No, it won’t make it into the DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), but Trump Derangement Syndrome (“TDS”) has paralyzed my country and in my view qualifies as “clinically significant.”
Clinically Significant is defined within the DSM as any behavior which “differs from societal norms and lead to difficulties in adaptation in specific social or familial contexts.” There are other definitions of clinically significant. But they are about the same and therein lies the problem: TDS has become the norm in my country and will therefore never quite make it into the DSM.
I am being somewhat silly. But only somewhat. Consider those afflicted with TDS and their absolute rejection of nearly all Trump Administration policies, ranging from broadened administrative oversight of immigration to zero-tolerance of foreign intrusion into our electoral process.
Trump has said that he won’t tolerate unfair trading practices on the part of several partners in the world, including China. He has slapped various and confiscatory tariffs on Chinese imports and placed the Chicom government (if you can call it that) on notice that his administration will be changing the nature of the trading relationship.
At Bloomberg.com today is but one example. Turns out, if you believe Bloomberg (and I do), the Chinese have been inserting small, nearly-microscopic chips in motherboards being shipped worldwide which allow them to spy, essentially, on data throughput using that motherboard. Bloomberg writes,
The ramifications of the attack continue to play out. The Trump administration has made computer and networking hardware, including motherboards, a focus of its latest round of trade sanctions against China, and White House officials have made it clear they think companies will begin shifting their supply chains to other countries as a result. Such a shift might assuage officials who have been warning for years about the security of the supply chain—even though they’ve never disclosed a major reason for their concerns. [Emphasis added]
TDS will not allow for any consideration of the present American government’s concern for possible intrusion. TDS flatly rejects that anything the President does might be in our better interest as a country. This seems, to me, to be clinically significant. TDS is a derangement when it results in a rejection of things that have nothing to do with Trump. After all, the alleged intrusion onto motherboards, is most assuredly not in our best interests and began under the Obama Administration.
Calm down. It may be that Trump and his Administration are actually doing a lot right. Hammering the Chinese for these kinds of intrusions in one of the things we pay him to do.
It may be that TDS is the norm for my culture at the moment, but that doesn’t mean I suffer from it. Nor you.
Stay healthy. Thing critically.
