Trump Derangement Syndrome

What does Trump Derangement Syndrome actually look like? It looks like people who still have Trump/Pence signs in their yards two years after Trump lost the presidential election. It looks like parents who throw a Trump-themed party for their 8-year-old daughter and her friends. It looks like grown-ass adults posing with a cardboard cutout of Trump at someone’s 40th birthday. It looks like my neighbor — a garbage hauler — who has “Let’s Go Brandon!” spray painted on the back of his truck (this has since been removed — I suspect he got some shit from prospective clients). It looks like my other neighbor who has been flying his American flag upside down since Joe Biden got elected. It looks like slavish and cultish devotion to Donald Trump while he breaks the law and our country. It looks downright scary.

Trump Derangement Syndrome looks like one of our two political parties attempting to overthrow the government to keep an unelected man in power. TDS looks like one of our two political parties not holding traitors accountable and not impeaching the chief executive who was so clearly in dereliction of duty and so clearly engaged in flat-out traitorous behavior. TDS looks like one of our two political parties covering up a coup and defending the actions of insurrectionists as “legitimate political discourse.” TDS looks like one of our two political parties siding with right-wing extremist militia groups like the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers in their attempt to violently upend the peaceful transfer of power that Americans have relied on for over two centuries. TDS looks like one of our two political parties expelling pro-democracy representatives from leadership positions for daring to speak the truth. TDS looks like one of our two political parties going on the record about Trump’s criminality AFTER THE FACT when they knew Trump and his cronies were a dangerous threat to American democracy. TDS looks like one of our two political parties enacting laws that will make it EASIER for them to overturn election results they don’t like in the future. TDS looks like one of our two political parties supporting literal insurrectionists in the 2022 primaries. TDS looks a lot like fascism.

So, when my own family told me that I suffered from TDS, I was — and still am — perplexed. Maybe my TDS caused me to post a lot on social media or question people’s voting decisions. But, my disdain for Donald Trump never caused me to lie about elections. My disdain for Trump never caused me to overthrow the government. My disdain for Donald Trump never caused me to violently attack the seat of our democracy. My disdain for Donald Trump never caused me to beat police officers with a flag. My disdain for Donald Trump never made me want to hang Mike Pence or kill Nancy Pelosi. My disdain for Donald Trump never involved me covering up a coup.

TDS is indeed happening, but it’s happening on the RIGHT. TDS is being so enamored with the racism, the violence, the white supremacy, the anti-semitism, and the conspiracies that you’re actually willing to overlook the lies, overlook the conspiracies to upend our elections and overthrow our government, overlook the absolute danger posed by Trump allies like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, overlook the need for a peaceful transfer of power, and overlook the complete devastation that Trump and his allies have caused to our nation.

TDS causes people to create their own narratives and make parallels where there are none. For example, one of my relatives angrily asked on social media why we’re still talking about Jan 6 but not the BLM protests of 2020. This is a common — and, frankly, purposely ignorant — refrain from the Right. My family knows why the 2020 protests were different from Jan 6, but TDS syndrome does not allow them to admit to these stark differences. TDS doesn’t allow them to acknowledge that the protests of 2020 were based in FACT. We all saw a man suffocated to death under the knee of a police officer. That was a fact. And we were protesting that FACT.

By contrast, Jan 6 was based on LIES. The people at the capitol were protesting something that did not happen. The stated reason for their protest had zero basis in reality, unlike the 2020 protests which were based on literal video evidence of criminality by Minneapolis police. The sad fact is Trump supporters attacked the capitol because they were mad he lost the election. They attacked the capitol because Donald Trump lied to them about the election. They attacked the capitol because Trump literally CALLED THEM THERE with the expressed purpose of disrupting the certification of a free and fair election. They knew the election was not stolen. They knew their rights were not being stripped from them in the way that George Floyd’s rights had been stripped from him. But TDS continues to provide a permission structure for them to equate these two events that could not possibly be more different.

It’s been two years since the twice-impeached president was ousted, yet all of us are still suffering from TDS. TDS broke our faith in democracy, broke our norms and guardrails, broke our boundaries of acceptable behavior, and broke our ability to agree on a common reality based in fact and reason. TDS broke people’s lives and livelihoods. TDS broke America’s stature on the world’s stage. Sadly, TDS broke families and friendships.

So, what do we do about it? Well, since TDS is a virus — a literal plague on our nation — let’s treat as such. Here are some useful takeaways from the Covid pandemic to help us combat TDS:

1. Stay at least 6 feet away from people who have TDS. For example, avoid Trump-themed parties and Trump (or Trump-adjacent) political rallies.
2. Disinfect yourself after a TDS exposure. Once you’ve been exposed to TDS, you must cleanse yourself with a healthy dose of truth or do some yoga/meditation to help you deal with all of your angry feelings at people’s ignorance.
3. Get the TDS vaccine. Ok, this isn’t real…but you can vaccinate yourself from TDS by being a good consumer of information: A) Evaluate sources for bias, relevance, expertise, and quality of data. Is research included in this source? If so, where is the research coming from? Are there citations for the research? Are the experts cited actual experts? What are their credentials? B) Fact check! Before you post something untrue about Beyonce being part of the Illuminati, or before you post that YouTube video of some lady in her basement screaming about Jewish space lasers, take a breath and check other sources first to see if there is any validity to these claims. C) “Just Don’t Look”! One of my favorite Simpsons episodes includes the song “Just Don’t Look” sung by Paul Anka and Lisa Simpson. Simpsons fans will recall that the episode shows us that advertising only works when we pay attention to it and give it credence. Thus, Lisa tells us to beat back these ads by not looking at them. This, in turn, makes the advertisements wither away into irrelevance. The same can be said for conspiracy theories, election lies, scapegoating, and misdirection. It’s impossible to avoid misinformation these days, and many of us try to counter it with the Sisyphean task of supplying real data and real sources. But, those with TDS do not care about credible, factual information; and they certainly do not care how crazy their conspiracies sound. In fact, it sometimes seems like they actually love how crazy their theories sound — like they’re in on some kind of special secret knowledge that the rest of us “sheep” just aren’t privy to. So, we can’t fight lunacy with logic. Instead, we should just avoid amplifying their message. I learned this the hard way. Wherever I saw blatant lies and misinformation, I would SHARE that information with some attempted takedown attached. But, at the end of the day, I still SHARED that information, which actually gave that information a wider audience. One action I’ve taken is limiting what I share directly. For example, I try to avoid sharing Tweets from those infected with TDS. Instead, I take a screenshot of their craziness and share the picture so that the original post itself doesn’t get traction.

My fellow Americans, as we approach the midterm elections, let’s make a commitment to not just flatten the curve of TDS, but end it entirely. Our lives, our country, and our democracy literally depend on it.

#Resist