Many Trump Supporters Are Suffering From PTSD.

[This was the last post I made on the AAAS general discussion forum. It and all other discussions were locked and a mandatory censorship scheme was started.]

There has been discussion of the mental health challenges facing
all the people who suffered through lock down, AND the impact
on children, AND the bereavement. All true. All a challenge. But the sort
of mental health challenge we have seen and dealt with before.

But what about what looks to me a lot like PTSD even with out the
Traumatic part?

I explain.

What is not getting enough of what i consider a critical consideration of
how we can address the massive amount of fear and cognitive dissonance among
Trump supporters which is really masking a new form of PTSD.

There are the regular Republicans who continue full throated defense and
seemingly don't connect their support of the party's platform, which is actually JUST
total support for anything Trump decides, with unquestioning support of
Golden Trump himself. Much of that is simply explained as politics as usual.

This is NOT a mental health problem.

But we are also facing the threat from the
presumably less intelligent Trump supporters who see absolutely
no contradiction in attacking any person with an Asian appearance
(Korean, Japanese, Chinese, etc.) because Trump talked about
the Kung-Flu.

These people presumably blame them for spreading a pandemic
WHICH THEY ALSO INSIST WAS A TOTAL HOAX!

It is a hoax, not real, but let's attack the people who didn't
cause this hoax.

That is a problem.
But it is a problem of stupidity and our terrible
educational system which ignores any suggestion of
teaching logic.

But the greatest organized physical threat to
the Republic is what looks like a new form of PTSD - fear, extreme
fear triggered by a minor event, even a completely imaginary event.

I am NOT attacking PTSD which is very real and a serious problem,
my cousin with FIVE bronze stars from WWII still showed signs in
his 80's. PTSD is REAL but ONLY when there has been actual Trauma.

But what about the white nationalists and such who "react" as if
they had severe PTSD but have no actual Trauma. They have no
Post Trauma, they just have the extreme fear reaction
based on nothing but propaganda.

They demonstrate extreme fear of blacks, Asians, Latinos, people with
a different sexual orientation, scientists, and so forth, not because
they have actually been harmed by any of them but a pre-emptive
attack based on a fear of what might happen. (Based on the ones I
personally know.)

This, along with all the other racism, sexism, and other Trump "isms" are actually
a mental health problem and must be treated as such.

Consider just how terribly frightened these racists and sexists must
be to want to kill anyone who even speaks out in support of human
rights?

Is there any explanation other than extreme fear for such an extreme reaction
to people merely asking that they get equal treatment? Not get shot in the back?
Not die of COVID because people won't wear a mask?

This isn't a political problem, this is a mental health problem.

Discuss?

Comments

Tristan Hubsch said…
"Ignorance is curable; stupidity is forever."
But, willful stupidity is a whole 'nother realm.

And, yes: this is PTSD, just not Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; it's Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Of the nonlinear dynamics kind that can (and sooner or later will) seemingly abruptly "explode." Hopefully later...?
March 5, 2021 at 10:33 PM
Tristan Hubsch said…
Come to think of it, the (what by now should be seen as an evident) hallmark of 'doubling down when challenged by real facts' should be likened to the well known hallmark of gambling addiction: when losing a hand (and the bet associated with it), the addict 'doubles down,' continuing to the next round and doubling the bet. This strategy is built on the premise that, once one does win a hand, the iteratively doubled bed (now won) will recoup for all the past losses. Clearly, this can only work until the bank is broken. And, considering that many of the folks one might be thinking of in this context have not conceded even the Civil War, 165 years later, they do have a huge bank of wishful thinking.
March 9, 2021 at 11:32 AM
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