This came up in my health care forum.
Right now, you can legally detain someone medically when they are a danger to themselves or others for up to 72hrs. The details vary by state, but this is how we lock down individuals trying to suicide or someone mentally off the rails making threats of violence.
This variation on that law would also make opposition to Trump qualify.
Civil commitment can follow as with individuals who have profound mental illness and are not safe to be out in the world.
This is the loudest scream that democracy is dead short of hauling people out into the street and shooting them.
It’s important to note the police are currently the people who bring individuals in for the 72hr mental health holds.
it’s legislative shitposting/meme magic. one of them gets an idea for the meme: adding “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a mental illness to troll the libs. it provokes a reaction in us, because it’s 2025 and for all we know the damn thing might pass at the rate the fascists are consuming the state, and the Republicans’ base feeds off of our panic and grief, fueling their schadenfreude. Republican voters are the real trolls; these legislators are just their proxies.
basically, this is the meme magic formula that took 4chan from “ironic” Nazi trolls to an outright fascist resurgence across the West, that took Trump from a meme candidate to the Oval Office, that took the 51st State rhetoric from obvious hyperbole to deadly serious. it’s “just a joke” when you’re defending it, it’s “just trolling” when you’re pushing it through, and it’s “owning the libs” when you’re executing on it.
As long as you aren’t playing it down (I don’t think you are but not 100% sure) I’m with you. Historically, that’s how we got here.
Still, it needs to be called out, every step of the way. The more such “troll legislation” passes - possibly unseen - the worse things get.
Also, there’s no 3- or even more-D chess going on. MAGAGOP is just throwing shit at the wall, not too bothered if something doesn’t stick, but immediately ready to follow up if it does. So let’s make sure it doesn’t.
definitely not playing it down. the whole point of meme magic is that it shifts the Overton window so bills like these can actually pass. it’s a kind of “irony laundering.” they “troll” the Left, the Left raises alarm, the Right keks and calls us hysterical, the Center sees us as crying wolf and tunes us out. the Right pushes the “troll” legislation as far as they can because “it’s just a prank bro,” until we’re weakened enough they can actually pass it.
it’s like how the Right goads us into calling them “fascists” because they’re literally being fascists, the Right gaslights saying we’re always calling everyone “fascists,” until fascism reenters the Overton window because the Center thinks “fascism” doesn’t mean anything anymore.
honestly, the Left should have used this kind of meme magic back when Republicans were calling centrist Dems Socialists. if we’d used this strategy as well as the Right did we could be executing Billionaires by now.
I like this. Used to be a “joke”, then something to rally around and get outraged about, then - whoopsie, it’s reality.
And most people voted for the joke or the outrage, not the reality, as I’m sure even more will find out in the years to come.
Absolutely not. I know it’s “in” rn to say we have to use the same methods, no more Mr Nice Guy etc. but I disagree with that - generally, and specifically with this “meme magic”. It destroys reality, facts, truth.
There is something to be said for politicians/politics having a better social media presence though, a better sense of humor etc. No need to give up on facts at the same time.