I am still pondering whether to continue to take “The Ethicist,” Prof. Kwame Appiah seriously as he panders to the New York Times left-obsessed readers, but in this case I found a question submitted to the NYU philosophy prof revealing and worth pondering—not for what it expressed, but to raise the urgent question, “How do people get this way?” I am repeating this without reading Appiah’s response (the numbers are mine to make my brief analysis simpler):

“I’m an H.I.V.-positive gay man who is distraught with where the country is headed [1], so I am actively participating in protests. I have a liberal friend who lives in an overwhelmingly Trump-supporting small town and is married to a Trump supporter. She messages me often about her fears of what is going on [2] and seems equally distraught. I’ve shared with her how current politics could affect my life [3] and how, although I’m very aware of my privilege [4], I’m concerned about people who aren’t as privileged and how they could be affected.[5] But she doesn’t participate in protests [6] and doesn’t like to actively show her views except on social media.[7] There are protests in small towns close to her that could use her support. [8] Once, there was a B.L.M. protest in her town, but she had ceiling fans being installed. [9] She passed on another recent protest because she had a birthday party. She has never participated and I’m getting increasingly annoyed. [10] I think it’s important to show up. [11] I also know that everyone is different, so I’m trying to reconcile this. [12] She comes off to me as someone who’s comfortable in her life and doesn’t want to shake anything up [13], which is the height of hypocrisy to me. [14]

I feel like apathy is how we got here in the first place [15], and I’m really struggling with how and whether to keep people like this in my life.”

I wish I could be confident that “The Ethicist” chose this foolishness to show that there really are deranged people out there so watch out, but I doubt it. The short and pithy response to it should be “You’re an asshole. Seek help.” But how many of you know people who think like “Name Withheld”? The footnotes…

1. Where is the country headed that is so frightening? This is the vague and undefined dread I kept hearing from lawyers at my law school class reunion last week. Everything is awful, they kept saying, without specifying what, I assume because they knew their specifics were easily debunked or would sound silly.

2. What’s “going on”? Maybe she should stop watching MSNBC, alias “MS.” I just heard a two black, gay show hosts there say that what was going on was “the militarization of cities,” you know, like Washington, D.C. I have been in and out of the District dozens of times over the last month. I saw four Guardsman, unarmed, near the Lincoln Memorial. I honked at them, and they waved at me. Scary. That was the only “militarization” I saw.

3. “Politics” don’t affect anyone’s life except politicians. Policies affect your life. What policies are you so frightened of?

4. Signature significance. The poor writer has been brainwashed into feeling guilty about being white and not on welfare. He’s also gay and has a deadly disease: how are those “privileges”?

5. “Future news’ fatigue. This poor sap wants to protest what “could” happen based on partisan fearmongering from the news media and his woke friends who lap it up.

6. Because protests are almost always futile and stupid, tantrums that make the participants feel like they are “doing something” when they are just disrupting the lives of innocent citizens.

7. ….where she can say dumb things in her bubble and get a lot of “likes.” I bet she’s on BluesSky.

8. How would her “support” be used? What good would it do? The writer just wants his friend to confirm her progressive bona fides, and virtue-signal.

9. The single ceiling fan did more good than the entire BLM movement has. That the writer can still support that racist, scam organization without putting his head under a paper bag is proof of a weak mind immune to reality.

10. What is there to be annoyed at? Nobody has an obligation to do what you want them to. The ethical principles are respect and autonomy.

11. Correction: you think it’s important to “show up” where you want your friend to show up. What an arrogant jerk. She shows up where she thinks it’s important for her to show up.

12. Reconcile what? The right of everyone to decide their own priorities with your delusion that you are the authority on when someone else’s priorities are valid?

13. How does a protest “shake up” anything? And maybe, though she’s tolerating your hysteria, she doesn’t really believe everything is as terrible as she represents to her woke bubble.

14. OK, it might be a little bit hypocritical to pretend to be as fanatic and deranged as one’s friends but not behaving like they are because deep down you know they are full of hooey.

All right, now I’m going to skim “The Ethicist’s response…

Done. Here is his statement: “Your small-town friend may have assessed her circumstances more carefully than you give her credit for. Maybe the question is whether she should keep someone in her life who refuses to consider that possibility.”

Translation: “You’re the asshole.”