Smarter than the teacher
People have been using the term Trump Derangement Syndrome a lot lately. But it seems most aren’t understanding what the syndrome is. Here’s how you know if a person suffers from TDS.
The most obvious symptom of TDS is that the person actually believes things President Donald Trump says. It requires a monumental degree of delusion to believe the words of a man who lies as prolifically and flagrantly as Trump.
The newest symptom of TDS is believing that hydroxychloroquine and disinfectants taken internally are treatments for COVID-19.
A person who thinks voting by mail is insecure and leads to voter fraud suffers from TDS.
Believing that wearing an N95 mask during a pandemic is a political act is a symptom of TDS. A person claiming gathering en mass or for mass during a pandemic is an expression of freedom rather than a dangerous political statement is suffering from TDS.
Thinking it’s sensible to ignore the entire scientific community regarding how to respond to COVID-19, climate change and other science-based issues while having no background in science themselves is a symptom of TDS.
TDS is defined by people deciding that their lack of education and understanding should take precedence over the opinions of highly educated, acclaimed scientists who’ve spent their lives studying the most complex issues known to man.
The most defining characteristic of TDS is the same childish arrogance that makes the flunky think he’s smarter than the teacher.
This is what makes these such dangerous times.
Brian Rhoades
Genesee
Free to be provocative
Hurrah and kudos to the Idaho County Free Press for its editorial board, Publisher Sarah Klement and editor David Rauzi, for addressing the matter of free speech in an editorial by Rauzi titled, “If freedom of speech makes you angry, it’s doing its job right” published this past week.
What a breath of fresh air Rauzi gives to why publishing that certain insert to the Free Press by The Citizen was essential to two of America’s most important pillars of freedom — freedom of speech and the freedom of the press.
One should go back and find it and read it again for all of what he says, and especially that last sentence, which is tuned to that very insert and its content: “Free speech should make us angry, but it should also make us think, consider whether we know it all or (that) perhaps we are wrong, and it should spur us to action to find out more.”
May I leave you with these words of John F. Kennedy, America’s 35th president: “(The press is) the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution — not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply ‘give the public what it wants’— but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.”
David Johnson
Kamiah
