hen the NY Times tells you that the rubes and hicks and rednecks in flyover-country, U.S.A. have elected the Anti-Christ; when stars and celebrities, who tell us what deodorant to wear and what cars to buy, are apoplectic because the Russians have stolen our democracy and installed the Manchurian Candidate in the White House; when Chicken Little is now cry- ing that the sky already fell; when Fareed and Wolf, and Rachel and Morning Joe have started the countdown clock to im- peachment; when you think it's alright to punch a Nazi and that Free Speech means that it is okay to trash a campus to protect your constitutional right to be free from my speech; when Katy Perry and Bill Ma- her do your thinking for you; when you stop going to family dinners and no lon- ger speak to your idiot neighbours, you have a bad case of TDS: Trump Derange- ment Syndrome.


What is this strange malady which only seems to affect the intelligent, sensitive and more sophisticated amongst us? The only protection from this disorder ap- pears to be terminal stupidity and lack of good judgment. Like the poor little boy who was not wise enough to see the Em- peror's new clothes, our less fortunate ex- friends and neighbours fail to see what is evident to all, that Putin has a puppet in the White House and that he is wrecking everything.


Welcome to the post-modern world, where emotions trump reality, where how you feel determines what is real. And what is real is that which elicits an emotional response. Reality TV is not true, but it is real because it engages us emotionally. We know that it is staged and scripted, yet if feels real, in fact more than real. Real life is mundane and boring. This is not so much reality, but hyper reality. This is re- aler than real. This is why instant coffee has a picture of the coffee on the label, because the real thing is not as engaging. This is the world of Cleaner than Clean, Newer than New and Whiter than White. In the post-modern world, truth and


Trump derangement syndrome W


Toby Rutner


als who only communicate with each oth- er, no longer open to other points of view or different opinions, who become more extreme in their isolation as they validate each other, a closed system of true believ- ers guarding the sacraments of their theol- ogy and ready to burn books, demonize apostates and de-legitimatize and destroy heretics and blasphemers. A fixed, rigid belief system, when chal-


Donald Trump. Photo by Michael Vadon.


objectivity have been replaced by opinion and subjective experience where everyone is the same, where having special training or experience is seen as Privilege where everyone's opinion is just as good as ev- eryone else's; where diversity is demanded in everything except thought, and inclu- sion is required for all except those whose views are not correct and must be shut down; where Group Think has replaced thoughtful consideration and discussion, and where we have not breaking news, but breaking opinion.


When our rational, logical thoughts and opinions are challenged, we can de- fend them through discussion and debate. But when our unconscious values and core beliefs are under attack, we become defensive and aggressive. We cannot ex- plain or defend why we believe what we believe because our belief is not logical or rational, it is emotional. We just know how we feel and that feeling is very real. Your teenage daughter knows that it is true love she feels for the biker with the tattoo on his neck. And when pushed for a justification, we can expect fireworks and tears. When what we deeply feel is challenged we feel frustrated and misun- derstood. We feel attacked and victim- ized. We fight back and look for support. We find it on the Internet, on Twitter,


on cable TV. We find our constituents in an echo chamber of like-minded individu-


lenged, produces fear and aggression and provokes a negative, aggressive response to the threat. We project our own sub- conscious hostile feelings onto others and then react to them as though they are being aggressive and hostile to us. This is the psycho-dynamics of delusion and projection. This is how mobs can trash a college campus and call themselves Anti- Fascists. It’s the people they beat up who are the fascists. Delusion-like attachment to a fixed idea or belief is not accessible to reason be- cause the belief is not based in fact. But there are no longer objective facts in the age of post modernism. When emotions trump biology and truth is relative, when gender is a social construct and boys can compete in a girl's track meet by simply declaring that they are identifying as a fe- male; if how you feel is what determines what is real, how do we find our way? How do we determine what is rumour


from what is fact? What is our source for accurate and truthful information? For this we have historically turned to the news. Whether in print form or on tele- vision, the news was viewed as impartial and objective. Edward R. Morrow, Wal- ter Cronkite and other giants of the day gave us the facts, the story behind the facts, and we felt informed. We trusted the news and those who delivered it. But that was then, and this is now. This is the age of the blog, the tweet, the Inter- net. Now information is ubiquitous. Any crackpot can get on his electronic soapbox and rant to millions. Special interests can commission stories and produce a media campaign to influence significant num- bers of people. Governments can attempt to influence their voters as well as voters in other countries. We have lost the abil- ity to determine what is true news and what is fake news, what is false news and what is propaganda.


We count on the media to give us feed- back about reality in the same way we count on the weatherman to tell us if it really is raining out or if in fact someone is peeing on our leg. But what if the news- papers and TV news are not objective or truthful? What if the mainstream media is in cahoots with a candidate and wants to help him sell his story? What if the media is not only invested in the story, but com- mitted to it?


Of course this is not a new phenome- non. Back in the days of the Great News- paper Wars, 1895-1898, Joseph Pulitzer's


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New York World was in a battle for cir- culation with William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. They sensationalized the news with screaming headlines and hyperbole in order to drive up circulation. This was the era of Yellow Journalism. Pu- litzer (yes, that Pulitzer) and Hearst (the inspiration for Citizen Kane) are credited as the instigators of the Spanish Ameri- can War due to their sensationalized sto- ries and exaggerations of conditions in Cuba. Artist Fredrick Remington, who had been sent to Cuba to capture images of the conflict, telegraphed Hearst to tell him that all was quiet in Cuba and “there will be no war”.


Hearst's famous quote was “You fur-


nish the pictures and I'll furnish the war.” A week after the U.S. declared war on Spain, Hearst ran an article on the front page of his paper “How do you like the Journal's War?”


During the last election cycle in the U.S., the media appeared to be com- mitted with that same kind of zeal. We have seen the same kind of hyperbole and sensationalism and the same focus on influencing public opinion to support their position. They seemed determined to beat back the dark forces which chal- lenged their shared values and agenda. To do this it was necessary to defeat the man who represented everything they hated and feared, the man who threatened their deeply held beliefs and core values, who wanted to build walls not bridges. Their PC world was under attack and they were committed. And they still are. It was once said of the brash, larger than life, over the top, attention seeking U.S. president that he loves the limelight so much that he wants to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral. His unorthodox management style, his take-charge, full-speed-ahead, in-your-face approach to everything, his unique way of communicating, his many enthusiastic interests and limitless, almost manic energy led one ambassador to ex- plain, “You must always remember that the president is about six years old." That president was of course Teddy Roosevelt, Rough Rider, winner of the Noble Peace Prize, War Hero, Congres- sional Medal of Honour recipient, builder of the Panama Canal, gunboat diplomat, he of the “speak softly and carry a big stick” fame, trust buster extraordinaire and creator of the National Park System, among many, many other accomplish- ments. It is his statue on horseback you see when you enter the Museum of Natu- ral History in NYC. And he is the Teddy for whom the Teddy bear is named. So who needs normal?


Dr. Toby Rutner is a psychologist who treats stress related disorders. The above re- marks are from a speech he made on the topic of the media to the Manitoba Association of former MLAs in June, 2017.


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