Sucked in Again
I got sucked into Substack again. I know better. At some point I’m going to have to remove that app from my phone. But today was another lesson in restraint. Believe it or not, I’m getting better at restraint even though today’s events wouldn’t necessarily lead you to that conclusion… Someone wrote a long piece about Trump’s speech today on the subject of Black History Month. The gist of the piece was that Trump talked about himself instead of about Black History Month. The speech was given before an assembly of black leaders and dignitaries. Oh well, nothing new here really. What was interesting were the replies on Substack. One person in particular was critical of anyone taking exception to Trump’s behavior. That person accused anyone that did not agree with him as having “TDS.” (Trump Derangement Syndrome.) Okay, I probably qualify as deranged, deranged about a lot of things. When it comes to skiing and cycling, I’m pretty deranged, I also have a tendency to be very particular about my bourbon, probably to the point of derangement, but I think when it comes to political analysis, I’m looking through a pretty clear set of lenses. Sorry, I digress. Getting back to the subject at hand, Substack posts, I had to chime in. Against my better judgement I replied. Before I tell you what I said, take note that when I post on Substack (the very few times I have) the posts show under my name “Brad Adkins.” Most posts are written by people who use pseudonyms rather than their real names. That’s the world we live in to be sure. That said said, I replied:
I don’t wear a mask and I use my real name. I prefer to think of myself as having TDNS rather than TDS.
If you look up TDNS you won’t find any references, I made it up. So for your edification I’ll spell it out, and I mean this in the kindest possible sense. TDNS stands for “Trump Does Nothing Syndrome.” That’s a bit of an understatement, I should have said, TDNTMAGA.