The Cure For TDS
https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-cure-for-tds.html
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
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Psychology of Obsessions https://psychcentral.com/ocd/psychology-of-obsessions#definition
Fighting Words https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2023/09/fighting-words.html
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From the formerly known as Twitter:
https://twitter.com/blackintheempir/status/1699575590632804461
It's amazing how many people still worry incessantly about the Orange Man. Do they ever worry about inflation, paying their bills or having decent health care for their children? Wasting your mental space on a rich narcissist at the expense of your family and their needs is both sad about criminal. The DNC has a lot to answer for.
Professional campaign managers are like mercenaries. Pay them enough and they'll fight for you, no matter what their personal beliefs. Daou has a wealth of experience and is rightly done with the so-called 'Democrats.' For those complaining about Dr. West, if you're waiting for the 'perfect' candidate to come along you might as well wait for unicorns and mermaids to appear. It's beyond time to get behind a decent, principled candidate like Dr. West and try to turn the nation and world away from this course to oblivion, because sure as hell voting for the duopoly yet again isn't going to change a damn thing. #CornelWest2024