One morning, between Election Day November 2016 and Inauguration Day January 2017, I observed and even experienced strange behavior by an otherwise normal-appearing ‘checkout’ female clerk at a Trader Joe.  I had no idea how such intrusive political fanaticism would show up while I was purchasing exactly $17.32 worth of groceries in a common encounter.  (Obviously, prices were a whole lot cheaper at that time.)

At the time, I was in my early 70s and she looked to be 30 to 35 years younger.

I was showing off how much math I had retained from my education over half a century earlier.  I volunteered, as I handed her a $20 bill:  “When I was in junior high school, I learned that the square root of 3 is George Washington’s birth year – 1732!”

She:  “Now there was a great president.”

I:  “Without a doubt – one of the few true Greats!”

[Editor’s Note:  I only learned several years later that, during the Great Obama’s administration, a number of federal Park Guides in Washington had been trained and encouraged to tell young students on guided tours that George Washington (along with Thomas Jefferson and others) owned slaves.  They would say this to the students in hushed tones as if revealing a profound secret.  The undermining of the foundation of American Exceptionalism in young generations has taken many paths in the last half-century – this was the most obvious.]

She (without the slightest pause to ponder my response):  “And now we have the most UNQUALIFIED PERSON in the history of the country!”

I was so stunned by any political talk imposed upon me in such an encounter that I was silent.

She:  “You don’t agree???”  (Stated by her as if no one could possibly disagree.)

I:  “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.”

She:  “Of course.”  (Her hands were slightly shaking with what, at the time, I thought could only be embarrassment for her intrusive political advocacy.)

I could not have been more wrong.  It was several years before I even heard the term Trump Derangement Syndrome on the radio.  At first I thought it was a metaphorical social celebrity entertainment industry joke.

Only in the last couple of years, did I begin to suspect at first, and later on to sincerely believe that it really is what in the old days of Rational Imperfect Psychology and Psychiatry was a Neurotic or even Psychotic mental and/or emotional illness.  (A whole lot more serious than a mere ‘Syndrome.’)

Well, in retrospect, because she seemed so very sincere and filled with her own unique version of ‘Fear and Loathing’  – ‘embarrassment’ was a naïve misinterpretation on my part.  Would you not rationally agree?

‘Fear and Loathing’ is a polite way of describing Psychotic RAGE!

[See the two related essays about TDS:

• September 26 2025     “The Unbridled Power of Malicious Gossip Stories”
• August 21 2024             “Socrates and Plato: Hypothetical Dialogues”]