I’ve recently been accused of being anti-anti-Trump, and I plead guilty with a right good will. But let’s explore this “anti”. Is it just a multiplication by -1, so an anti-anti-Trump is a pro-Trump? This doesn’t seem right.

How about an anti-anti-anti-Trump, like my distinguished accuser? Is that just the same thing as an anti-Trump — the two previous anti’s cancelling out? Well, no, that’s not quite right either, for the same reason. I’m sure my accuser is in fact robustly anti-Trump, in a way that I am not, but simply being anti-cubed doesn’t imply that.

Maybe anti upon anti has a kind of diminishing-returns effect: each successive anti is less and less consequential, until after twenty or so levels of anti you end up with nothing to twenty binary digits. Even the main term disappears; twenty anti’s prefixed to Trump come to nothing vis-a-vis Trump.

In fact I would say that two anti’s suffice (like four colors in the famous theorem). As noted, I’m proudly anti-anti-Trump, but this implies absolutely nothing about my attitude toward Trump; what it speaks of is my attitude toward people who are anti-Trump, I mean real team players, enthusiasts, people who hourly work themselves into a froth on social media about Trump. I’m really anti-them. I think they’re ridiculous, they’re fools, they’re expending their spirit in a waste of shame. I wish I could extend them a lifeline, but I fear they’re beyond help, and they wouldn’t take it.

They’re all about Trump, and I’m about anything but.