COVID and Group Psychosis

 

 

There are crazy people everywhere. It’s a fact of life. Each one of us has had to deal with crazy people. Sometimes, they’ll be seen on the street railing against unseen entities, scolding a wall or shaking their fist at the sky. Sometimes, the relationship is much closer; on the job, where a co-worker will share inner-most thoughts which should only be heard by a psychiatric counselor.

Full disclosure: I am not a mental health-care professional. I used to be, though; a Psychiatric Aide in a state mental hospital. That experience was revelatory and educational. The crazies I observed were not only the patients on the ward but the people I worked with; the supervisors and administrators I worked under. 

We all encounter crazy people as a matter of course. They may work at the local shops or deliver your Amazon packages, flip your burgers or collect your trash. These are functioning members of society; even if they go home to an inflatable doll dressed as their mother. Even if they beat their children, their spouse and their dog for inconsequential violations of their private and psychotic code of behavior, they may function fairly well in their job.  They may hold positions of responsibility such as teachers or lawyers or Congress members. Gym Jordan, MTG, Mo Brooks and a host of others may spring to mind. 

Clearly, these folks ‘aint wrapped tight’. Their cheese has slid off the cracker. Their oars don’t reach the water. They have two wheels in the sand. Their elevator doesn’t go to the top floors. The lights are on, but nobody’s home. They’re a few bricks shy a load.

See how easy that is? The euphemisms regarding those of, shall we say, an ‘occluded’ view of reality are legion. It’s a fact of life that we encounter crazy people all the time.

That leads us to anti-maskers, anti-Vaxxers, COVID deniers, COVIDiots, QAnon-ninnies and MAGA-mutts. These people have dipped into a pool of group psychosis that is filled, stirred and replenished by Fox News (sic), NewsMax, the Sinclair Network, Breitbart and too many other sources of misinformation that cloud the mind and tip the scales toward insanity for far too many.

To be clear: throwing off the basic instinct of self-preservation at the behest of a ‘talking head’ is insane. To risk the lives of your children, your friends, your family at the injunction of a political hack is criminally insane. To detached oneself from a common, shared reality is insanity in a nutshell. COVID is the reality. COVID-insanity is the new shared psychosis.

Wear your mask. Wash your hands. Keep your distance. Get your jabs. To do otherwise is insane.

 

America's Longest War Is OVER!

 

War has always generated euphemism. Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby referred to the withdrawal from Afghanistan this way: “We have begun retrograding…” Even the word ‘withdrawal’ was too loaded for the bruised national ego, so ‘retrograding’ was purloined and twisted to fit. Make no mistake; what we witnessed was a retreat.

GOP criticism of the ‘retrograde’ has been harsh and dutifully ignored the role that the Former Doofus and Pompous Mike Pompeo had in its calamitous execution. The traitorous deal made in Doha was called by Trump's first national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, "… a surrender agreement with the Taliban". 

In a presser on the eve of America’s final day in America’s longest war, John Kirby was asked again why the evacuation – the ‘retrograde’ – hadn’t gone better. Mr Kirby’s answer brings a clarity which has been obfuscated by GOP bluster. 

America had a partner in Afghanistan; it was the Afghani government supported by the Afghan military – the same military that was supplied and trained for decades by America. Unfortunately, TFG and Pompeo hadn’t surrendered to the Afghani government; they had struck their craven deal with the Taliban! 

When the rubber met the road, Biden fleshed out that ill-advised surrender… er… ‘retrograding’ with the Ashraf Ghani government in Kabul; the one party who had had no part in the surrender to the Taliban in Doha. That is the worn nub upon which this calamitous carousel wobbled its final revolution.

America had depended on the existence of the Afghan government and the Afghan military to make secure the withdrawal…er… ‘retrograding’ by protecting the airport and facilitating the processing of Afghan civilians whose live were forfeited by assisting the American occupation. 

Then, reality struck; the Taliban were resurgent. The Ghani government was gone with the wind and with the cash. The Afghan military evaporated like dew on a hot rock. That left the US to depend on the trustworthiness of an untrustworthy accomplice to secure the airport and secure Kabul. It left the US dependent on the undependable. Striking a deal by which your generational enemy provides cover for your retreat…er… ‘retrograde’ is ludicrous on its face. 

That more than 122,000 were evacuated from Afghanistan is remarkable considering how TFG and his doltish minion, Pompeo the Paunch, left Mr Biden holding a soggy paper bag of diarrhetic feces.