There was a powerful video on Real Time with Bill Maher this Friday contrasting the anger of the health care protests with the appreciation of people lined up for health care in a triage in Los Angeles - the kind of triages normally reserved for third world countries. The Haves, who have health care are angry, comparing the president of the US with Hitler, and pouring out into the streets to protest, while the have-nots, those that cannot afford even the most basic health care for themselves or their kids, who should be out on the street with pitchforks for the way they have been treated, are happy and thankful for the help. What is wrong with this picture?
The only explanation that I can come up with is a sad disorder named FDS that i will elaborate on in the rest of this entry.
Recently, Katy Abram, a protester at a health care town hall, appeared on Hardball with Lawrence O'Donnell. When O'Donnell asked Abram if she made over 250,000 a year, she responded "Honestly, I would rather not say, I don't even know".
First, wouldn't it be nice for most of us to not know if we make over 250,000 a year? Second, if you are making that much, shouldn't you be thankful for your own good luck, rather than being angry?
At the town hall, Abram was so upset that she could barely speak and when questioned by O'Donnell, she said that she had never been interested in politics, and "honestly did not care" about politics, including through all the wars our country has been in, 9-11, until this health care debate.
So, basically, she did not care about the trillions of dollars spent on killing people, but she does care about the deficit neutral plan to take care of people that do not have health care. Something does not add up.
Why is it that the people who have health insurance, make a good salary, and can afford to take care of their children are so up in arms and angry as to compare the president of the US to Hitler because of health care? Even if it did cost money, why does this money bother them so much, but the trillions spent on wars, tax cuts for the wealthy, and giveaways to corporations over the last eight years did not wake them up?
There is only one answer that I can think of is - Fox Derangement Syndrome. FDS is a powerful disease that millions in our country have suffered from and even those that do not watch Fox can be affected by this frightening disorder.
For example, at a church that i have attended only a small number of people actually had FDS; however, they actually would push their symptoms on others at the church and next thing I knew nearly everyone was affected. Even in the bible studies, they began passing out Fox propaganda. I recently saw FDS spread at a nursing home at a lightening fast rate as well. There were only two people that actually had FDS, but pretty soon the whole building was infected. Old people were wandering all over the building yelling "Obama is Hitler" and "The Slippery Slope of Socialism is coming for us"... It was disturbing to say the least.
What does FDS look like? Well, unfortunately, people infected often look like you and me. For instance, here is poor Katy Abram. She looks pretty normal, but the only way that we can see that she has FDS is from the sign she is holding up:
Poor Katy. Her infection of FDS has led her to believe that taking care of sick people would somehow take away our freedom. It is really a sad case that defies all logic, but one we are seeing spread all over the country. Here is an otherwise normal man, who came down with a case of FDS and it actually inspired him to bring a gun and a threatening sign to a presidential event:
This is obviously an extreme case, but one in which the authorities have taken very seriously, as has Chris Matthews, the intrepid news reporter who attempted to scare the man out of his FDS. Unfortunately, he did not succeed - confrontation has been found to only exacerbate FDS, not cure it.
So, who is patient-zero in this FDS syndrome? It is difficult to say, but a few suspects have come to the forefront. For instance, this man, who has as severe a case of FDS as i have seen, has been brought to tears, has had delusions that have made him so paranoid that he thinks the Third Reich is returning, has threatened elected officials, believes that the president of the US is racist, and even that there are camps throughout the US ready to take people away. Here he is crying and having delusions about Nazis:
The group Media Matters diagnosed Beck with ODS, or Obama derangement syndrome, which he also has, but his derangement goes much farther than just Obama. Check out their video of Beck's illness and watch for these symptoms among those that you love:
What is amazing is how fast the onset of FDS takes shape. Jon Stewart maps out how much FDS changed this man over the course of one year:
A little over a year ago, Beck actually had a somewhat clear view of reality. He showed how sick the health care system is. Quickly, over the past year, he signed one multi-million dollar contract with a group at the hub of where FDS starts, and now his delusions are just inexplicable.
We need to stay vigilant. FDS can happen to anyone. I have scene it change friends, family, co-workers, church members and many others. Here are the major symptoms to be on the lookout for:
- Paranoia - This can appear in small ways like thinking that the government cannot do anything right, may want to steal your guns, or euthanize old people or it can be much larger, making you think that the government is the second coming of Hitler or the Anti-Christ. I have actually seen cases where people have built bomb shelters because of this paranoia.
- Incoherence - Often this will appear in different ramblings about socialism coming to get them. The most obvious way to determine whether or not this is FDS is through a couple simple questions -
A. Can you define Socialism? In most cases, a person with FDS is not able to.
B. Do you realize that large amounts of our life are already socialized? Often, they will not realize that things like the police department, fire department, mail service, public schools, FDA and other parts of our system are socialized already.
C. If you are so frightened of socialism, will you be willing to give up those scary socialist entities called Social Security, Disability, Unemployment, Medicare and others? Strangely, in many cases, the people with FDS will not even understand that these are socialist programs, and even if they do, will refuse to give them up.
- Incoherent words will make sense to them - This is perhaps the easiest symptom to test for. Put the patient in front of the TV with a video of almost any Sarah Palin speech. If they understand what she is saying, then they clearly have FDS. To any normal person, without FDS, the words will sound convoluted and not make sense, but the FDS patient will adamantly agree with her non-sensical statements and act as if they did make sense.
- Obsessions - we have found that people with FDS often will be obsessed with certain inanimate objects, most commonly, the tea bag. We have not completely understood this part of the disease yet, but they will do just about everything you can imagine with a tea bag, from trying to lick them:
To wearing them:
To lining your hat with them:
The bottom line: Be on the watch out for people with FDS. While there is no cure as of yet, getting them to turn off Fox News, exposing them to Jon Stewart, or at least helping them see a little bit of reality is a good start.
Until there is a cure, the only way to combat this sad disease is to donate and volunteer for Democratic candidates. My suggestion for a good progressive who will battle FDS with all he has is Joe Sestak. Donate to him here.