks. And I love King's tweets against trumpf.

[Honeycombe8]

27. +1. nt

[mr_lebowski]

31. In 1980 I was in Hawaii with my folks, trip back to US from Hong Kong for the summer

I was ... 12, almost 13. They had to pry me out of the hotel to do ANYTHING, because I was so sucked into reading The Stand I didn't want to do anything else. I remember sitting on benches at some museum place ... I wanna say ... the Polynesian Village ... whenever they were looking at 'stuff' I found a place to sit down and bust out my book.

They were so annoyed with me that trip lol ...

I think that was my first King book, but I went on to read them all, the earlier ones like Carrie, 'Salems Lot, Nightshift, the Shining, and the ones after Firestarter, Dead Zone, Christine, Pet Sematary, Thinner, It ... all of 'em up until Needful Things, which was the last one I read, think I was about 26 by then.

At that point they'd gotten a bit 'same-y' but I enjoyed the hell outta that run he had from like 1976 to 1992. He is a great storyteller, man ...

[Honeycombe8]

32. Oh, yeah...The Stand. I remember that it was really long.

I ended up reading just the first sentences of paragraphs of some pages, just to finish it. He went on for pages with descriptions, and I just had to get it read. But it was good.

I read all those you mentioned, and more. Well....not Firestarter. I still have his books. Tons of them. And Anne Rice vampire books. And most of Agatha Christie's stories.

The used book store is a great place to buy old books.

[mr_lebowski]

33. Firestarter was actually one of my favorites ...

Can't speak to it now as I'z only 14 or so at the time, but I LOVED that book then. Way, way better than the movie (of course). One of his only stories that wasn't, strictly-speaking 'supernatural'. Well, it's supernatural like Spiderman is, basically. Which is pretty 'natural' relative to almost all Stephen King lol ...

Yeah, The Stand was long ... I wanna say around 750 pages in the edition I read. I may've done the same

[Bayard]

36. The Stand.....

One of my favorite books ever. I've probably read it more than 10 times......every word.

A side note on Salem's Lot. When the 2 night made-for-TV-movie came out, even though it was not nearly as good as the book, I nailed the door to my condo's crawl space shut. The gravedigger coming back and sitting in the rocking chair seriously creeped me out.

[mr_lebowski]

39. Lol ...

I was left alone at a relatively young age cause we moved to Hong Kong when I was just turned 12, and lived in a fancy guarded apartment building in a very safe neighborhood, on the 20th floor, and there was ONE WAY into our flat (the front door), and my folks knew I was careful and would never let someone in, so ... I was at home in the flat in the evenings quite a bit, reading horror books lol ... I'd have a big ol' kitchen knife sitting by me on the nightstand, just in case ...

[Mariana]

34. When I was in ninth grade

I did a book report on 'Salem's Lot. The teacher called my mother to "make sure she was aware" that I was reading stuff like that. Of course she was aware - my dad gave it to me to read after he'd finished it. I always liked vampire stories.

[mr_lebowski]

38. I was a pretty voracious horror book reader from 8th-11th grade ...

It was kinda King's hey-day which was perfect, but I read a bunch of other stuff too ... some Koontz I recall specifically, but lots of other random stuff, whatever was out.

The only book that legit freaked me out was called 'The Guardian', it was the sequel to 'The Sentinel', which they made a movie of, circa '79. But that was one of the first horror books I read, I think I was like 12. Oh, and IT freaked me out too, had to stop reading one time cause I'z scared ... think I was about 17 or 18 too lol.

Good times, man.

[miyazaki]

41. I read the author is working on the final Sentinal book,

as it will be a sequel to The Guardian, making it a trilogy.

[Mariana]

42. 'Salem's Lot gave me nightmares for weeks. It was great.

I lived in a smallish New England town until I was 12, not as isolated as 'Salem's Lot was supposed to be, but I could totally imagine it happening there.

My folks never much bothered about what I was reading, they just wanted me to be reading. No problem there, the trick was to get me to put the books down.

I never read The Sentinel or The Guardian. I'll put them on my list.

[misanthrope]

25. I still feel Sarah Palin is more like Greg Stillson

Trump is Buzz Windrip from Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here."

[Green Line]

28. He's a real talent, he does more than horror

One of his best was his novella, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.

[Sugarcoated]

37. I've actually called Trump Greg Stillson

[Cha]

40. I wish we could talk to Rod Serling

about what is happening now..

Imagine if you will..



Thank You, Stephen King!