Burning, vandalizing, and even defecating on Tesla EVs have become commonplace despite cameras that capture culprits in the act. Such brazen behaviors are endorsed and encouraged, embracing lawlessness as a moral good. Vietnam War protesters were not this extreme, and their goal was more visible and less self-destructive. Social media algorithms seem to be fueling terrible side effects.
Musk Derangement Syndrome and TDS
Journalist Fareed Zakaria described the condition known as “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as “hatred of President Trump so intense that it impairs people’s judgment.” This rapidly extended to Elon Musk, and perhaps to MAGA voters and white men in general, in a growing social contagion of lawless extremism.
Coupled with the condition is a pair of illogical premises: violence seeds justice and falsehoods can be uncritically believed. Musk is called a Nazi for a hand gesture, blamed for cutting social programs for the poor and slashing taxes for billionaires, none of which is true. Tesla owners whose vehicles are destroyed can buy new ones with insurance proceeds while firebombings of dealerships anthropogenically warm the planet. Yet a majority of Tesla owners are liberals, and EVs supposedly save the planet. As the popular adage goes, “Make it make sense.”
Illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes are protected as victims. Transgender activists act out over intense personal grievances. Jews are attacked viciously. Cutting grift in government is opposed. America is declaimed as systemically racist and evil. People driving Teslas are slurred as Nazis and their cars painted with swastikas.
Social Media Meltdowns
Social media platforms are certainly not the sole cause of this pathogenic pathology, but they prey on those already weak in character or easily manipulated. Many studies have demonstrated this harm, but free speech liberties protect Americans’ freedom to become addicted and mentally tilted by computer algorithms and falsehoods.
An Oct. 23, 2022, article in Psychology Today titled “Facebook Caused Poor Mental Health From the Beginning” asserted: “There is an epidemic of mental health problems in the U.S., and social science research is increasingly finding a connection between social media and poor mental health.” Researchers found that following university access to Facebook, “more students on that campus reported having depression and anxiety disorders. In particular, they were more likely to say they felt hopeless, exhausted, and ‘severely depressed.’”
Instagram is similarly harmful, compounded by a lack of “stopping cues” that prompt users to move on to other activities. This increases the addictiveness of the platform. A Dec. 2, 2021, article from the American Psychological Association titled “How can we minimize Instagram’s harmful effects?” warned: “Studies have linked Instagram to depression, body image concerns, self-esteem issues, social anxiety, and other problems. By design, the app capitalizes on users’ biological drive for social belonging — and nudges them to keep on scrolling.”
TikTok Threatens
This “can’t look away” feature dominates the TikTok platform, compounded by Department of Justice concerns that TikTok could be deliberately programmed to manipulate American opinions through content. Young people are particularly at risk and often turn to the app to self-diagnose their mental and emotional woes. As Liberty Nation News’ Kelli Ballard explained:
“ScienceDirect found that areas of the brain associated with addiction light up in brain scans when young people are shown videos on the social media app.
“But in China, their kids and teens are restricted – not only in how long they can be on the device but in what they are allowed to watch. Young users are only allowed up to 40 minutes a day between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., [the New York] Post explained. They can’t endlessly scroll through content since it’s interrupted by five-second delays. Plus, kids are only shown specially selected ‘inspiring’ content.
“‘The algorithm is vastly different, promoting science, educational and historical content in China while making [American] citizens watch stupid dance videos with the main goal of making us imbeciles,’ Nicolas Chaillan, a former Air Force Chief Software Officer, told The Post.”
Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok can create risks to mental health. A March 2023 study at the National Center for Biotechnology Informations titled “Link between excessive social media use and psychiatric disorders” cautioned:
“Social media use is the second leading cause of disability among psychiatric disorders ... This era of progressively increasing digitalization, the recent trend of a dramatic shift toward online social life, and the desire to get social attention is expected to take a gruesome toll on the population’s mental health.”
COVID-19 pandemic anxiety and lockdowns aggravated these impacts, and it seems so did the 2024 re-election of Donald Trump. Government manipulation of “misinformation” and “disinformation” under the Biden administration was more propaganda for those with minds inclined to be influenced by fear or hate.
In his recent book, The End of Race Politics, Coleman Hughes chronicled how social media implicitly works to amplify falsehoods, division, and negativity, causing unjust damage to race relations in America:
“[It] turns out that certain content has a much higher ‘top speed’ than other content. Anything that appeals to our tribal identities, us versus them narratives, or historical grievances travels fast … Anything that emphasizes common humanity, rational analysis, or fact-checking, on the other hand, travels far more slowly …
“[S]martphones and social media changed the speed limit of information – which in turn gave a massive competitive advantage to ideas, information, narratives, and arguments that tap into division, tribalism, and grievances. Neoracism was among the ideologies able to take advantage of this seismic change. Ultimately, this change resulted in an information diet that is less tethered to reality, not more.”
Menacing Memes
Memes spreading falsehoods on social media have become more extreme and toxic, especially against Elon Musk and the DOGE team. Some Democratic leaders have openly fed into false claims and encouraged extremist action against Elon Musk’s financial and physical health. Untethered from reality, so-called activists have embraced painting on Tesla dealerships, firebombing or crashing into Teslas, and keying and smashing, spitting and screaming at, and defecating on other people’s personal property without regard to the risks of accountability for their behavior.
This partly explains the sharp disconnect between far-left extremists and both conservatives and traditional Democrats. Experts recommend that the antidote to TDS (and MDS) is truth and compassion for people who suffer from emotional and mental pain. Responding with similar toxicity, let alone violence, will only feed the social media algorithms and yield more chaos and derangement.
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