One of my oldest (in both senses of the word) friends is a history professor at a major university here in the D.C. area. The things he posts on Facebook are head-exploding: like the mutation of his former rational self that EA expatriate Curmie has morphed into under the gamma rays of Trump Derangement, my scholarly friend frequently makes arguments I would expect from Ben Stiller’s character in “Tropic Thunder.”
Today he posted several defenses of Anthony Fauci, who is literally indefensible, comparing Rand Paul’s correct, factual and fair evisceration of the villain to a Soviet show-trial. Before that, the Professor posted with approval the following attack on the late Lindsay Graham by professional snot Andy Borowitz. I knew Andy in college. He was a standard issue Harvard Lampoon guy, overly convinced of his own wit and a sucker for a cheap shot. Whatever formula he developed over the years obviously works: he’s created and written successful sit-coms, has been a successful stand-up comic, and his satirical columns have been syndicated all over. That his major employers have been The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, and The New Yorker should tell you all you need to know about Andy’s biases, and partially explains this effort which my Trump Deranged friend found so trenchant.
I think I’ll footnote it to make my commentary more accessible…
Ethics Alarms 
Apparently, TDS is like Herpes it can never be cured. It manifests itself in many different forms from a relatively benign cold sore to a full blown bout of shingles. The only course of action is to manage the symptoms. This is why I have become more of a reader than a commenter.
I don’t see how that follows, Chris.
Chris says: “No comment.”
The term TDS as Jack uses it is, in my opinion, a kind of block so that a genuine, necessary, productive and good critique of Trump, his administration, the present government, and the state of this nation, will not take shape and gain power. And I do not refer to a critique that is Leftist or Progressive of Marxian and ultimately undermining, but one that is Right tending and even radically Right tending. I operate from this base: American Conservatism is largely USELESS in this arena. It is self-deceptive. It cannot and it will not face the ‘real facts’. So it actually and more largely serves those policies and directions set in motion by a power structure allied to the Left.
This was the PURPOSE of Trump’s election run. It was supposed to be and involve a process of renovation of the nation, of the recovery and rebuilding of its industrial base, and it was not going to be about starting wars and embroiling the nation in them as has just occurred. It has gone off on a radically different track and this must be seen, understood and critiqued. To say, if indeed this is said, that the position I have just outlined is one of TDS is false. Full stop.
The problem, as with so much in these times, is to carefully find a way to sift through the varied ‘perception stances’ that are presented, that actually function like ‘propaganda narratives’, and not to be fooled by any of them, and yet to get to some level of descriptive truth about what really is going on. And then to discuss these.
On Rumble, with the title What We ACTUALLY Learned From The Fauci Hearings, Fuentes lays out in coherent detail a genuinely and fairly critical position. I found it useful.
“The term TDS as Jack uses it is, in my opinion, a kind of block so that a genuine, necessary, productive and good critique of Trump, his administration, the present government, and the state of this nation, will not take shape and gain power.”
I stopped reading at that sentence. If you think that, you haven’t been paying attention, or are too biased to see beyond your own nose. That is not how I use “Trump Derangement” and I have never used it that way. “Trump Derangement” is a monomania in which objective assessment of anything related to the elected President of the United States is automatically and reflexively reviled and condemned, where acts and achievements that would be routinely praised if done by any other elected official is condemned, and where the entire framing of this consequential administration is rooted in emotion, primarily hate. I have never accused you of Trump Derangement: you don’t oppose him based on personal animus, you oppose him because you are a committed anti-Semite who can’t regard anything he does objectively because he has remained steadfast to the US-Israel alliance, as her should. That’s no better than Trump Derangement, it’s just different.
““Trump Derangement” is a monomania in which objective assessment of anything related to the elected President of the United States is automatically and reflexively reviled and condemned, where acts and achievements that would be routinely praised if done by any other elected official is condemned, and where the entire framing of this consequential administration is rooted in emotion, primarily hate.”
Indeed, like my Trump-Deranged sister who makes sure to work an anti-Trump comment into every conversation, regardless of the topic, who does not believe anything put out by this administration, even if it’s on a government website, and will not read anything you send her backing up your position. I haven’t asked – and I won’t – but I’m betting she’s one of the people on the Left who believe that Republicans have falsified, edited or cherry-picked Fauci’s diary.
Very early on, I had a good friend who inserted a Trump comment into every communication. I told him he had to stop doing It. He did and has continued to do so. Remarkable.
“chain-slurping Diet Cokes” was the funny part.
I have never accused you of Trump Derangement: you don’t oppose him based on personal animus, you oppose him because you are a committed anti-Semite who can’t regard anything he does objectively because he has remained steadfast to the US-Israel alliance, as he should. That’s no better than Trump Derangement, it’s just different.
That is even more calumnious. And another form of a blocking strategy so that the real issues cannot be seen and addressed. I suppose that you must also say that the faction of Jews across America and the world who have misgivings about Zionism and Israeli policy are also anti-Semites?
Still, I am more interested in the developing Right-tending position that, as mine does, takes issue with American Neocon Conservatism, which is how I interpret your position. The Republicans will very likely ‘suffer losses’ in the Fall; the Radical Left gain more popular power. So a genuine Right position is needed. In my opinion yours is not.
“I suppose that you must also say that the faction of Jews across America and the world who have misgivings about Zionism and Israeli policy are also anti-Semites?” A deflection: I suspect such Jews have been indoctrinated with intersectionality while not knowing their history to the extent that they have been permanently warped. Anti-Israel Jews are an anomaly, like an anti-vegan cow.
You can of course suspect that and many things but that alone will not make it true. Here is the thing, Jack, snd I do say this respectfully. When you say such a thing, which is false, but in so many other areas you are on the mark and quite powerfully so, it has caused me to wonder: To what degree can I trust this man’s larger position at a time when the nation is in crisis? So I will not ever become so ‘deranged’ (irrationally angry and projecting) to make up stories about you (though you do that to me), but rather I will keep struggling to determine to what degree you have a solid, commendable position.
“Here is the thing, Jack, snd I do say this respectfully. When you say such a thing, which is false, but in so many other areas you are on the mark and quite powerfully so, it has caused me to wonder: To what degree can I trust this man’s larger position at a time when the nation is in crisis?”
She’s not only seeking a father figure here, but she also seems desperate for a spanking. She’s putting herself in the central role, not just of the one eliciting the spanking: she’s the trustor, Jack is the beneficiary (but only if he’s worthy…). Human nature is fascinating!