MDS ("McCain Derangement Syndrome") Mainstreams

Fiery the Angels rose, & as they rose deep thunder roll'd
Around their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc!
-- America A Prophecy by William Blake

Meanwhile in Milton's Paradise Lost, the war in heaven is between the angels loyal to Satan and the angels loyal to God. We all know how that turned out. Something similar is burning out of control with the raising of John McCain to the godhead of the Republican Party. It didn't take long to acquire a name, a flip of the right's favorite moonbat diagnosis, "BDS -- Bush Derangement Syndrome." Of course, you had to know that that phrase -- a personal favorite of mine -- would come back to bite the presented posterior. And it has in less than a month with "MDS -- McCain Derangement Syndrome."

This catchphrase has legs....

It all seems to have started on January 18 in the London Times with Gerard Baker's How mad are the Republicans? Conservatives in America are suffering from a psychosis, a McCain Derangement Syndrome

Since then it has gone out into the limited space of the political blogsphere until today it shows up in about 2,600 posts with more coming in every day. Yes, it seems that MDS like BDS is here to stay.

In witness of this, the catchphrase made the top page at Double-Tongued Dictionary

Source: "McCain derangement syndrome" citation from Double-Tongued Dictionary

MDS, in this new usage, has not yet reach The Urban Dictionary where the MDS acronym is currently held by:

MDS - Morning Deuce Syndrome

Defecation immediately upon waking.

Morning Deuce Syndrome (MDS) is characterized by the following symptoms: sharp abdominal pains, excessive flatulence and/or swamp ass, and general irritability.

But give it time. It's coming right up.

All of this -- BDS to MDS -- is, I would suggest, just a subset of a much more far reaching disease -- The Brave New BDS -or- Blog Dementia Syndrome: "A willful mistaking of a passionately held belief with a policy that can alter the world dimensional."

A blog (Remember that most people still don't know what one is.) is essentially an echo chamber can too easily become mistaken for a megaphone with a reach far longer than it actually has. (Op. cit. "Ron Paul," "Meaningful 3rd Party") Blogs are prime breeding grounds for creating and sustaining this "illusion of central position." And, as we have seen in the last two weeks, they are especially helpful in organizing political suicide pacts among those who share the same confirmation bias.

I don't know about you but I've got Blog Dementia Syndrome big time. That doesn't mean I need another strain. The medication is barely working at the present dosage.

Posted by Vanderleun at February 8, 2008 10:31 AM