(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Progressive Derangement Syndromes [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-06-18

My thoughts for this diary started with NDS, Newsom Derangement Syndrome. That's what I first typed as the title.

It was animated by the first comment underneath the diary, California senator gets roughed up by Noem's DHS thugs—for asking a question, which was 'If Newsome wanted to do something about it, he could. He could have these officers arrested for assault.'

That has to be one of the most idiotic responses to the event I can imagine. Set aside it deflects from the breathtakingly fascist abuse of power by TACO Belle's Administration. It faults Newsom, whose responses to the Belle's efforts to impose fascist rule on California thus far have been pretty stellar, for not acting like a fascist in response.

No, a governor of a state cannot simply have people arrested on the basis of a news report, video, or anything else. In a liberal democracy structured such as ours there's this thing called a Department of Justice run by a person called an Attorney General. That person can have individuals arrested based on facts and evidence sufficient support probable cause. OK, a fascist governor could have these people arrested, but unless the Supreme Court of that state has been captured by the right, it will throw the charges out as a political prosecution.

..

Basically, the commenter, ostensibly a progressive, was attacking Newsome for not being a fascist. That's a true head scratcher.

..

The longer this commenter prattled on, the clearer it became that he felt so wronged by Newsom for his podcasts which 'platformed fascists' the commenter was driven to MAGA-sonian demands, i.e., arrest the person's perceived enemies or you are one of them. I am not going to defend Newsom's podcasts. They are irrelevant because they have nothing to do with the Newsom'a handling of the current crisis

..

Regardless, as a result of those podcasts, the commenter suffers from Newsom Derangement Syndrome. He cannot compliment Newsom for anything. Heck, Newsome could win a billion dollars in the lottery, donate it all to the charity of this guy's choosing, and this guy would still slag Newsome because, you know... poorly thought out podcasts. By the way, I bet it was some young staffer who got that ball rolling.

..

I will now refer the person in question as a he because other than a trans person, and rightfully so, women are generally not offended by being mistaken for a he. OTOH, the male ego is so effin' fragile being mis-gendered is cassus belli. I apologize to any women who take offense for any of the assumptions in the above paragraph. I am just trying to avoid being slagged for misgendering by individuals who have attacked me for .you thoughts on the topic of trans athletes.

..

Back to the topic at hand, Progressive Derangement Syndromes, a strain of which this person exhibits, i.e., NDS. Another, broader strain is CDS, Centrists Derangement Syndrome in which Centrist encompasses any progressive whose approach isn't sufficiently aggressive for maximalist progressives or the progressive intelligentsia. Once I arrived there, I realized it ain't about any individual per se. It's about an inability to see beyond disappointments to the point of being blind to what went right.

..

Recently, there have been examples of SDS, Schumer Derangement Syndrome. In the wake of the Padilla incident, there was an unhinged attack on Schumer for not expressing sufficient outrage. That was followed by another another in the wake of the assassination of Democratic lawmakers.

..

Wake up Progressives, attacking Democrats will not advance your cause. The diary about the assassinations deftly dodged the critical issue with a deft bait and switch to attack Schumer and shirk the responsibility of progressive civil society to address the issue. It went on and on about how right wing civil society organizations would have made sure it was in the press everyday, without bothering to mention how the Republican Senate leader would have reacted.

…

Why not? Because McConnell would have said something as anodyne as what Schumer said, and left it to right wing civil society organizations to go for blood. What those right wing organizations would not have done is attack McConnell.

…

Why not? It turns out attacking the party that is the best vehicle for advancing your agenda is a progressive thing. As I have said many times the right might be dumb, but they are not stupid. The left? The are soo smart they are stupid smart.

…

The right are engaged in a full scale campaign of character assassination against successful agressive progressives like Tim Waltz within the Democratic Caucus to turn moderate progressives away from the Democratic Party. The Progressive Intligentsia are engaged in a full scale campaign of character assassination against moderate progressives. You don't have be a rocket scientist to figure out why the right's agenda via its political vehicle, the GOP, has been ascendant. Only the stupid smart progressive still blames 'centrist' Democrats, read any progressive insufficiently aggressive, for the failure of progressives to advance their agenda.

…

Yet some progressives are soo stupid smart, they still don't get how they screwed over Gazans with their unfounded attacks on Harris over Israel's response to Hamas' attack. Now we are looking at war in Iran. Think about how progressive civil society, the progressive intelligentsia, and progressive maximalists pretty much did everything to make it happen. They repeatedly encourage voters to abstain, by which I mean stay home or vote third party, no matter how high the stakes.

…

Those groups encouraged voters to abstain in 2016 with nonsense about a stolen Primary and neo-liberal Clinton being no different than a clearly racist, unfit, corrupt and authoritarian Republucan opponent. That opponent proceeded to rip up the JPCOA upon taking office, an agreement that was couched in pretty stark terms. Without it, we will end up in a war.

…

In 2024, those same groups encouraged voters to abstain with nonsense about Harris being imposed upon voters and somehiw being complicit in Israel's war crimes this making her somehow no different than a clearly fascist Republican opponent four square in support of genocide in Gaza

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/18/2327676/-Progressive-Derangement-Syndromes?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/