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I'm Sorry Jim, It's T-D-S · Armstrong & Getty One More Thing

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Jim, it's TDS. It's one more thing.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: I'm strong, and one more thing.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: Before we get to TDS, which I know is a
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: Trump derangement Syndroke. We talked during the Armstrong and Getty
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: show about the domestication of raccoons, right, which I found interesting,
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: And I got the article and I forded to my son,
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: who's really into evolution and that sort of stuff, so
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: he'll find that pretty fascinating that the idea is that
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: it's kind of raccoons are kind of taking the same
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: trajectory as dogs did. Yeah, wild dogs were not something
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: you would have wanted to walk out and pet back
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: in the day, or to chewed your arm off.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: They ran out, they grabbed a wolf. They petted it
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: a couple of times. The wolf said, hey, this is
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: kind of cool. You want to get together?
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: No?
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  Speaker 4: No, they'd started hanging out at the outskirts, right, and
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: now raccoons are hanging around and the bolder, less aggressive
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: ones we kind of ignore.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: We don't get freaked out, Like if I saw a
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: what would be a beast that would cause you to
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  Speaker 3: freak out in your backyard mountain lion? Yeah, if I
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: saw mountain lion out there. Yeah, I'd call the authorities
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  Speaker 3: and maybe get a gun and shoot it myself. But
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  Speaker 3: a raccoon, you think it's gonna eat some trash and
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  Speaker 3: run over to the next yard.
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  Speaker 2: Uh, And it doesn't. It's this one's not shown any aggressions.
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  Speaker 2: I'm just gonna stand here and watch it.
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  Speaker 3: And so the ones that are aggressive get killed, the
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: ones that are not aggressive reproduce, thus evolution and cool.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: So pretty soon we'll all have a pet raccoon in
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  Speaker 3: our home.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, maybe.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: And the physical changes in the raccoons are interesting too,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and the long story short on that. And there are
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  Speaker 1: a bunch of examples in human genetics. I'm not an
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: expert or anything that are like this, but for whatever reason,
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  Speaker 1: the there's this special kind of cell where is that?
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Uh?
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  Speaker 1: That domestication trace back to an important group of cells
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: during embryonic development called neural crests, and they in early
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: development they form along and organisms like spine, then migrate
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to different parts of the body where they become important
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  Speaker 1: for the development of different types of cells. And it
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: turns out that the very genes that control Hey, I'm
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: bold enough to get close to humans, but not really
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  Speaker 1: aggressive is the same group of genes that results in
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: a shorter muzzle, floppier ears, and like white patches, and
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: a dampened fear response, not for any logical reasons, just
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: the way genetics are ranged. Sometimes you get a weird variety.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Pack because floppy ears are cuter, which makes you more
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  Speaker 3: likely to want to have it and take care of it.
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  Speaker 1: A shorter muscle is more reminiscent of babies. They have
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: much softer, less contoured faces than Welt babies.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: I've had hardly had a muscle at all.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if you've, if you, if you look at I've
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: seen you know, photo demonstrations of this. But baby animals,
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  Speaker 1: including baby humans, all have very similar characteristics, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the shorter muzzles, high foreheads, rounder faces than the adult has.
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  Speaker 1: And that's why we look at a puppy and we
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  Speaker 1: go aw because it tugs that are very anthropological heartstrings,
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  Speaker 1: so any protection.
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  Speaker 3: In short fifty years from now, you'll see a young,
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  Speaker 3: childless couple pushing a raccoon in a stroller because that's
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  Speaker 3: their pet.
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  Speaker 1: And I'll say, what the you know, just like I
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  Speaker 1: do now, as people walk their dogs and cats, a
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  Speaker 1: free pass if your dog is old anyway, So I
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: found that really really interesting, and because you know, I
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: love dogs so much, picturing that process where dogs became
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: well proto dogs they called them, became domestic because it's funny,
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  Speaker 1: I think, maybe sort of kind of I had fallen
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  Speaker 1: prey to the idea that that was human motivated or
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  Speaker 1: initiated by humans, But no, it was these proto dogs
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  Speaker 1: were hanging around just close enough to get our garbage
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  Speaker 1: because humans have always produced garbage. And several of them
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  Speaker 1: were so unafraid of humans they like wandered up close
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  Speaker 1: and looked around and the humans chuckled, and so yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it's a good looking creature, you know, and maybe it'd
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  Speaker 1: keep you know, our enemies at bay.
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  Speaker 2: And over a course of years they became domesticated.
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  Speaker 3: But it was a street an alert system is one
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  Speaker 3: of the reasons I've read about this. Uh oh yeah,
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  Speaker 3: our deal with we've got with each other. You'll you'll
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  Speaker 3: kind of lay there half asleep, ready to bark at
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  Speaker 3: any sound, so I can sleep soundly and I will
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  Speaker 3: feed you and protect you.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I live in a safe place, in
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  Speaker 1: a safe house, in a safe neighborhood. But when Baxter
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: goes and he's always he's already sleeping a lot more deeply.
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  Speaker 2: Than he used to.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna miss that layer of security because he was
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  Speaker 1: an unbelievable watchdog.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the thing with having a dog, you know,
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  Speaker 3: if somebody's at the door.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Anyway, that was an our intended topic. Our intended
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: topic was I'm sorry, Jim, you have TDS, Trump derangement syndrome.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Speaking of science, very science y in this podcast, and
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: this psychotherapist is writing about how, yeah, it's real. It
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  Speaker 1: might not be what you think Trump derangement syndrome is,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: which is kind of a partisan Trump's always wrong and
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: everything that's against Trump is always right.
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  Speaker 3: If Trump asks are bad, I'm wearing a mask for
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: the next five years.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my god.
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  Speaker 1: If Trump says we should open the schools, I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to clamp down on those schools and torture the little
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  Speaker 1: children's souls for years. Because I'm a mindless, fucking partisan moron.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: I will never forgive for that anyway. The actual Trump
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: arrangement syndrome this guy's talking about is it aligns with
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  Speaker 1: anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders, persistent intrusive thoughts, emotional dysregulation,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: impaired functioning, you got sleepless nights, compulsive news checking, physical agitation,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: many confessed. And he's talking about his patients, his patience.
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  Speaker 1: Many confess they can't stop thinking about Donald Trump even
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: when they try. They interpret us every move as a
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  Speaker 1: threat to democracy and their own safety and control.
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  Speaker 3: I've known a few people like this who would get
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: up in the morning and say, Okay, what did he
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: do now? You know, open up their phone, just say okay,
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: what do he do now? That's the way that's you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's like being in love, like your first thought in
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  Speaker 3: the morning and last thought at night. It's like being
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: in hate. Your first thought in the morning is Donald
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  Speaker 3: Trump and what did he do to make.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: My life worse?
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  Speaker 1: And this guy, an actual psychotherapist, is talking about something
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  Speaker 1: a little different than speaking of people on the left
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: who like being threatened or like pretending to be threatened
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  Speaker 1: or afraid, because then they can draw together in a
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  Speaker 1: community and get lots of approval from each other because
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: they're all saying the same things about the perceived threat,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: and it feels good to them socially speaking. That's kind
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: of a different phenomenon, but that exists too. One patient
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: told me. He writes, she couldn't enjoy a family vacation
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: because it felt wrong to relax while Trump was still
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: out there.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, which is just looney tunes.
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  Speaker 3: Others thought it was in a situation the other day
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  Speaker 3: where God was the topic, and a person said, this
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: was during the shutdown. The person said, with the shutdown
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: going on, it's hard to believe there is a God.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: I think that's probably fitting into a Trump derangement thing
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  Speaker 3: that the people wouldn't have done previously.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so weird.
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  Speaker 3: So you can't enjoy having a relationship with the Lord
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  Speaker 3: as long as Trump's around.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: So others report panic attacks or troubles sleeping after seeing
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: him in the news. Their anxiety has outgrown politics and
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: become a way of being. At a group level, the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: pattern functions like a culture bound syndrome, a condition shared
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: shaped by shared social triggers within a specific context. From
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  Speaker 1: a diagnostic standpoint, it overlaps with obsessive compulsive disorder, generalized
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  Speaker 1: anxiety disorder, and troummerelated syndromes. And then he points out
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  Speaker 1: and this is as a layman, I never would have guessed,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: but he says, it's the clinical importance of distinguishing this
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  Speaker 1: pattern lies and treatment. When it is coded simply as
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: generalized anxiety or OCD, patients often receive reassurances or validation
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  Speaker 1: that briefly soothes them but ultimately reinforces their fixation. In
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  Speaker 1: this presentation, anxiety is fused with identity.
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  Speaker 2: That's an interesting thought. That's kind of what I was
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  Speaker 2: talking about.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: The therapeutic workst DELL patients regain psychological distance so they
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  Speaker 1: can separate internal fears from the political figure onto whom
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  Speaker 1: they have projected them. Here's the part I really found
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  Speaker 1: it interesting. Trump himself isn't the pathology. He's the trigger
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  Speaker 1: for many. He functions as a psychological screen onto which
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  Speaker 1: unresolved fears and insecurities are projected. Political disagreement turns into
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  Speaker 1: perceive personal threat. A smaller group of Trump supporters have
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  Speaker 1: similar responses of opposite valance. They experience anger and feelings
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  Speaker 1: of persecution whenever mister Trump is criticized, as if an
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  Speaker 1: attack on him were an attack on them. In both cases,
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  Speaker 1: emotion replaces reason and psychological distances collapse. That's the part
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  Speaker 1: I really hadn't gotten to myself is that these are
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  Speaker 1: people who have a particular psychological issue about how do
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  Speaker 1: you describe it? Unresolved fears and insecurities, and Trump just
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  Speaker 1: becomes Trump or anti Trump becomes how they express that
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  Speaker 1: or how they feel that, how they talk about it.
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  Speaker 3: God, I hope I don't ever do that with anybody.
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  Speaker 2: Or anything for that man.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, no kidding.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, for instance, I don't know. This isn't about
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: me and it's not about you. But I am extremely
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: motivated to fight the forces of Marxism and socialism in
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: the United States because as a student of political systems
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: since I was a teenager and throughout my life, I
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: know what that will do. It's not a mystery, and
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I hate it. I mean I hate it intensely. I
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: can barely talk about it without getting fired up. But
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the idea that I couldn't enjoy a vacation knowing that
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Marxism is knocking on the door. No, hell, I'll enjoy
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: a round of golf next time I'm on the golf course.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: I'll forget about it for a while, then I'll get
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: back to work. I can't imagine being so tortured by
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: you know, like any issue like that, right, I mean,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: even if I'm like a hardcore pro lifer. Surely I
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: can go for a paddle on the lake with my
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: sweetheart and enjoy the colors turning the leaves, you know,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: turning colors. But this guy's talking about people who can't.
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  Speaker 3: That's sad, is it? Is it a God sized hole
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: as some people describe it. Sometimes? Oh, because people don't
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  Speaker 3: have that anymore. This is slipping in there.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: That's almost certainly part of it. Or you know, we've
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: talked about politics has become the true national pastime because
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: people don't have They don't go to church, they don't
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: belong to civic organizations, they don't you know, volunteer, They
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: don't have real friends that they get together with semi
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: regular to go bowling or have a pot luck or whatever.
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  Speaker 1: You know, our generation, our parents' generation did so they
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: got to fill it with something, and it's generally online.
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  Speaker 1: And as we know, anger and fear are the an
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  Speaker 1: outrage which is kind of anger are the number one
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: click motivators in the world by far. Anyway, this is
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: interesting psychologically, the treatment is differentiation. Patients must learn to
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: separate internal anxiety from external reality and see mister Trump
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: not as an emotional projection, but as an external figure
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  Speaker 1: whose significance can be managed rather than magnified. They're obsessed
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: clear talked about cognitive distance, and that's gotta suck.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: I feel for you. That's got it.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, whatever your particular fixation is, that's that's terrible.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Huh. You know what they need? You know what these
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: people need? A pet raccoon.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, you sit there, you pet your raccoon, You look
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: out the window.
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  Speaker 2: You're perfectly happy. You got it in your lap.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: Good, good boy, coony coony coons or a maski boy?
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: What would you call a raccoon at the same dumb
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: names people give their dogs, including me.
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  Speaker 3: Until that thing is leaping at your throat and gouging
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: out your eyes.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: Oh that's a good cat. No, no, don't try this
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: with a bobcat. Bad idea.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: Maybe you got one that's not quite domesticated yet gouges
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: your eyes up.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Well, the early adapters, yeah, they're they're gonna be you know,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: probably not have ten fingers on the cutting edge right right,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: the biting edge. If you will, Yes, you will never
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: meet the President of the United States. Most likely he
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: will be gone in three years.
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  Speaker 3: Just control what you can in your own life and
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: just leave it at that.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: The words of wisdom there, folks, Well, I guess that's it.