Don’t get on the crazy train

Tamara says:

here’s a puzzler:

It’s a cardinal sin in the progressive weltanschauung to deny someone the validity of their own narrative.

Unless their narrative is “I’m doing this for Islam and the caliph!”

It’s not really a puzzler. Let me explain in a roundabout way.

I received an email a few weeks ago which said in part:

Standard progressive technique against non-progressives is the “basket of deplorables” attack: accuse them of *-ism and watch them wilt as they do a mad scramble trying to show they are actually good people.  What the victims of those attacks don’t realize is that the attack has no connection to fact, and denials aren’t helpful because it isn’t about evidence or truth.  Harry Reid knew this well and used it against Romney, as did many others.

My reply, in part, was:

The psychology of the progressives is that of a personality disorder. If you were to read the book Stop Walking on Eggshells I would bet you would see, as I do, amazing parallels between Borderline Personality Disorder and the political left in this country. I don’t have the book in front of me right now but here are some things that I remember:

  • It is always your fault when something goes wrong.
  • They create or maneuver things such that you are put in “can’t win” situations.
  • They are at high risk of hurting themselves (riots damaging their own neighborhoods is my analog of this) if they get mad at you.
  • They constantly start fights over nothing.
  • The attempted use of facts will result in accusations of “You always have to get your way”, “You need to compromise.”, or increase the verbal and/or physical abuse.
  • There is no successful treatment.
  • The best you can hope for is to expend less energy/time dealing with them without complying with their crazy demands (or as Barb says, “Getting on their crazy train.”)

The basics of how you deal with them, as individuals, is to tell them you aren’t going to tolerate their misbehavior. They will go ballistic at this, after all, it is all your fault, not theirs. They have done nothing wrong. Then ignore them, walk away, or otherwise disengage and do your own thing when they inevitably misbehave. You must not give in to their misbehavior. They will only encourage them to misbehave more.

I just wish there was a way to divorce ourselves from the political left. I’m tired of the constant abuse and crazy talk.

Back to Tamara’s puzzlement.

These people are nuts. Barb and I have both had decades of experience attempting to deal with people like this and spent time talking to counselors getting help dealing with personality disordered people. Several times a week during the first year or so we were together one of us would tell a story and ask, “Why did they do this?” It took a while but it finally reached the point where the other person would say, “Don’t try to make sense of it. You will go crazy if you try.” That shortened to, “You are trying to get on crazy train with them.”

We mostly have the stories out of our system and it is now rare for one of us to tell one. And if one does come out the response is just, “Don’t get on the crazy train.”

And that is what our response to these sort of puzzlements should be. Give them “that look” and tell the sane people attempting to appease or understand the progressives, “Don’t get on the crazy train.”

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11 thoughts on “Don’t get on the crazy train

  1. My wife, a physician, stated to me years ago that her method of detecting psychological problems in her patients was to see if, after interacting with the patient, she herself felt crazy, that nothing made sense, and that she was doubting her diagnostic abilities.

    “If you aren’t crazy before you speak with them, but feel crazy after you speak with them, they’re crazy.” It works.

  2. “What the victims of those attacks don’t realize is that the attack has no connection to fact, and denials aren’t helpful because it isn’t about evidence or truth.”

    So true.

    Do not allow them to get you onboard.

    Love the comment from Mikee, too.

  3. “Don’t get on the crazy train.”

    It’s a real-life analog of the old Internet advice, “Don’t feed the trolls.”

    In both cases, if you respond to their B.S. you are feeding their disorder. The best thing to do is call the B.S. what it is, inform them you won’t tolerate it, and walk away.

  4. Thank you for this post.

    No one should ever be confused by the irrational behavior of the left. Yes; what they say is nonsense. No; it isn’t confusing.

    It’s all about getting what they want or need from other people by being unpleasant. If they’re not being given what they want, they ramp up the unpleasantness until they get it. In essence it’s robbery, if you think about it, and the authoritarian system is all about robbery.

    We are dealing with, essentially, the criminal mind. Never lend them any credence or play along with the crazy (but Republicans have made a multi trillion dollar industry out of doing both). Never even appear to take them seriously, not even to keep the peace in a social situation. There’s no need to goad (they’ll do all the goading) but don’t be derailed by their goading (like every Republican in the last 100 years).

    Eventually they’ll commit an act of criminal aggression, because without our willing cooperation, criminal aggression is their only alternative. Either they’ll co-opt you by your own, willing submission or they’ll attempt to co-opt you by physical force. Make sure it is the latter. Then you’ve got a criminal case, or a case of self defense, against them.

    If Americans had taken this simple, easy policy back around 1900, the whole Progressive (authoritarian) movement would have fallen, worldwide, like dominoes. Instead we hopped right onto the Crazy Train because we thought it would be hip and fun.

    And now, for your own good and for your pleasure, look up and listen to Tom Petty singing I won’t back down.

  5. I’ve said it many times before, and this is an ideal context in which to repeat it;
    When the children misbehave, and the adults fail to correct it, and it thus gets out of hand as it inevitably will, it is the fault of the adults. We’re living in a Lord of the Flies world.

    We get all confused, frustrated, angry and exasperated, and we’re thus part of the problem. The brats are in control, and we have only ourselves to blame.

    By the way; that exact scenario describes the typical right verses left commentator shouting match on the news shows. It’s a bloody shit-throwing fest between brats, while principles take a vacation.

  6. Wasn’t there a quote from William S. Burroughs about dealing with insanity? I cannot find it, and cannot recall it verbatim, but he recommends resolve and firmness. Something like “Crazy people won’t be content until they drag you down with them. You have to be merciless. Say ‘this is nonsense and I’m not putting up with it, or you, any longer,’ and make it stick.”

  7. Here’s a puzzler:

    “Here’s a puzzler” is a rhetorical device and not a literal statement of “I am puzzled.”

    • Sure. But I don’t have adequate verbal skills to take it for what it was and easily make my point. It is much easier for me to take it literally.

      Sorry if I implied you didn’t have a grasp on the reality of their stupidity/hypocrisy. That is not what I meant.

  8. I saw a related quote the other day. I think in the WSJ, forgot who they were quoting, can look for it.

    “To make a conservative mad, tell him a lie. To make a liberal angry, tell him the truth.”

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