There are two pandemics sweeping our nation. One, Covid-19, attacks your lungs and can even kill the elderly and/or infirm.

The other, Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) attacks your thought processes, your heart and your soul, through mechanisms apparently well understood by propagandists, Marxists and revolutionaries of every stripe. Oh, and most media outlets.

OK, the above is (largely...) tongue in cheek. But I DO believe there is some emotional contagion, a pervasive propagandist world view, that is often referred to by conservatives as TDS. I am not saying that it's impossible to be a calm, intelligent, emotionally stable liberal or Democrat. I am telling you that I've met fewer and fewer of them over the past several years and more and more that are agitated, irrational and angry.  The remainder of this article is an accounting of various interactions with "TDS" sufferers, and every example given is true, as frightening as that is.

Some of these conversations have been online, in venues such as Facebook, or Comment sections on other forums, etc. and some have been in person, by email or phone. They have been with virtual strangers and distant relatives as well as close friends and family. They all shared common traits and patterns that make me believe that TDS is much more prevalent, much more harmful and frankly much more real than Covid-19. (No, I'm not saying Covid-19 isn't real; I'm saying the descriptions of its catastrophic nature are so blown out of proporation that the reality of Covid-19 is less worrisome to me than the hysteria described below.)

This is not a "hit piece" on liberals. This is my explanation as to why I believe that the pervasive, mainstream media's political stance today is irrational, unjustifiable, unhealthy and certainly not to be taken seriously. To bottom line is that I am about to say some pretty negative things about some of the liberals I've encountered. But all of it comes directly from them. Everything bad I believe about the Democrat party, most Democrat politicians and a lot of Democrat supporters is not negative because of my political vantage point; it's just manifest truth declared by their behavior. These behaviors include:

Vastly Decreased Listening Skills

I've been lambasted on several occasions by a litany of accusations of Trump's actions, motives and intentions such that I could barely get a word in edge wise, much less make any significant point. I have a fond memory of one such occasion where I just let the man rant for a bit, until he started to wind down, at which point I said, "Man, you talk a LOT!". He was so taken aback by the non-sequitor and the obvious truth of it that he actually apologized... and listened a little!

But the problem demonstrated by him was the underlying assumptions that (1) a Trump supporter can have nothing to say that is valuable enough to be worth hearing, and/or (2) someone who supported Trump (or perhaps that just disagrees with him) made him so angry that his ability to listen, as in "converse normally with", was completely overwhelmed. This account describes easily a dozen similar encounters, not all so blatant, but all equally revealing of an inherent disrespect, disregard and distrust of any opinion that included supporting Trump.

Inability to focus

When making a counter-point refuting some accusation about Trump's policies or character, I'm often interrupted by the TDS sufferer blurting out some additional Trumpian horror they apparently just remembered. The ability to follow a thread of conversation about a single issue is often missing. The behavior suggests they believe that if they can just inundate me with enough accusations about how horrible Trump really is, then I'll begin to see it. Apparently they think I'm just not understanding what they're saying and so they move on to the next accusation, hoping that one will make me see the light. [See also the final comments in Much Ado About Nothing... }

Irrational leaps of logic

This is long, but relevant, trust me: After the national 4th of July celebration at Mount Rushmore, Facebook was all atwitter (see what I did there?) with the horror that one of the songs on the hours long event soundtrack was an Irish tune, "Garryowen", composed in the late 1700s. The 4th of July celebration at which it was played was held at Mount Rushmore, which apparently was unjustly taken from the Black Sioux indians in breach of an existing Treaty. Many Indian peoples were indeed treated horribly in the past, as everyone knows. But because Garryowen had been a favorite marching song of General Custer, the press reported that this was an intentional taunting of today's  Black Sioux indians. Nevermind that the song had nothing to do with Indians (Ireland, 1700s, remember?). Nevermind that it has been internationally popular for over 200 years (including two arrangements by Beethoven). Presumably this was a laser focused insult to American Indians by Donald Trump.

To someone making this charge on Facebook, I pointed out how ridiculous it was to presume that Trump even had a hand in compiling, or was even aware of, the playlist for the event, much less that he would be aware of the potential negative connotations. She said that didn't matter a bit, because if he hadn't put it there, someone on his staff did, and they did it because they "knew what he wanted". Wow... she was not only perfectly serious, she was entirely convinced that some staffer's selection of a popular, old Irish tune was absolute proof of Donald Trump's hatred of and racism toward American Indians. 

This is a frightening example of a complete lack of rational thought regarding Trump, but it is definitely not alone. Again, this is a not at all uncommon theme in my conversations with Trump haters.

Unfounded Axioms

• Being a Trump supporter means you cannot be a good person: One person implied I could not still be a good Christian as a Trump supporter, and asked me "what happened? ... You used to have such sweet friends." Now, this person hasn't been in my home state in at least a decade and has no idea who my current friends are - which include some of the same people that were referred to in the past tense. But the assumption was I was being influenced to the dark side by some unsavory crowd. Obviously the moral character they once believed me to have was gone - as evidenced by the fact that I voted for Trump.
• Being a Trump supporter means you cannot be objective or trustworthy: I recommended the Epoch Times, a very objective news source, which also has an outspoken Opinion & Editorial section that is pro-Trump and anti-Communist. The response - from someone who had never before heard of, or read a single word of, the Epoch Times, was that it had been "proven" an untrustworthy news source, because she just googled it and Wikipedia said that they had donated a lot of money to the Trump campaign. Case closed! Wow. Journalism is largely the art of being objective despite your personal opinions, which obviously everyone has. Apparently that's simply not possible if you support Trump. And she seemed unaware that The New York TImes and Washington Post - whom she held as examples of trustworthy reporting - also give generously to political causes. (The difference is that the Times and the Post support democrats not only financially, not only in their editorials, but blatantly and consistently in their reporting...)

Disproportionate Reactions

In one case a person at a family gathering who was, admitted, fairly well "lubricated" at the time, asked me, "Wait, you didn't vote for Trump did  you?" When I answered yes, he launched into a tirade that started with "I've just lost all respect for you! Nothing you say matters to me anymore...", which is an actual quote as nearly as I can remember it. His first reaction was to immediately sever our casual but friendly and comfortable relationship over a political difference of opinion - before he even knew what that difference was. Actually, all he knew was how I'd voted, not why. Near the end of his screed he said that every Republican (or perhaps he said conservative?) he'd ever met was an "ass****", I pointed out that if he entered into a conversation assuming a person was an ass and that they had nothing worthwhile to say, and then insulted them and shouted them down instead of listening to their reasoning or opinions, it was not surprising that he left the conversation with the same opinion. The funny thing is that at the end of the conversation he said, "You know, you're the only republican I've ever talked to that made any sense." The good news is that he was able to believe a republican made sense. The bad news is that he couldn't see that I was the only republican he'd ever listened to -- that in fact, 100% of the republicans he'd ever actually listened to made sense!

Now, you can say I'm exaggerating. You can say these are isolated incidents. You can believe I made it all up. You can even think there's nothing particularly wrong with the examples I gave. But short of actual clinical delusion, you cannot deny that some of the people I'm talking about are burning down buildings, shooting police and advocating violent government overthrow. and many of the remainder are defending those actions. To me it is undeniable that there is mental instability on the left, and its becoming wide spread.