I empathize with anyone who has a problem with [insert important person here] congratulating Trump. I am disappointed by every single leader who does, but I understand why they do it. It feels like a betrayal of trust to me (us?). It looks like they are kissing ass. In fact they are, they rightfully suspect him to be irrational and that he will harm their companies if they don’t show loyalty to him publicly.

Would I? Gosh am I glad not to be important right now, because I couldn’t.

I think those feelings of betrayal and anger some of us feel when we see [insert important person here] congratulate him on winning the presidency come from a position of denial and a knowledge of history. We feel betrayed, because we haven’t yet accepted that he will be president. We remember industrialists validating Hitler by a public show of loyalty. We’d expect the same people to congratulate Harris, but not him.

We want them to take a stance, to refuse him validation, but to what end? He will be president, and he will retaliate against any company and country he feels snubbed him. Yet still, we want them to show courage, to risk retaliation and stand for the ideals we projected on them when we decided to buy their products.

I am disappointed in Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, and all the other tech CEOs who congratulated him. I am disappointed in my country’s chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulating him early. I suspect they are afraid of him, and I suspect he likes that. It’s a sick world already, and he’s not even sworn in.

⌞w⌝