If it tweets like a bully..........

During the Golden Globe awards ceremony Sunday night, Meryl Streep expressed how upset she was over a particular inappropriate action by Donald Trump during his run for president.   She described it as, “That moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter.  It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out of my head, because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life.”

Although Ms. Streep never mentioned Mr. Trump by name, she was referring to a speech by him in 2015 when he shuddered and flailed his arms, seeming to mock a disabled reporter for The New York Times.

Ms. Streep’s speech did not seem political in nature or intended to win people over — she even spoke dismissively of football and mixed martial arts at one point — but simply to voice her frustration over what she felt were the inappropriate actions of Mr. Trump. She further stated, “This instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing.  Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence, and when the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose.”

Instead of President-elect Trump respectively replying in his usual Tweeter mode that Ms. Streep was incorrect because his actions did not intend to be disrespectful but instead simply to show how the reporter was acting in a groveling manner, Trump legitimized Ms. Streep’s comments by vilifying her character and job performance. 

Monday morning, Mr. Trump, in a series of tweets, called Ms. Streep “one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood,” and “a Hillary flunky who lost big.”

Dealing with criticism is a skill every well-adjusted man or woman should possess. We give and take criticism among our co-workers, our friends, and our family. Criticism is an important part of our personal self-improvement, for it is other people who can point out mistakes and shortcomings that we can’t see ourselves because we lack objectivity.

Unfortunately, many today don’t know how to accept criticism like an adult. Instead they handle criticism like small children by responding with character assassination and bullying, always having to have the last word.

Sadly, this is how President–elect Trump most often reacts.   He seems to have a very thin skin in regard to any type of criticism and has a great deal of difficulty admitting his shortcomings or mistakes, both of which could be dangerous for a world leader advocating democracy as the ideal form of government.

A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. Proverbs 28:13