TDS - a Case Study in Projection

Apparently, I have TDS, according to a MAGA. Trump Deranged Syndrome, they say. The implication being that I’m irrational for pointing out the orange elephant in the room. But let’s look at this rationally, shall we?

Trump is a man who’s lied more times than most people have inhaled. He lost the popular vote – twice – but still insisted he won. He was impeached twice, incited a violent attempt to overturn an election, hoarded classified documents, and has been indicted more times than I’ve had decent pints of cider this year. The man is, by any reasonable measure, a walking indictment of everything democracy tries to protect itself from.

And yet, his supporters see criticism of him as a sign of mental illness. That's ironic.

Because if you’re still pledging fealty to a man who wanted to “terminate” parts of the Constitution, who tried to strong-arm election officials into fabricating votes, and who believes wind turbines cause cancer, then perhaps the derangement isn’t on this side of the fence.

This is the real Trump Deranged Syndrome – the cult-like, fact-resistant fervour that leads grown adults to chant “lock her up” while their chosen leader collects felonies like they’re football stickers. It’s the blind loyalty to a man who throws his own supporters under the bus while pocketing their donations. It’s the belief that everyone else – the courts, the media, the scientists, the voters – must be wrong, and only Trump speaks the truth.

And then there’s the economic delusion – the fantasy that Trump is somehow going to hand the average voter a tax break. His actual record? Slashing corporate tax and stuffing the pockets of the ultra-wealthy. Supporting him in the vain hope that this time the crumbs will fall your way is, frankly, the textbook definition of madness – doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. It’s not Einstein’s definition, as some believe, but it’s still a decent rule of thumb – and it applies here with surgical precision.

So yes, TDS is real. But it doesn’t stand for what they think it does. It’s not the critics who are deranged for spotting a conman. It’s those still applauding him, like hypnotised seals, who need the intervention.

If you can watch a man attack democracy, lie with abandon, call neo-Nazis “very fine people”, and still say “yes, that’s my guy”, then I’m afraid you’ve got a textbook case of Trump Deranged Syndrome.

And you should probably sit down before someone asks you to define ‘integrity’.