Trump Derangement Syndrome - Orange man bad. Read the OP! (ᴛʜɪs ᴛʜʀᴇᴀᴅ ɪs ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴋɪᴡɪ ғᴀʀᴍs ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡs ɴᴏᴡ) 🗿🗿🗿🗿

[Robert James]

Bring back the Bull Moose Party.

Unironically we need to clone Teddy, though as I think about it considering how little trump needs to do to piss off the media imagine what they would say about Theodore.

 

[Book Thief]

I held out hope for everyone in my friend group who was heavily afflicted with TDS, and that was the entirety of my friend group because I was pretty deeply entrenched with left-wing politics by 2016. I know I've rambled about it on here before, but I gave up on it awhile ago. Nevermind getting them to understand what Trump's been doing, even getting them to a neutral mindset or in the very least one that's not foaming-at-the-mouth hostility just feels like it's impossible.

I stuck with it for about three years, but they refused to budge and I got sick of getting spammed with "It's Mueller Time" memes, but things have changed quite a bit since then, and they didn't really like to talk about Mueller, anymore. I still did. I liked talking to them about Mueller a lot, and I saved all of the crap they spammed me with.

I valued our friendships a lot; enough to endure that insanity and try to calm them down for three years, but it was well past the stage where there was even a friendship anymore, and long past past the point where there was any reason to keep trying. They refused to help me rebuild the bridges, and if I couldn't rebuild them then I could sure as fuck burn what was left into charcoal and then piss on the ashes.

I never hear from any of them anymore, and I don't mind it a bit. Three years of that was quite enough.

While I appreciate you sharing your TDS friend story, I don't want to think of myself as a bridge-burner. That's their tactic, not mine. I don't want to be a part of political hyper-division that has plagued not just our country, but seemingly our whole world. Maybe some day, these people will come to their senses and come to regret all those horrible things they've done or said, and I want to be there when that happens. I realize the odds of this happening are slim-to-none, but TDS is not incurable, and we aren't going to solve the problem by shutting these people out of our lives as they do. Doing that will only reinforce the bubble they're in.

Go ahead and rate me Dumb if you think I'm being naïve. I don't care. What I care about are the people that exist in my life and the joy they bring in areas beyond politics.

Unironically we need to clone Teddy, though as I think about it considering how little trump needs to do to piss off the media imagine what they would say about Theodore.

What a coincidence. I keep thinking to myself lately that we need to research black magic in order to resurrect Teddy, because I'd consider him my ideal president.

On the subject of how he would be treated by the media, considering he was a Republican, they probably think he was an evil racist who sought to disenfranchise blacks (despite the whole "Square Deal" thing, or the fact that the KKK was populated by Democrats), ravaged the environment (even though he was a staunch environmentalist and conservationist), and a capitalist stooge (even though he earn himself the title of "Trust Buster" for taking down monopolies).

 

[QuadDamage]

In my experience this is because the Republican/GOP establishment is a bunch of exceptional boomers. I say this because the people that I have experienced who say "I'm not a Republican but I support Trump" also have high views of Reps like Jim Jordan and Post-2016 Ted Cruz.

Ironically GOP swamp creatures like Romney and Flake in trying to distance themselves from the crowd following Trump have embodied the stereotype of the conservative pearl-clutching boomer.

Politicians have a really weird job. They have to represent a big chunk of their state's interest against a bug chunk of EVERY OTHER STATES interest. Everything they say has to be weighed on a really bizarre scale.

Pre-Trump Cruz is not right now Cruz, and won't be 2022 Cruz. I think that's something we've learned in the past decade. It's not even about a shifting of allegiances, it's about a shifting of expectations.

I think there should be more priority into teaching American citizens how the government actually works. This is a unique system that has done nothing but succeed against all expectationsregardless of who held the wheel. "Disenfranchised" youths would not feel so disenfranchised if they knew their rep was going to bring their shit right to the commander in chief.

Unironically we need to clone Teddy, though as I think about it considering how little trump needs to do to piss off the media imagine what they would say about Theodore.

Teddy with Twitter would have probably just tweeted curse words nonstop when he was annoyed and we still would have liked it.

While I appreciate you sharing your TDS friend story, I don't want to think of myself as a bridge-burner. That's their tactic, not mine. I don't want to be a part of political hyper-division that has plagued not just our country, but seemingly our whole world. Maybe some day, these people will come to their senses and come to regret all those horrible things they've done or said, and I want to be there when that happens. I realize the odds of this happening are slim-to-none, but TDS is not incurable, and we aren't going to solve the problem by shutting these people out of our lives as they do. Doing that will only reinforce the bubble they're in.

Go ahead and rate me Dumb if you think I'm being naïve. I don't care. What I care about are the people that exist in my life and the joy they bring in areas beyond politics.

The goalpost is not on your side.

It's not even in the same field.

 

[Cubanodun]

That wasn't good enough for my family. I didn't hate him enough. So I basically became a non person

This is pretty much the bane of the left they are so radical and extreme for non issues (at least here we don't give two fucks about the geis) that they alienate even people that prefer to be centrist or apolitical, this generate one of the most powerful motives for what people vote for Trump: sheer spite

I mean they already call everyone a super mega Nazi just because they don't hate Trump what better thing to do that deny them any power and see how they crash and burn spectacularly

Post-2016 Ted Cruz.

Zodiac has a weird cult following here same as Rubio, must be the beard

 

[Robert James]

Zodiac has a weird cult following here same as Rubio, must be the beard

Any man that can kill from the womb/crib deserves to have a cult following.

Spoiler: I know it's a meme but let me sperg

Ted was born in 1970 the zodiac killer was around 1968-1974 he either has a time machine or can kill from within the womb. That being said he started off pretty grassroots and is one of the few successful people related to the Tea party, His popular enough to have a big podcast in Texas and has even got pretty big stars like Malissa Milano to talk to him. Teddy ain't that bad of a guy and his popularity makes sense as a proto-trump. Honestly,

.


Though you are in good company the Dems didn't understand his popularity either, I don't know if anybody remembers when they pushed Beto Potato in Texas but part of there campaign against Ted was just saying no one likes him. It was glorious, no subterfuge, no charm, no thought process they literally just told people nobody liked him and thought that would get potato his seat.

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

TDS for me started during the Bush Jr Admin. Hearing constantly how Bush was going to put LGB people in camps, how FEMA was going to kill all the darkies, how he was going to draft everyone on the left (Yeah, like THEY could win a fucking war) and send them off to die, how if you were a Republican you were a horrible Nazi supporting sub-human degenerate who hated science, brown people, and women.

Started losing family members and friends, then it began infecting the field I worked in and I began having people tell me "I'm sorry, I don't work with war-mongering fascists" and "Oh, I don't work with sexists" and shit like that. Then during Obama, instead of reconciliation I got more of "HAHA! I can bully you and you can't do shit about it because Brown Jesus!" bullshit. On certain forums, some of which I'd been a founding member or been a member since the late 1990's, I was either told by mods to fuck right off or banned, sometimes even had my moderator status removed.

So I said: Fuck it.

With Trump, I just let everyone else sperg and freak the fuck out and cut people out of their lives. If I get cut in the fallout, I don't care much. I learned a long time ago what life is all about and most of the people who do the screaming and yelling don't really matter any more. Trump makes me laugh, the things that happen around him make me laugh, and the hysterical shrieking of the left makes me laugh.

I'd rather smile than be dour.

But to be honest, I didn't care. SJW's are nothing more than people who fucked up trying to Xerox the hippy movement. Nothing new about them, nothing progessive about them, just the same fucking hippy bullshit that came around before, right down to faggots yelling for Socialism and the fat ugly chick with problem glasses and an ugly haircut yelling it's patriarchy that keeps people from wanting to fuck her and not the fact she hasn't bathed in a month.

It wasn't any loss when my hippy aunt disowned me, it wasn't any loss when my PC Infected sister stopped talking to me, it isn't any loss when my SJW niece disowns me.

Of course, they're all right there if they think I've had any success at all, right there with their hands out reminding me "We're family" when I haven't talked to them in a decade.

 

[It's HK-47]

While I appreciate you sharing your TDS friend story, I don't want to think of myself as a bridge-burner. That's their tactic, not mine. I don't want to be a part of political hyper-division that has plagued not just our country, but seemingly our whole world. Maybe some day, these people will come to their senses and come to regret all those horrible things they've done or said, and I want to be there when that happens. I realize the odds of this happening are slim-to-none, but TDS is not incurable, and we aren't going to solve the problem by shutting these people out of our lives as they do. Doing that will only reinforce the bubble they're in.

Go ahead and rate me Dumb if you think I'm being naïve. I don't care. What I care about are the people that exist in my life and the joy they bring in areas beyond politics.

Oh I wouldn't expect anyone to follow my example, but I did nothing but try to tape those bridges back together for three straight years. I changed topics, I never brought up politics unless they did, I tried avoiding politics outright or even stopped talking about it altogether. For the better part of a year I literally would not talk politics with them at all, but that wasn't good enough. I'd invited them to parties only sit around all night and have no one show up, and I'd tried to pay them visits and have doors slammed in my face.

So, fuck it. Why waste all that effort on ridiculous people?

They slapped away every handshake, they snapped every olive branch and they burnt every bridge I tried to build. I stopped caring about what sort of friendship that we ever had because these were not the actions of a friend. I wasn't going to spend the rest of my life "turning the other cheek" and hoping for some sort of Hollywood-esque, tearful reunion. They wanted an enemy, but they didn't make one, they just lost a friend. I am more than content to meet new people who aren't fanatically and psychotically devoted to politics to the point where it rules every second and every facet of their daily life, and that was really the comically-tragic part of the entire thing:

If you met me on the street, you'd not for a second ever guess that I was such a politically-opinionated person, because I never talk about politics offline. I don't wear MAGA hats, I don't wear Trump shirts, I don't go rallies, and I will never bring up politics unless I'm practically dragged into it. I never talked about it with them at the start either, they just knew that I didn't hate Trump, and that was enough.

It doesn't upset me anymore, though, I just stopped seeing the practicality in trying to stay friends with people who clearly are not interested. It seemed like an enormous waste of time that could be better spent talking to people who aren't raving lunatics.

 

[Ghostse]

I am generally not convinced by the idea that we need career politicians, mostly because I don’t think politics is the only place on earth where you can learn how to talk bullshit, collect favors, and practice soft power manipulation and management. It’s certainly an expert level course in all those. I’m mostly an advocate of term limits because of how severely our system benefits the incumbent. Stumble your way in because no one ran against you? Vote present for ten years and you’re set for life.
The problem is a lot closer to what you describe where the actual job is done by immortal, unelected functionaries and lobbyists. The elected representatives’ job is to hold down a chair, look pretty, and sign the bills that ConglomCo and Jim whose outlived five predecessors negotiated a year before they were elected. How do you put term limits on people who don’t get publicly elected is the question. I can’t think of anything that would make people less satisfied with government than the idea that all the leaders they get to pick are the marketing team for a machine that does whatever the fuck it wants.

Fairly simple, actually. Simply require all politicians, their campaigns, and their immediate families to undergo rigorous auditing for political career +10.

But as this would actually root out corruption and pay-for-play, it'll never go anywhere.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Fairly simple, actually. Simply require all politicians, their campaigns, and their immediate families to undergo rigorous auditing for political career +10.

But as this would actually root out corruption and pay-for-play, it'll never go anywhere.

We don't need career politicians, that was never the intent for our government. It was supposed to be normal people who do 1 or 2 terms at most and go home to resume their private life. We need Term Limits for the Senate and House.

 

[QuadDamage]

I'd rather smile than be dour.

They slapped away every handshake, they snapped every olive branch and they burnt every bridge I tried to build.

I want to write some brilliant rebuttal.

but fuck em.

 

[FuckedUp]

*snip*

Can't you talk with your dad (and the other former parts of your "team") as well?

 

[Iceland Heavy]

My friends run the gamut from enthusiastic to lukewarm support of Trump to thinking he's a retard but otherwise not making a big deal about him and not really having TDS worthy of posting examples here. One thing that did stand out to me today was scrolling through my facebook feed and seeing an old high school acquaintance doing the whole 'I don't usually post about politics but THIS has gone too far and we have to stop Drumpf now' routine over Vindman getting kicked out on his ass. And it's true, I hadn't seen him post about politics or honestly anything in years but all I could think was 'Really? You're choosing that complete fucking tool to do the breaking of silence and ''''principled'''' stand over?'

 

[QuadDamage]

Can't you talk with your dad (and the other former parts of your "team") as well?

Holy fuck. You're right. I never realized I could talk to the dude who originally tossed me into my momma.

I never tried! Bless you.

Thanks, I'll get back to you when that's resolved.

 

[King Dead]

Well I didn't intend to make a thread mostly about laughing at the TDS-afflicted segue into an impromptu therapy session, but reading all of your stories helped a lot. I'm glad to know there's more than just me in this boat, even if my situation is hardly as bad as some of yours. And I'm holding out hope that things will improve, but there's probably little I can do to convince my friend that Trump isn't literally giga-Hitler. It'll probably have to be like what happened to @It's HK-47, a realization on his part that something's fucky.

I think this line sums it up for me:

I'd rather smile than be dour.

While my friend was rambling on and on about how we're entering an unprecedented new age of totalitarian dystopia, I was sitting there smiling. He seemed on-edge, stressed out, real doomsayer vibes...and meanwhile I was feeling alright. Sure, maybe I'm not in the greatest place in my life, maybe I'm not where I expected I would be when I was a kid, but I'm happy. I have a loving family, attend a great church, and live in an area that I couldn't really imagine leaving. It's just crazy to me that someone could look around and see gloom and doom everywhere when there's so much to be happy about. You can burn yourself out easily when you're teeming with rage or hysteria all the time. That's just not me.

So yeah, thanks for your stories, they've made me feel better. And on the off chance my friend comes around, I'll welcome him with open arms. Life's too short to hold a grudge.

Also, fuck Reddit.

 

[Maamtis]

I've mentioned a friend who succumbed to TDS on here before. Funny thing is she reeed about grab them by the pussy but had no problem calling my partner a cunt and reeed about Trump making fun of that disabled guy but her and her mother, who is a medical professional, were talking shit about my partner and my mental health on her Facebook. The difference between Trump and those with TDS is that at least he's honest about who and what he is.

 

[vertexwindi]

I met this girl about a decade ago and we shared the same sense of humor and quickly became the best of friends, but as the years went by she started heavily leaning left while I mostly stayed the same twat I've always been. We slowly grew apart because at a certain point I just didn't enjoy talking to her anymore because I constantly had to watch what I said like I was walking on eggshells. Eventually we had a dramatic falling out when she thought I was insulting her crossdressing boyfriend when I called him a guy, and she called off the friendship. The guy himself confirmed he wasn't dysphoric or a tranny or whatever, but for whatever reason she pretended he was a woman anyway. It was as nonsensical as it sounds, but to me seeing her toss me aside over something so stupid was kinda depressing, even if we weren't on good terms before the fallout.

Nowadays I mostly just keep my politics to myself. SJWs, man.

 

[Dracula's Spirit Animal]

Oh I wouldn't expect anyone to follow my example, but I did nothing but try to tape those bridges back together for three straight years. I changed topics, I never brought up politics unless they did, I tried avoiding politics outright or even stopped talking about it altogether. For the better part of a year I literally would not talk politics with them at all, but that wasn't good enough. I'd invited them to parties only sit around all night and have no one show up, and I'd tried to pay them visits and have doors slammed in my face.

So, fuck it. Why waste all that effort on ridiculous people?

They slapped away every handshake, they snapped every olive branch and they burnt every bridge I tried to build. I stopped caring about what sort of friendship that we ever had because these were not the actions of a friend. I wasn't going to spend the rest of my life "turning the other cheek" and hoping for some sort of Hollywood-esque, tearful reunion. They wanted an enemy, but they didn't make one, they just lost a friend. I am more than content to meet new people who aren't fanatically and psychotically devoted to politics to the point where it rules every second and every facet of their daily life, and that was really the comically-tragic part of the entire thing:

If you met me on the street, you'd not for a second ever guess that I was such a politically-opinionated person, because I never talk about politics offline. I don't wear MAGA hats, I don't wear Trump shirts, I don't go rallies, and I will never bring up politics unless I'm practically dragged into it. I never talked about it with them at the start either, they just knew that I didn't hate Trump, and that was enough.

It doesn't upset me anymore, though, I just stopped seeing the practicality in trying to stay friends with people who clearly are not interested. It seemed like an enormous waste of time that could be better spent talking to people who aren't raving lunatics.

It's been ht or miss for me. I've been retired for quite a while, so I don't have to put up with that shit in the workplace, at least. I've definitely had a bunch of people stop talking to me, but it's been people I'd only ever see eevery year or two sort of thing, so no big loss. Occasionally, something jumps out at me, like having people I've known well for 30 or 40 years completely sever the relationship over saying something even NEUTRAL regarding Trump.

Occasionally the TDS gets me irritated enough, and I'll do something like I did a couple of months ago.... I posted that meme with Trump getting that award with Rosa Parks and Muhammad Ali. Just wow. I knew it would annoy some people, but that was kind of the point. I was just throwing back a little of the annoyance they cause me with the constant postings of TDS reeee-tardation... My friends list dropped by about thirty people. I have no idea who they are, so it can't be that important. I had half a dozen people send me private messages in various states of hysterics, and a buddy I've known for 45 years, shortly after I finished high school, messaged me with a "FUCK OFF AND DIE YOU FASCIST!" or something like that, and then defriended me. Another friend, one I consider pretty close and once considered the executor of my will if both my wife and I went at the same time, pmed me with a love bomb about how I should be "careful" with "extreme ideologies". A few months ago, he dame guy messaged me that I should stop talking to another mutual friend because he has "dangerous" ideas.

At this point, it's just funny and cartoonish. And if these people want to walk away over this stuff, fine by me.

I notice a lot of people who are different, though. The majority of friends and family just know we disagree and politics just isn't discussed. I'm sure in some cases it's because they know they wouldn't be able to resist freaking out and talking their ball home with them if we actually discussed things, but there are definitely some who think the politics is not as important as the friendshp or family.

When I got married, I was basically a very radical tankie type, and my wife was a vaguely practising Christian conservative who hated socialism. Now things are slightly the opposite, as I think I'm left-leaning on some things, but probably slightly right-leaning overall, and she has very mild TDS. She still calls Hillary "my girl", for instance. but we can disagree on politics no problem without either of us getting stupid. I can joke around with my daughter about politics, since she has that time honoured attitude that her parents are out of touch has beens.

On the other hand, on FB there is only one contact I have unfollowed. He's a pretty good friend and we used to have a business together. HE barrages the internet with 2A shit dozens a time a day, and his political hot takes make the standard SJW look formidable.

On the whole, although it's kind of baffling, Trump has been a remarkable social disinfectant for drama in my life.

Now I'll shut up. Kiwifarms TDSAnon support group is gay.

 

[Gehenna]

Now I'll shut up. Kiwifarms TDSAnon support group is gay.

Gay, but actually on topic and somewhat cathartic. I mean, personal TDS experienced in our lives is still TDS. And hey, where else can we bitch about it? Everyone likes a good bitching.

 

[TaimuRadiu]

I listen to a lot of shortwave radio. This includes Alex Jones. He was a lot more interesting before he got Trump Enslavement Syndrome. That being said - and I think I may have posted about it - there's a guy on WBCQ by the name of "Pirate Joe." Old liberal, hippie, he was literally persecuted by the glowinthedarks because he was associated with pirate radio and pirate TV. He absolutely LOVES Obama and HATES Trump, despite Obama being literally Bush 2.0 when it comes to press freedom. I can understand why people wouldn't like Trump, I can understand why they'd disagree with his policies, but he literally just plays MSNBC clips on the air and "See? See?" He even used to have a music show on WBCQ on Tuesdays that's just become him ranting about politics, which he does on his Saturday night show too. All he says are "Republicans bad durrr" and he's been going on about this since apparently the time of NIXON. Kinda the same for another guy on WBCQ by the name of John Lightning, but at least I don't expect much in the way of seriousness from the John Lightning program. Stuff I liked to listen to on domestic shortwave radio is absolutely infested with either TES or TDS, and it's just plain irritating.

Trump Enslavement Syndrome is as bad as Trump Derangement Syndrome, but at least with TES you can tell who's going to have it - populist boomers, and it's irritating hearing wokescolds all the time. The Dems don't seem to understand that people don't like wokescolds and schoolmarm types, and that seems to be all they're running this election cycle. (Except Yang and Tulsi, but they don't have a chance.)

I could talk about my personal family. I'll just say that my mom thinks Nancy Pelosi should be praised for being a woman - she was born in the 50s, her views on gender were formed by pre-Revolutionary thought - and she vehemently disagrees with me for saying that she shouldn't be praised just because she's a woman. (I don't like Pelosi one bit, but I do concede that she has political acumen in order to get where she's gotten today.) My dad takes the to me more understandable view of "they're all bastards, I hope they all hang from the highest tree".

 

[Pargon]

I married my spouse when we were both in college and the left much better represented both our views. Since then the right (for the most part) has become more accepting socially and the fringe aspects of the left have begun steering the ship. When they put up Hillary in 2016 I knew I couldn't vote for her. I voted Trump. I voted conservative in the midterm election after that for similar reasons: the candidates the Democrats are putting forward are running on fringe politics, social issues that pander to the vast minority, and, sometimes, pure insanity. It was at that moment that I realized my beliefs hadn't changed that much. The party had. I might care more about economic issues now than I did then, but that's it.

My spouse isn't the same way. They're full-on "Trump will kill people like me if he's re-elected". It didn't happen the first four years, but I can't say that to them. I'm married to a person that I haven't been able to be honest with in four years because they will absolutely take my having voted for Republican candidates as a personal betrayal rather than my acting in accordance with my opinion of what (and who) is best for the country. I care about this person. I don't see them as an enemy despite the fact that our political allegiances have diverged, but they would if they know how I'd voted.

And I don't fully blame them. I blame the entire industry that's been built up around quashing sociopolitical debate in the name of We're Right So Shut Up Or You're Evil and framing people as subhuman on account of them wanting different things. My spouse is an intelligent person and even they fell into an echo chamber just because it feels good on a visceral level to read or hear things that agree with your beliefs because humans feel safer as part of a group. The media has harnessed that aspect of human psychology and pointed it right toward a giant dollar sign and we've been riding in that direction ever since. I'm fucking sick of fearmongering and othering and tribalism and I don't give a fuck about which side is doing it. I'd just like it to stop so people (including me) can stop walking on eggshells every waking moment.