‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ is real. Don’t let it ruin you

In the 12 days since Donald Trump pulled off a stunning comeback victory, social media outlets have seen an abundance of election-related posts.

Your friendly neighborhood opinion columnist has, like many other social media users, has gotten in on the fun and fury, posting takes on the presidential election such as, “I am not at all disappointed that we won't be havung [sic] to hear that cackle over the next four years.”

(Apparently, I’m prone to typos when tweeting from my smartphone at 1:00 am.)

And because local politics are important, I also tweeted: “Happy ‘Molly Donahue is Not Your Next County Supervisor’ Day, Linn County!”

Election night was a good night for the red team, as we already know. Trump won Iowa by his widest margin ever – over 13 points – and gobbled up every swing state for an Electoral College landslide. Republicans took control of the U.S. Senate and even held onto their slim majority in the House. To boot, the state GOP expanded its dominance and will now boast supermajority control in each state legislative chamber.

One side’s epic night meant a bad night for the other. Accordingly, a not-so-insignificant share of the election-related posts on social media since late Nov. 5 are from users enraged that Trump is dancing that dorky dance of his all the way back to the White House.

The expression of anger is usually not pretty. When sentiment is already inflamed by the polarization that defines the politics of our era, it gets even uglier. When unloaded on social media, it’s downright toxic.

Yet it’s so easy. Social media and smartphones give anyone in the world a platform to project whatever sentiments yearn to burst forth from their thoughts and feelings, none more provocative than the angry rant of the politically jilted.

After the 2016 election, angry opponents of Trump raved about alleged collusion with Russia to steal the election. After 2020, the “Stop the Steal” narrative drove American political rage to its zenith, culminating in the shameful storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Absent claims of a stolen election so far, the diatribe for 2024 appears to be, “You voted for this, and we hate you for it.”

Scores of videos have been posted online of angry leftists expressing their post-election rage. Most, but not all, are younger white women presumably higher on the privilege scale than others.

Far from unwitting participants, they film and upload the videos to their own social media accounts, usually Instagram or TikTok. Even a small sample can be unnervingly bizarre.

In one video, a young female climate tech professional has just found out that the male colleague she had otherwise liked was politically conservative.

“ … And I f------ hate him now,” she says. “If you are not a person of morals, and you are educated enough to f------ know better, I think I hate you.

“I know we still have to get through life with these people,” she continues. “Like, at the end of the day, I still work with this man, but I’m not NOT gonna hate him. I’m sorry, I’m gonna f------ hate him now, and that’s just how it is. And tolerant? Take a hike! Because when it comes down to morals and ethics and giving a f--- about other human beings … and you’re still OK with electing evil, I’m not OK with you.”

In another video, a woman in her early 40s films herself attempting to shave her head.

“…and I’m talking to you too, those of you ladies who have the internalized misogyny required to do what you did,” she prattles. Struggling with her electric trimmer, she opts for scissors and starts snipping off jagged locks while she resumes ranting.

“It’s personal now,” chirps a woman in her early 30s while hunched over her smartphone camera in her bedroom. “I’m coming for every single straight man in my family.”

A girl who appears to be in her 20s films herself getting creative with vulgarity.

“No, but genuinely, I was trying to think, like, ooh, like, what revenge sounds the most satisfying right now?” she says. “And, I kinda just want to fling dirty tampons at men’s cars, their trucks.”

For at least eight years now, conservatives have had a term for this, the condition of unbridled rage that must be expressed out of hatred for Donald Trump: Trump Derangement Syndrome.

No, you won’t find it in a diagnostic manual, but if left unmitigated, it can be very costly. Should someone with Trump Derangement Syndrome decide after their mood stabilizes that they don’t actually hate their Trump-voting family members or conservative friends (should they have any in the first place, that is,) those unhinged social media posts might still cost them the respect and admiration of those people.

It’s true – believe it or not, some people get their feelings hurt when they go into the voting booth thinking about taxes and immigration only to come out and be told they’re vile racists who hate anyone not white, straight and male.

Unhinged social media posts can also cost people their careers. Last week, reports revealed that Dr. Mayank Sharma, a pediatric cardiology fellow at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, had told a person during an election-related exchange on social media site X, formerly Twitter, “Well I hope you lose your kid in a school shooting, already you have nothing to lose, it won’t matter to you anyway! Prepare for your kids funeral.”

State Rep. Carter Nordman, a Republican on the House Education Appropriations Committee, on Nov. 7 sent a letter to UI president Barbara Wilson calling for Sharma’s termination. A UI spokesperson told The Gazette that the college was “aware of the situation and reviewing the matter,” but did not confirm whether he remained employed. Sharma is no longer listed as a program fellow on the university website.

If it hasn’t been already, Sharma’s employment should be terminated, as it likely violates the moral and ethical standards in the field of medicine as well as university policy.

Though Sharma’s X account has since been deleted, his comments on social media are memorialized via screenshots, or pictures taken of the comments by other users before they were removed. Likewise, the four videos I referenced earlier have all been captured. Any or all of the four could have already been removed by the persons who filmed and originally posted them, and it wouldn’t matter. They would continue to be viewed on accounts such as that of “Libs of TikTok,” which exists to expose absurd leftist content found on social media. Libs of TikTok has a following of 3.7 million users on X.

If an X user with any sort of a following posts unhinged leftist diatribes, there’s a decent chance that Libs of TikTok is, shall we say, gonna get ‘em. But Libs of TikTok does not necessarily go looking for that content. Instead, it is submitted by other users who discover it and report it.

That’s what makes Trump Derangement Syndrome toxic to careers and reputations and relationships: the damage is almost always public. When it’s displayed on social media – even on accounts viewable only by approved followers – anyone who sees content they find odious can capture their own copies and do with them as they please.

Sharma’s comment appearing to wish for a child’s death via school shooting was visible to other users who were clearly appalled. At least one of them shared the comment in a post in which the UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital’s account was tagged, publicly linking the institution to Sharma’s actions.

I don’t think that a person should spend the rest of their life and career paying for even an egregious mistake made in the heat of anger, however misplaced the anger is.

At the same time, it is a basic expectation in the practice of medicine that a physician be able to make sound, split-second decisions under pressure. Sharma’s demonstration that he is prone to such poor judgement does not bode well for public trust in the institution.

After all, if your kid needed cardiac care, would you have confidence in a doctor who expressed a desire for someone’s kid to die out of hatred for that person for voting the same way you did?

If your kid required special education in school, would you feel comfortable sending them to a teacher who posted a Snapchat video in which they threaten physical violence against people who voted the same way you did?

If a local police sergeant posted on Facebook claiming that the candidate you voted for would give immunity to bad cops whose future brutality would be your own fault, would you feel safe in that community?

I started saying this eight years ago, after the 2016 election: There’s Trump, and then there’s you. One of those, you can control.

Losing that control is never worth it.

You may hate the guy and fact that our country has chosen to return him to power. But it pales in comparison to what you risk giving him – the power over your own self.

Comments: Call or text 319-398-8266; althea.cole@thegazette.com