The murder of Cinna
In his play, Julius Caesar, Shakespeare writes of Cinna, a gentle poet who loses his life to an angry mob as part of the revolt against Caesar. This story is based on historical fact, as Cinna the conspirator and Cinna the poet were indeed mistaken due to their similar names in 44 B.C. and the poet was murdered simply for his surname.
Ah, the Bard. He knew so much about what was about to come, or perhaps we are simply living up to his low expectations?
Well, it’s happened to me, so I kinda get this poor Cinna fella. I’ve been labelled a racist, a right-wing nut, a member of the KKK, and later even a Nazi. Yep. Little ol’ red-haired, married to a Jew, performs gay weddings ME is now a white-robe wearing Nazi. Know why?
My first name is similar to that of the FLOTUS.
I guess that is all it takes these days.
Let’s never mind that not a single one of these things is true about either the president OR his wife. Witch-hunts abound in this emotionally (though not factually) charged political climate. People troll Facebook so that they can post on OTHER PEOPLE’s feeds (uninvited) and bully anyone who doesn’t either agree with them or shut down in response to their temper-tantrums. This happens to me literally on a daily basis simply because I like to double-check things and look up the actual facts before I decide on something. Even just asking a question has lost me “friends.” Good riddance. I seek friends who are intelligent and grounded — they don’t have to agree with me, as I love a good challenge — they simply have to be…well…not insane.
I’m in good company, though, since every public figure in modern history since the Führer himself has been called Hitler. Literally. Anyone who disagrees with someone else is “literally Hitler.” Trump is “literally Hitler.” Alex Jones is “literally Hitler.” Everyone who voted for Trump is “literally Hitler.”
This particular exchange was so ridiculous that I can’t help but share. She began by calling everyone on a friend’s post a bunch of names…you know, so they would carefully consider her viewpoint. Then, when most ignored her for that, she let loose on the prez in her decidedly intellectual fashion.
When someone asked why she was so upset, she declared war on them. There were no names slung at this point by anyone other than her. I tried not to, God help me, but she was just so…erk! How can you say that WE are racist when YOU are the one who calls the former president monkey-eared? You say that they had class, but would you know what class was if it bit you on your own ear? Yikes.
Of course, being the intellectual she is, she quickly does a fact-check…
She then goes on to stalk me by IM. She was not smart enough to figure out how to attach whatever it was she was ranting about.
Then she pops up on my own site – even my stir-fry is eeeeeevil.
As you can see, Trump Derangement Syndrome is real. It’s perverse, intellectually lazy, and dangerous. Just like another mental ailment, folks who suffer from TDS hear voices in their head (such as CNN, Huff Post, and other propaganda machines) and BELIEVE they are real and what they have to say makes sense. Scary. Then they act out on the insanity that is floating around in their muddled brains and act as if anyone who questions them and their fantasy world — even just to compare it to reality — is crazy.
The unfortunate Cinna becomes a victim just because he has the same name as one of the conspirators. He is desperate to prove that he is not one of them, but his pleas fall on deaf ears. The crowd is driven not by reason, but by rage. Sound familiar?
How long before TDS causes these folks to start stabbing innocents due to their blinding rage? Oh, wait, that’s already happening.