The Cure For TDS

The Cure For TDS

by C.A. Matthews

January 6, January 6, January 6, January 6, January 6, January 6, January 6, January 6, Orange man bad, Orange man bad, Orange man bad, Orange man bad, Putin, Putin, Putin, Putin, Putin, Putin...

This is the extent of Dem/liberal political analysis.

— Peter Daou (@peterdaou)

https://twitter.com/peterdaou/status/1699443420249411676

After I read the above Tweet*, I'm convinced that former Dem campaign manager Peter Daou has completely snapped out of his Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) and returned to the land of rational human beings. Some Dems’ obsession with Donald Trump became so intense and illogical at times over these past seven years that I often worried they had lost their minds.

It was as if TDS sufferers had fallen into a deep, dark abyss and could no longer see the light at the top to climb toward and free themselves. To this day, some add to their Trump obsession by listening to mainstream media pundits such as Rachel Maddow repeatedly making baseless accusations against the former president. 

According to Maddow, Trump was somehow in league with Russian President Vladimir Putin to win the election, in spite of the lack of any credible evidence to back this assertion up. The entirety of the “Russiagate” fiasco has once and for all been disproved. That revelation should have put this unusual phobia of Trump to bed for good, but the mainstream media pundits continue to feed its sufferers by amplifying Trump’s current legal woes and his strident supporters.

Obsession is defined by Psych Central as “a recurring thought of something or someone, where it always seems to be in a person’s mind.” According the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.): “You may be dealing with an obsession if you experience stressful thoughts or urges that cause you to try to make these thoughts go away or calm related stress.”

Peter has broken free of his obsession concerning the former US president. His Tweet parodying the repetitiveness of thoughts of TDS demonstrate how he has gotten to the point where he is able to observe others' fixation on Trump, and he no longer is drawn into their obsessing over the “Orange man bad” any more.

This is good because Peter is now free to concentrate his abilities on important matters, such as working as Cornel West's campaign manager for the 2024 presidential election. Peter is free to help Dr. West in his advocating for universal health care, forgiving outrageous student loan debts, and providing homes for the homeless.

I bet Peter even has more time to enjoy his music. To be free of an obsession that clouds your thought processes is a liberating experience. It can bring about inner peace and hope for the future, instead of a life full of negativity and pessimism.

Peter has rightfully concluded that he has no control over Donald Trump’s actions or the consequences of Trump’s actions. That responsibility lies solely in Trump’s hands. 

Other recent Tweets indicate that Peter has concluded that the corrupt justice system in the US will probably keep Trump and his high level compatriots from suffering the indignity of prison, because wealthy white persons in the US don’t generally ever see jail time for crimes they’ve committed. 

Caitlin Johnstone says it well:

None of the world’s worst people are in prison. Most of them are quite wealthy and respected, because they benefit from the abusive status quo that laws are set up to protect." --Laws Don't Exist to Prevent Wrongdoing

To obsess over the lack of fairness in the corrupt US justice system, while doing little or nothing to expose and end it except to snivel, whine, cry, or obsess over its unfairness, is a waste of time and energy better used elsewhere.

So, how did Peter break himself of his TDS? Is there a vaccine or cure for it? How I wish there were!

I believe Peter cured himself by finally facing himself in the mirror one day and saying, “Is this all there is in life? To complain about an ex-president who has terrible taste in hairstyles and spray-on tans? Couldn’t I be doing something better with my time? And who is continually telling me that I should obsess over Donald Trump? I need to ignore that person or persons for my own good and warn others to do the same.”

This is how the cure works—in the self-acknowledgment that you as a TDS sufferer have been led to believe (by not entirely honest people) that Trump is an existential threat to you life and that constantly worrying about him is the proper response to this perceived threat. By rationalizing that you have better things to do, and that obsessing over Trump doesn’t solve anyone’s problems, you are able to see where you first contracted TDS and how to avoid contact with the “carriers” of TDS from now on.

Who transmits TDS? Rachel Maddow and her fellow neoliberals are quite good at it. However, the original transmitters of TDS were those who came up with using Trump as their excuse for their problems in the first place—the Democratic Party, particularly the Hillary Clinton faction.

The Dems don’t do political analysis Peter has concluded because it’s so much simpler to repeat the mantras “Orange Man bad!” or “Putin puppet!” over and over again. It's just easier to scream epithets at others who disagree with your position rather than to actually reply with a rational statement like, “We didn’t advise Hillary to campaign in the Midwest, so she lost the election to Trump in the Electoral College. That’s about the extent of it.”

Admitting their responsibility for Hillary's big loss in 2016 was just too much for the DNC bigwigs obviously. They simply went off the deep end. Or did they actually sit down and carefully plot this “Let's blame everything on Trump” game step-by-step? Either way, it became an convenient excuse and has worked to keep their followers united in a bizarre, cult-like way.

Nothing could be more cultish than coming up with a common enemy to focus all the group members’ hate and fear on rather than taking a calm and logical look at what actions could have been taken to avoid Clinton’s election loss.

Cults are often led by a charismatic leader or leaders who are thought to be are all-powerful and can do no wrong. These leaders are usually charged with fighting an “evil” against all odds for the protection of the cult members. Picture Hillary Clinton as the “guru” of this DNC cult and Trump as their “devil”. You can see how rank-and-file Dems were easily manipulated into putting their stamina into crying for Trump’s head and blaming him for every little thing the DNC ever did wrong.

Flip this scenario on its head and put Trump in the guru position and name Hillary as the devil, and you’ll readily see how the Republican faithful have stayed in Trump’s corner to this day. Why would they think their beloved leader Trump is guilty of any of the crimes he is charged with? Isn’t that how the devil operates—falsely accusing the innocent and blaming them for the devil’s own nefarious activities?

If there ever were a better reason to ditch the duopoly and become a proud independent or alternative party voter, avoiding the obsession-cult of TDS is it. Americans have much more significant matters to tackle. Our planet is literally boiling/burning up. Rich ex-presidents can take care of themselves.

Peter has freed himself from an awful burden of believing there are any significant differences between the two biggest political cults—I mean factions—in the United States. Once you have divested yourself from the belief that we have a democracy in this country (see the definition of democracy in last week’s blog), and you’ve decided that becoming embroiled in a cult-like organization that spouts off nonsense Tweets like, “If you’re for peace in Ukraine, you’re a Putin lover!” is wrong, then you’re essentially vaccinated against TDS for good.

I won’t claim you won’t ever need a “booster shot” from all this neoliberal nonsense from time to time. We’re all human, and humans do tend to slip now and then. But at least once you’ve cured yourself of TDS, you’ll rest in the knowledge that it is possible to walk away from a cult—I mean a political faction, red or blue—without any dire consequences. Peter has.

As a free and independent voter, your self-confidence will grow. You’ll trust your own observations and will be able to think things through for yourself without the extraneous commentary from the propagandists. You’ll feel stronger—strong enough to reach out to others who are doing positive things to bring about a better country and a safer and healthier world.

The cure for Trump Derangement Syndrome ultimately is to become your own person and to act—not react—when challenging times come your way.

 

*Who calls the formerly known as Tweets “X posts”? Nobody really.

 

Breaking News: 

https://twitter.com/CornelWest/status/1701045524713840690

Just announced, running on the Party for Socialism and Liberation ticket:  Claudia De La Cruz & Karina Garcia
@votesocialist24
https://votesocialist2024.com/volunteer

 

Related Articles and Interesting Links

(How Not To Say) I Told You So https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/05/how-not-to-say-told-you-so.html 

Psychology of Obsessions https://psychcentral.com/ocd/psychology-of-obsessions#definition

Fighting Words https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2023/09/fighting-words.html

Honest Government Ad--Visit Canada https://youtu.be/u7s-BgfcFXw?si=TqOW-zXFh2ia8Tc9

‘A Reckoning’: 500 Groups Endorse March To End Fossil Fuels
https://popularresistance.org/a-reckoning-500-groups-endorse-march-to-end-fossil-fuels/

As student loan payments resume, millions face a lifetime of debt while Wall Street profits https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/09/08/bxjl-s08.html

US Intelligence Official: Media Misleading Americans About Ukraine’s Battlefield Success https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/08/us-intelligence-official-media-misleading-americans-about-ukraines-battlefield-success/

USA & NATO responsible for Ukraine war, German & French public say in poll https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/us-nato-responsible-ukraine-war-poll

Waves of Strikes Rippling Across the US Seem Big, but the Total Number of Americans Walking Off the Job Remains Historically Low https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/05/waves-of-strikes-rippling-cross-the-us-seem-big-but-the-total-number-of-americans-walking-off-the-job-remains-historically-low/

Ukraine’s ‘Biggest Arms Supplier’ Orchestrated 2014 Maidan Massacre, Witnesses Say https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/07/ukraines-biggest-arms-supplier-orchestrated-2014-maidan-massacre-witnesses-say/

US Open tennis players “fall by the wayside” as COVID-19 surges
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/09/05/gsjw-s05.html

Belgian Minister Says What Biden Won’t: Israel Is Wiping Entire Palestinian Villages Off the Map https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/05/belgian-minister-says-what-biden-wont-israel-is-wiping-entire-palestinian-villages-off-the-map/

From the formerly known as Twitter:

I was a lifelong Dem

I now vote 3rd Party

I had Trump Derangement Syndrome

I believed Russiagate

While exploring, I discovered I was being lied to and played for a fool by Dems

If you care about saving our make believe democracy and stopping fascism don't vote Dem

— Black in the Empire (@blackintheempir) September 7, 2023

https://twitter.com/blackintheempir/status/1699575590632804461

Jim Walton Wealth
2012: $23.9 billion
2023: $73.1 billion

Rob Walton Wealth
2012: $23.5 billion
2023: $71.1 billion

Alice Walton Wealth
2012: $23 billion
2023: $70.1 billion

Minimum Wage
2009: $7.25
2023: $7.25

The Walton family inherited half of Walmart's stock. #TaxTheRich pic.twitter.com/WGPBcCmOzF

— Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) September 7, 2023

The Cult of Personality

So, fascism is a cult of the leader who promises national restoration in the face of supposed threats by leftist radicals, minorities and immigrants. He promises only he can save us. In the RNC, what we saw is we saw a cult of the leader. The Republicans didn’t even bother to provide a platform. They just said, “Whatever Trump wants.”  --Jason Stanley, author of How Fascism Works

The Cult of Personality

by C.A. Matthews

 I once had the most extraordinary conversation. The individual I conversed with was fascinating and quite sincere in his beliefs. Ex-military, he was highly trained and obviously no slouch in the intellect department, evidenced by his more than adequate use of the English language.

He was also completely and certifiably insane.

His official diagnosis was schizophrenia. As an intern on a V.A. rehab and psych ward, my mentors encouraged me to experience a first-hand encounter with a madman, a very erudite and polite one, of course. In the course of our conversation I learned all about the invisible vampires that were taking over our minds and running things behind the scenes for the last few centuries. He told me he'd come recently from a V. A. hospital in St. Louis, and the vampire influence was particularly bad there. After smiling and nodding a lot, I thanked him for his time, wished him well for the remainder of his stay on our ward and went about the rest of my day.

Several years later, I moved to St. Louis and learned about how the older parts of the city were built upon caves on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi. The caves are filled with bats, no doubt, and bats are often associated with vampires. Maybe this gentleman was right about the vampires all along? He seemed to know what he was talking about, and he was very entertaining.

(Side note: Conversing with wide variety of people can inspire you.  I've written several vampire novels under a different pen name. You can find them online here.)

So, what does the ramblings of a mentally ill person have to do with Trump and the insanity he inspires? If you're a supporter of Trump and believe he's our "Savior" and the leader of the "only Christian nation in the world," then you'll feel insulted by any comparison of him to an obviously mentally ill individual no matter how entertaining he may be. If you're not a fan of the current White House occupant, you'll probably laugh and then point out how much a paranoid schizophrenic who speaks in complete sentences and a schizophrenic who speaks in "word salads" like Trump does both have in common.

Thing is, both of these supporters have fallen into what many see as the "cult of personality." They'll act as paranoid, jumpy and/or defensive of their ideas as the veteran who believed in invisible vampires acted. These diametrically opposed groups worship Trump, each in their own special way. One sees Trump as a "redemptive god" and the other sees him as a "demon god," but they're both obsessed with the orange man. These groups' members seem to spend every waking moment--or at least the moments they spend on social media--either cursing or defending Trump. 

Those that appear willing to compromise their own morals to keep him office (i.e., the MAGA hat wearers) work hard denying Trump's obvious infidelities in marriage, his crass misogynism and his outright racism. Conversely, those that say they'll vote for the Democratic Party's Not-Trump, but still want to enact programs such as Medicare For All and a Green New Deal, seem okay with throwing those noble goals under the bus if it'll throw Trump under the axles as well. 

Compromising what you truly believe in to either support or defeat one particular candidate isn't a wise action, in my opinion. Trump's insanity has rubbed off on some folks. "I'd crawl over broken glass and wear a hazmat suit to vote for Biden," a voter declared on a social media site. "I'll do anything to get rid of Trump!" 

Anything? Lie? Cheat? Steal? Kill? If that statement doesn't demonstrate an unhealthy obsession with and an over-the-top fear of the orange toddler-man, I don't know what else does.

To put an end to this destructive cult of personality surrounding Trump, we must nullify the obsession so many have with him, both pro and con. Trump needs to be made less of  and not more of the solution/problem. Frankly, he needs to be marginalized as a person of power and ridiculed. His name needs to be shouted, printed or breathed out less often in hymns of praise or shouts of despair and rage. The constant barrage of "Save us from Trump!" or "Trump will save us!" memes, articles, videos and protests only add to his sense of power and fuels obsession among his cult members. It must stop.

Obsession is dangerous. It gives energy to conspiracy theories and delusions that somehow anything to do with socialism is evil and capitalism is good and can fix everything, including racist killer cops and global climate catastrophe. This sickness fuels our society's growing instability because it's more than apparent that capitalism is the root of much evil and can't (or won't) fix jack. Capitalists like Trump don't deserve all the free advertisement, either.

Americans must stop drinking the Kool-Aid of Trump obsession and shut down the cult before it kills more than just its members. The US possesses the majority of the nuclear warheads in the world, so the whole planet's safety is at stake. Pouring the gasoline of endless bickering over the burning match that is Trump could set off an explosion the likes of which hasn't been seen before (and will never be seen again).

Don't forget that Americans only make up four percent of the world's total population. The other ninety-six percent of humanity deserves a chance to survive. By sidelining a personality cultists worship and focusing our energies instead on the tasks that need to be accomplished, such as tackling the climate catastrophe, insuring universal health care, providing decent food, shelter and education/training for all to improve their lives and the lives of their children, and dismantling the Forever War Machine, we will create a mentally healthier, happier and, above all, safer world.

Or to put it the way school kids everywhere can understand: "Stop giving in to the bully! Ignore him and get back to work on the things that matter." We are the leaders we've been looking for--it's time to step up to the plate and take ourselves seriously.

Related Articles:

How Fascism Works: Trump's "Law and Order" Is Lawlessness, Fueling Racist Violence and Chaos
https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/64954-how-fascism-works-trumps-qlaw-and-orderq-is-lawlessness-fueling-racist-violence-and-chaos

Trump: Americans Who Died In War Are Losers And Suckers
 https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/64950-focus-trump-americans-who-died-in-war-are-losers-and-suckers

The Politics of Racial Division--Trump Borrows Nixon's Southern Strategy
https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/64966-the-politics-of-racial-division-trump-borrows-nixons-southern-strategy

 And now, a song to take you mind off of obsessing over the orange toddler-man in the White House...

https://youtu.be/zuh1xuH-3es

***

From Friends of the Earth:

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to offer thousands of acres of land in Colorado for oil and gas drilling. This could pollute the rivers and contribute to air pollution. It would cause irreparable harm to wetlands and riparian areas -- greatly impacting wildlife. Will you help stop it?

What’s more, the BLM’s plan puts our nation’s bird at risk. Bald eagle territories in Colorado are already being harmed by Big Oil. Further land leases will only drive them closer to extinction.

We can’t let the BLM get away with handing over more of Colorado’s public lands to Big Oil.

Tell the Bureau of Land Management: Stop exploiting our land for Big Oil profit!

Sign Now

The Bald Eagle is often seen near large reservoirs and rivers in Colorado, but its numbers are dwindling. There are now 10 times fewer nesting bald eagles in Colorado than coastal states.

If the BLM moves forward with its proposed lease sale, eagles’ habitat will be filled with oil rigs and drillers. Not only will this harm the beauty of Colorado’s natural land, it will likely force bald eagles from their nests. These eagles require habitats that allow them to rest without being bothered.

But fracking on these lands will not only harm bald eagles. The water extracted by fracking has the potential to be radioactive. This will also harm elk, mule deer, pronghorn, waterfowl, and ferruginous hawks. All their habitats will be destroyed.

Demand the Bureau of Land Management protect our wildlife.

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In addition to causing harm to wildlife, this public land sell-off could cause harm to local Indigenous communities who are disproportionately at risk from these new fossil fuel projects.

The BLM is holding virtual public meetings during the pandemic to push land leases forward. But less than 12% of Indigenous people in Colorado have access to broadband internet. The BLM is effectively silencing their voices through a corrupt process.

The BLM must delay the leasing process until after the pandemic in order to give all Coloradoans the ability to weigh in. The agency owes it to the people of Colorado, but it won’t listen without hearing from people like you.

Demand the Bureau of Land Management stop the Colorado lease sale until all voices can be heard.

Sign Now

Standing with you,
Nicole Ghio,
Senior fossil fuels program manager,
Friends of the Earth

***

Declare the KKK a terrorist organization

no racists started this petition to Department of Homeland Security and it now has 234,240 signatures

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For generations, the Ku Klux Klan has been persecuting black people. Through-out American history, they have murdered innocents, lynched thousands, and terrorized many more. And surprisingly, this group still exists. They promote a spirit of aggression and hatred towards African Americans and people of color. They encourage violent and hateful behavior, which is especially dangerous to young, impressionable minds. The KKK is a terrorist organization protected by the first amendment. It is a travesty to allow such an organization to function under the law in a generation that abhors racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. What kind of message is the government spreading by allowing the KKK to function? That it’s okay to be racist? Because it isn’t. Think about the pain African Americans endure every single day for the color of their skin. Think about how hard it must be for them to know that they can be murdered by a cop no matter their innocence, but a group that is inherently violent and racist is allowed to exist. It is dishonoring our black citizens by allowing a group that has tortured them from the very start to still exist. Abolish this hateful group that is carrying on a history of abuse, racism, and murder. Abolish the KKK.

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