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Laughing

There is a scene that Nien Cheng describes in her memoir Life and Death in Shanghai where she is put on show trial during the Cultural Revolution, listening to accusations of spying for the West. At one point the silliness got to her and she started laughing, despite hunger and sleep deprivation. Immediately the courtroom was evacuated and she was hurried back to solitary confinement. The demagogues could not handle her laughter.

I've been thinking a lot about that now that the Democrats have (justly) started calling Trumpism weird and how much it hurts Trump and his supporters to be ridiculed this way.

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