Ever since I discovered Hardcore History I really appreciated Dan Carlin's take on both history and current events through his podcasts. Recently however, on his Common Sense podcast, Dan let loose a TDS rant that I didn't think was possible for someone I generally considered fairly moderate. In retrospect, he was a journalist at one point, and so probably leans to the left and things rather highly of the news, which we know to be full of bullshit now, especially when it comes to Trump.
His main argument seemed to be that Trump is a populist and authoritarian, and likens him to other historical figures who either were warnings, or the cause of, internal unrest (think Caesar or Hitler). He also made note that he trusted Biden more with nuclear launch codes than Trump, conveniently leaving out all the good Trump has done in the foreign policy realm that has actually de-escalated tensions around the world with some pretty trigger-happy countries.
What really gets me is that he completely left out all the things the Dems, and by extension the left, have done to destabilize and radicalize the populace and all the violence that, while yes is occurring under Trump's administration, is being caused by leftists and not right wingers.
He has selective blindness to the media manipulations of the American Left and he uses his close experience with the LA riots to downplay the breakdown of law and order which is happening today. The fact that multi-billion dollar megacorps are stumping up the bail funds of rioters while mainstream political opposition stokes the fires - and the unprecedented nature of all that - is conveniently ignored. I assume this is because it complicates the landscape beyond the current political mode Carlin wants to engage in, which is just 'Orange Man Bad'.
As a fellow fan I was sceptical of your characterisation of him, since I hadn't heard the latest Common Sense podcast and I remember in the March episode he was still careful to single out the concept of partisanship, itself, as the major divisive factor in US politics. However I caught up on the latest Common Sense and you're right. Carlin's gone from a simple dislike and unfavourable characterisation of Trump - which everyone is welcome to indulge in - to saying that Trump is the most dangerous president ever. All the while he's still trying to play the enlightened centrist game as if he's saying something reasonable that everybody should accept at face value.
It's a slow burn case of TDS which has taken slightly longer than average to reach severe symptoms. His trigger condition is the fact that Trump said something along the lines of 'the only way we can lose this election is if it's rigged'. According to Carlin, this is a power grab designed to attack the democratic process itself. Never mind the fact that Trump's opponents and the press have spent 4+ straight years attempting to de-legitimise the concept of any Trump victory, never mind that Biden's said similar things about a Trump win, no, suddenly, this one thing Trump said is an incredibly dangerous signal of his intentions (and of course he's well known for thinking deeply about what he says).
Bit depressing, but I'm optimistic that some of the milder TDS cases will eventually correct themselves, when this particular period of history eventually comes into focus in hindsight as one of the biggest examples of mass retardation on record, and people become embarrassed to have been associated with it.
I really couldn't agree more, and I am immensely dissapointed in Dan right now and it's unfortunate he's bought the media smears hook, line and sinker. More than that, I'm surprised he didn't take the Tim Pool stance of disliking the president, but condemning the actions of the Dems and the left after everything that has happened these last four years.
Maybe, maybe he has a point in that Trump could be the herald of more authoritarian strong man figures in the future coming from the right, but to completely ignore the specter of marxism and racism hiding behind the Dems I think actually shows how bad his TDS really is.