I said, in the comments to
a post yesterday, because I felt that I needed to explain why I saw fit to quote a comment that appeared in the NYT: "I find that imagining I am going to wake in the morning and read in the NY Times that Trump is dead puts me to sleep immediately."
It was an article promising tips on how to get back to sleep when you wake up in the middle of the night. Trump doesn't belong there! Maybe someone who loves Trump could get back to sleep contemplating Trump, but here's a reader who loathes Trump and feels compelled to shoehorn her hate into a discussion about how to relax. So she envisions him dead! Now, death is also not a good subject for lulling yourself back to sleep, but the commenter brought in death because it was a way to make the subject of hating Trump cozy and comfortable.
As for my comment — "I am monitoring this trend of MSM comments that make anything into an occasion to bring up Trump" — it prompted retail lawyer to say:
Ann, you're going to need a bigger blog, as Insty says. Scott Adams today was talking about "Long haul TDS." It seems to be a real thing, but I know of no well-done studies on the syndrome.
A blog will accommodate whatever you want to put in and will forgive you for any and all lapses in comprehensiveness. That is to say, I'll just do posts on the topic when I run into things, and I run into things sometimes by opening up a comments section on an article — usually in the NYT or the Washington Post — and doing a search for "Trump."
I'm going on intuition, but what inspires me to do a search is an article that I'm already reading — because I'm interested in the topic — that has nothing to do with Trump. A place where Trump does not belong. I bet Trump's in there, I think. Or: I wonder how long it will take the commenters to connect this to Trump.
I mean, there was an article on getting back to sleep. Can you get from that to Trump? Yes!
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31 comments:
God,I hope Trump doesn't read this.
Long-term TDS is a real thing. And Trump is most definitely the source of all known evil in the Universe.
As to getting back to sleep, one word: CSPAN.
Godwin's Law comes to mind but Godwin's Law refers to a comparison to Hitler in a discussion rather than just a mention. Trump doesn't seem to come up much in comparison, although I predict that will be prevalent in the future to disparage GOP candidates, but more as an awkward projection from the mind of the commenter. Maybe we could call this phenomenon, Althouse's Rule, to get a little separation from GL and account for the mention/comparison difference.
There are other philosophies that are irrationally invoked to assign blame for perceived problems: climate change, systemic racism & its cousins (patriarchy, misogyny, transphobia, etc.), income inequality. You can use one of those magic phrases & are freed from the need to articulate any connection between problem & cause. The like-minded will instantly understand.
It would be interesting to see a study on the areas most inflicted with TDS. The heaviest infected areas. You know, like we do with Covid. I'm sure Manhattan would be at the center of a large red circle extending down into New Jersey and up into New England. And though I know the Left Coast is very much not Trump country, I just don't have the feeling that they are nearly as TDS stricken as the Northeast and DC area, which seem to have what I would call an extreme TDS load.
To have to insert that in a discussion of how to get better sleep is a flashing billboard sized sign that one needs help. It is beyond obsession. It is an outsized obsession with hate. And it's so off-reality when you consider these same people find nothing really at fault with a Joe Biden or a Kamala Harris or an Andrew Cuomo or a Gavin Newsom...until they have to give in and admit that those are really not very nice people who are not very good at anything. And they do that only when they are forced to admit it. I mean, Biden had his son's laptop accounts showing his taking money from the CCP and Moscow, rape accusations, and young girl fondling, and even that is considered acceptable for now. Cuomo would still be in office if not for 29 women coming out. Five would not have done it.
But Trump. Yeah. This is seriously a derangement unlike anything I've ever seen in my life. We who found Obama to be His Lightness are pikers compared to true TDS'ers.
As I've written here before, it's a hallmark of Leftists: They have a compulsion to insert their politics into every corner of their life. It's a psychological infirmity, in my view, and one that is has and will continue to shred the social fabric of this nation.
The Personal is Political. Sick. And they call others deplorable.
As a result of Ann's point about connecting random subjects with Trump, in a similar vein to Godwin's Law, I propose 'Althouse's Law':
As an article or discussion posted on a Progressive website grows longer (regardless of topic or scope), the probability of a comment connected to Donald Trump approaches 1.
"I bet Trump's in there, I think. Or: I wonder how long it will take the commenters to connect this to Trump."
Kevin Bacon's thinking. Finally, someone other than me.
"I am monitoring this trend of MSM comments that make anything into an occasion to bring up Trump."
Don't those comments garner the most upvotes from like-minded readers? Isn't garnering upvotes the goal of said posters?
Trump is the delivery device. They're hooked on the validation.
One way of understanding this phenomenon is to read Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself," except pretend that Trump is the author.
For better or for worse, Trump is now ubiquitous. He contains multitudes. No one has been left unaffected by him.
Call it "Goldstein's Law." Trump is Emmanuel Goldstein and Republicans are either Oceania or Eastasia, as the situation warrants.
"Long haul TDS" will continue as long as there is even a remote possibility of Trump running for office or even influencing a political race.
"BDS" (Bush Derangement Syndrome, "Bushitler") has long passed. TDS has proven much more transmissible and virulent than BDS.
"death is also not a good subject for lulling yourself back to sleep . . . I mean, there was an article on getting back to sleep. Can you get from that to Trump? Yes!"
But the lefties you are observing prove you wrong: to them, death is a good subject for lulling yourself back to sleep. In fact, the death of any domestic opponents please them.
Of course, not every death serves the purpose. The deaths of foreign strangers are irrelevant, neither soothing nor disturbing. Some domestic deaths are politically useful enough to give them reason to claim that their sleep is disturbed.
I appreciate your keeping track, but you can stop the search: they can get to Trump from anywhere. At what point do you decide that progressivism is a mental affliction?
MadTownGuy’s comment on Oceania and Eastasia had me look up the geography of 1984.
Interesting Wikipedia article, I need to re-read 1984, it sounds like I would get a lot more out of it 30 years later, than when I read it in high school.
Political geography of Nineteen Eighty-Four
Instapundit’s running joke that 1984 was not supposed to be a how to manual seems to spot on.
Media that are derogatory to Trump are using a sure fire way to elevate their social standing in their clique through appropriate virtue signaling. And this behavior is fanned by social media crust rewards this behavior with feedback that gives a dopamine rush.
And looking up to check was it 2 or 5 minutes of hate (it’s 2), I found this quote:
In re-directing the members' subconscious feelings away from the Party's government of Oceania, and towards non-existent external enemies, the Party minimises thoughtcrime and the consequent, subversive behaviours of thoughtcriminals.
And the Babylon Bee that does not seem very satirical…
CNN Announces Daily 'Two Minutes Hate' Segment
when did liberals stop talking about Joe McCarthy? when did they stop kicking Nixon around? Trump is a liberal super-villian in the same class. Plus, liberals like being conformist sheep and baa baaing the party line. Unlike normal people they never get tired of saying the same thing over and over and over and over again.
Whether girls want to face it or not, how you dress does say things about you. Looking "Fashionable" and looking "like a whore" are too often indistinguishable amongst girls. No clue WHY girls prefer to dress like that, but that is their choice.
But expecting people to not notice is silliness and being upset that men are objectifying you in a lesser manner than you are objectifying yourself is also silliness.
I've seen Trump/OMB referenced in movie reviews (the movie having no overt political viewpoint), a recipe, all manner of local political issues and more.
As they say, he lives rent free in their heads. Seems like there are a lot of slum lords out there.
Bush Derangement Syndrome was really bad, too, but ended the day Obama took office. I think the main difference is that Trump is eligible to run again in 2024. I also think the other difference is that the Left does see how awful the start of the Jill Biden Administration has been, so Trump serves as a distraction from Jill's fuckups.
I think the dominant media companies have applied this strange total-hate strategy on Trump and anyone associated with him because they played the biggest part in creating Trump the Myth to begin with. They made him a Network star. They made him a movie star. They made him a meme in Hip-Hop that was shorthand for success and riches and pimping it in the USA. They made him a go-to guest on financial news shows. They made him into a WWF superstar. They made his children famous and celebrated their beauty and brains and made their brand available everywhere. They made the myth and turned on a dime in 2016 after they succeeded in winning him the GOP nomination and tried to undo all the mythmaking at one fell swoop.
It failed. And by then much of his fate was in his own hands and he seized the opportunity to make America great again thus proving how easily most national problems could be solved. Low inflation high job growth lowest minority unemployment ever. So the Swamp fought back dirty, ginning up fake problems with fake news and whipping up hysteria until they could get their eastern partners in crime to release the COVID. Which is still being used as predicate to void civil rights here and abroad.
They created Trump but unlike Frankenstein they can’t kill it and they fear it.
If you're searching for "long haul TDS" in other places, you're wasting your time. You have a regular commenter who defines it and practices it in every post he makes. Don't really need to search for other sickos when you have Chuck so close at hand.
From Leftylibland, any subject is just one jump to a Trump dump. I wonder if Trump soothes himself to sleep with death fantasies, too . . . after crying about the mean things people say.
Like others, I appreciate the Prof doing a job I'm not willing to do.
Blogger Mike (MJB Wolf) said..."[Trump] seized the opportunity to make America great again thus proving how easily most national problems could be solved. Low inflation high job growth lowest minority unemployment ever." my emphasis
He did, didn't he? Things not in control of the left (like racism) got better.
"You're going to need a bigger blog" is an allusion to the "You're going to need a bigger boat" scene in "Jaws" and just meant to convey that you might be up against something bigger than normal, not taken literally.
I'm also interested in seeing where people cannot stay on a topic without bringing up Trump. There needs to be something similar to Godwin's Law, but for Trump comments. Althouse's Law? What does it tell us about a news source when there is quickly a comment about Trump, no matter how unrelated to the original subject, and the comment gets a lot of positive attention? Personally, I think it reflects poorly on the original source if the other readers are so frivolous in their comments. Who wants to read news that people like that read?
If you think about it, isn't Trump the perfect leftist villian? I mean, going back to Marx and Lenin and Stalin railing against the Bourgeoisie.
Trump IS the Capitalist. And he's successful! Flamboyant, not some colorless, dull banker type.
We still remember Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Carnegie. We remember Ford. Mostly all of them somewhat fondly, 100 years later. I suspect 100 years from now, people will be "Trump was something, but he was OUR something!"
Except for Chuck, of course, raving in his padded cell. He's the walking, talking example of how Trump breaks a leftist and gives them mental illness.
Trump is the "Squirrel!" of modern American politics. No matter how badly "liberals," with their dopey ideas, junk economics, and skewed reasoning, screw up, they can always tell "Trump!" to distract us as they pick our pockets and steal our guns.
What MJBW said about the mediamob's creation. I've told my Trump-hating friends for years that he was their guy, not mine. Trumpenstein.
I for one look forward to the successor to Trump's political outsider status and twitter assault antics. Maybe he, or she, will really be 10% as horrible as Trump has been described, and the next Resistance (same as this Resistance) will be scared into submission to that administration.
I have recently been watching TV shows and reading books from the 80's and 90's. It's amazing how often Trump comes up. He's an off screen friend of the George Segal character in "Just Shoot Me." Sonny Crocket exclaims that he's not Donald Trump and pictures of Trump Tower establish a NYC location on Miami Vice. American Psycho's main character is obsessed with Trump which accords with my memories of finance and sales guys in the 80's. He comes up in dozens, maybe hundreds, or movies. He permeated the culture long before he became President. It's an odd skill.
“I am monitoring this trend of MSM comments that make anything into an occasion to bring up Trump"
Trump derangement syndrome syndrome.
I commented long ago that my wife and I walked into Trump Tower well before 2015, and we were amazed to find that in three floors immediately available to the public, there was no place to stand and no place to look where you did not see his name. Trump Cafeteria, Trump Bar, Trump Concession Stand, it was endless. I don't remember if there were Trump Toilets.
I thought it was pathetic.
This was his plan and his ultimate goal. He has imprinted his name, permanently, on the brains of seven billion human beings.
Not a new phenomenon for the frantic Left. I finally completely gave up on Time magazine back in the ‘90’s when they shoehorned a completely irrelevant bit of snark about Bob Dole into a movie review.
It’s a sure tell of unserious and lightweight thinking.
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