This is not a joke and it’s not an insult, it’s a question that only you can answer for yourself. Are you suffering from what I call Acute Propaganda-Induced Anti-Trump Hysteria Syndrome (APIATHS)?
Let me make this perfectly clear up front; I don’t like Donald Trump, the man, and I didn’t vote for him. I also didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton. In the past, I have voted for both Democratic and Republican candidates. I think Trump and Clinton were the worst candidates for President that both parties have presented to the public at the same time in my lifetime. The election of 2016 was a lose lose for the American people. In the 2020 election I choose to vote for Policy over Personality. You’re welcome to think whatever you like and you have every right to vote for whomever you like for whatever reasons you choose.
Based on my observations of the world around me, here’s where I came up with Acute Propaganda-Induced Anti-Trump Hysteria Syndrome:
ACUTE
Present or experienced to a severe or intense degree.
PROPAGANDA
Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.
INDUCED
Succeed in persuading or influencing (someone) to do something.
ANTI-TRUMP
To hate anyone or anything that can be remotely connected to President Trump.
HYSTERIA
Exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people.
SYNDROME
A group of symptoms which consistently occur together, or a condition characterized by a set of associated symptoms.
Okay now that I’ve got those pesky little definitions out of the way, let’s move on.
The United States has been blanketed with anti-Trump propaganda since on or before the Presidential election in 2016. News media outlets have turned from being moderately partisan to being transparently partisan at nearly everything they do, they have literally become propaganda outlets and this is a huge problem in the United States right now.
Here is a brief test to help you figure out if you’re consumed by propaganda and are suffering from Acute Propaganda-Induced Anti-Trump Hysteria Syndrome. A simple yes or no to yourself is sufficient.
- Do you believe that President Trump is not a legitimate President?
- Do you believe that President Trump is a fascist?
- Do you believe that President Trump is a dictator?
- Do you believe President Trump is a Nazi?
- Do you believe that President Trump is a racist or a white supremacist?
- Do you believe that everything is terrible and it’s terrible because of President Trump?
- Do you believe that President Trump’s defiance of “norms” is a threat to Democracy?
- Do you believe that President Trump Is anti-LGBTQ?
- Do you believe that President Trump only cares about himself, not the country?
- Do you believe that President Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 Presidential election?
- Do you believe that President Trump is a traitor?
- Do you believe that President Trump is mentally ill?
- Do you believe that President Trump obstructed justice by firing subordinates?
- Do you believe that the Bully Bush tape is “proof” that Donald Trump has sexually assaulted women?
- Do you believe that the Mueller Report proved that President Trump violated the Constitution?
- Do you believe that President Trump broke the law with his phone call to the President of Ukraine?
- Do you believe that President Trump violated the Constitution and obstructed Congress by challenging House subpoenas?
- Do you believe that President Trump said that Article II gives him unlimited power as President of the United States to do anything he wants as the President?
- Do you believe that President Trump is a Putin puppet?
- Do you believe that President Trump has lied over 16,000 times since the Presidential inauguration?
- Do you believe that President Trump is a criminal?
- Do you believe that everything President Trump says is a lie?
- Have you ever stated that President Trump is not your President?
If you answered yes to any of the questions above then you’re likely suffering from Acute Propaganda-Induced Anti-Trump Hysteria Syndrome. The more times you answered yes to the questions the deeper the evidence is that you’re gullible to accepting partisan propaganda as fact. For more information on this, please read Presidential Impeachment/Removal Plans, 11/16 to the Present.
I’ve run across a plethora of people, friends, acquaintances, over the last three plus years that have deeply ingrained beliefs that can’t be justified by anything substantial except their hate. Many of these people get quite emotional when confronted with facts that contradict their beliefs, these beliefs are ingrained like religious beliefs and I’ve been trying to figure out why. I have one personal friend that has openly stated that “I will never not believe Trump is a piece of shit racist and a traitor to the nation” regardless of the fact that there’s no proof to support his beliefs; this same person stated the baseless conspiracy theory “I believe [the Russians] loaned [Trump] money and he’s either being extorted or mislead by a former KGB operative, that would be Putin”. These kinds of beliefs are deeply ingrained in people’s psyche, you can’t argue fact to them, they completely ignore the facts as if they have their fingers in their ears, I see and hear it over and over again. I know others in my area of the United States that are part of the LGBTQ community that believe wholeheartedly that Trump is anti-LGBTQ but when asked for something to support their belief they simply can’t come up with anything and usually just turn around and smear you as a Trump supporter. These kinds of deeply held beliefs are coming from somewhere and it’s certainly not from proof positive facts so it must be coming from being inundated with innuendo filled anti-Trump propaganda for over three years, this is exactly why I included “Propaganda-Induced” in my Acute Propaganda-Induced Anti-Trump Hysteria Syndrome.
Over the past three plus years I’ve been observing how people in our society are changing, politically and socially. Here are some traits that I’ve personally noticed are on the uptick especially from the people that can easily answer yes to most, if not all, of the questions above…
- Pervasive distrust and suspicion of others and their motives
- Unjustified belief that others are trying to harm or deceive you
- Unjustified suspicion of the loyalty or trustworthiness of others
- Perception of innocent remarks or nonthreatening situations as personal insults or attacks
- Angry or hostile reaction to perceived slights or insults
- Tendency to hold grudges
- Disregard for others’ feelings
- Persistent lying
- Repeated violation of the rights of others
- Aggressive, often violent behavior
- Disregard for the safety of self or others
- Impulsive behavior
- Lack of remorse for behavior
- Unstable or fragile self-image
- Frequent, intense displays of anger
- Constantly seeking attention
- Excessively emotional, dramatic or sexually provocative to gain attention
- Speaks dramatically with strong opinions, but few facts or details to back them up
- Easily influenced by others
- Shallow, rapidly changing emotions
- Belief that you’re special and more important than others
- Failure to recognize others’ needs and feelings
- Arrogance
- Anxious, fearful thinking or behavior
- Too sensitive to criticism or rejection
- Rigid and stubborn
- Hypocritical about morality, ethics or values
- Consistent denial of actual facts in favor of twisted innuendo
Ask a professional psychologist or psychiatrist what this kind of grouping of traits would lead to as a diagnosis. These are not good traits to have, in fact I believe these traits to be a clear detriment to our society as a whole and there are a growing number of people publicly showing these traits.
I don’t care one bit if you like President Trump or not, I don’t care if you vote for President Trump or not, what I do care about is how our society is being dragged into the moral and ethical abyss because people hate President Trump and are willing to sacrifice their moral and ethical compass to feed their hate. The root cause of the chaotic things we’re seeing in the United States have NOT been created by Donald Trump but as reaction to Donald Trump.
President Trump didn’t create the anti-Trump’s hate.
President Trump didn’t create the anti-Trump’s bigotry.
President Trump didn’t create the anti-Trump’s irrational aversion to truth and facts.
President Trump didn’t create the anti-Trump‘s anti-American and anti-Constitution ideological leanings.
President Trump didn’t create the anti-Trump’s leaning towards totalitarianism.
President Trump didn’t create the anti-Trump’s bastardization of words and symbols.
President Trump didn’t create the anti-Trump’s anti-history stance.
President Trump didn’t create the anti-Trump’s anti-social behaviors.
President Trump didn’t create the anti-Trump’s anti-respect, anti-logic, anti-critical thinking, and anti-civility.
President Trump didn’t create the anti-Trump’s Pravda like propaganda media machine.
President Trump didn’t create the anti-Trump’s “deep state”.
President Trump didn’t create these things, the haters created these things! Trump’s presence in the White House has inspired the anti-Trumpers, which is primarily the political left, especially the extreme progressives, to peel back their false facade and reveal their true hateful selves to the world.
If you’re one of the ones suffering from Acute Propaganda-Induced Anti-Trump Hysteria Syndrome, heal thyself by infecting your brain with real facts! Don’t rationalize your hate any longer.
Society's Building Blocks 
“I have one personal friend that has openly stated that “I will never not believe Trump is a piece of shit racist and a traitor to the nation” regardless of the fact that there’s no proof to support his beliefs; this same person stated the baseless conspiracy theory “I believe [the Russians] loaned [Trump] money and he’s either being extorted or mislead by a former KGB operative, that would be Putin”.”
Stevo; I hate to break it to you but your friend is a brainless dick! I don’t care if she/he is a PhD. You cannot fix that kind of stupid. TDS is far worse than COVID-19 on multiple levels.
The ways of the Orange Master are mysterious and often impenetrable by the common mind…
LikeLike
Batman wrote, “I hate to break it to you but your friend is a brainless dick!”
I really didn’t expect this to go straight into a insults of one of my personal friends. Lighten up a bit.
“Brainless”, really? Now there’s a word that I reserve for very rare instances which, when used, it’s usually followed by the word twit. You’re welcome to your opinion but he is not “brainless”. I usually reserve the word brainless for those obvious internet trolls like our good buddy AnonyBob who has also received this “I wrote my comment in plain English, stop reading it dumbass” a few times when he completely misrepresented what was written.
As for being a dick, we all can be a dick and an asshole at times.
For the record; I think my friend, like so many others out there, has completely swallowed the anti-Trump propaganda, so a more accurate thing to say, and the whole point of this blog post, is that he’s likely suffering from Acute Propaganda-Induced Anti-Trump Hysteria Syndrome. I’ve only had limited political conversations with him since I met him in the United States Army Infantry School many, Many, MANY, MANY years ago. I honestly don’t know if he leaned left, right or was more independent before Trump came on the scene; however, it’s been really clear where his political leanings are now.
LikeLike
Your friend called our President “a piece of shit racist and a traitor to the nation”
Anyone making that statement has been propagandized, is irrational, ergo brainless.
It’s an expression Steve, obviously not to be taken literally.
I suppose using the word “dick” wasn’t necessary but it’s certainly not excessive considering the words your friend felt comfortable labeling our President with.
I get that he’s your friend, but we’ll have to agree to disagree that Batman is being too harsh, if anything, too gentle.
LikeLiked by 1 person