"More Tweets on Special Snowflake Trauma Syndrome"
by Michael Tracy (excerpted from late-January/early February 2021)
https://twitter.com/mtracey

NOTE: What I call Special Snowflake Trauma Syndrome, Michael Tracey calls a "contest to see which lawmaker has the biggest narcissistic personality disorder and/or persecution complex."

Michael Tracey @mtracey
During the last impeachment trial it was proclaimed to be some profound attack on democracy that witnesses weren't allowed to be called, now Democrats control the Senate but apparently aren't calling any witnesses because they decided they want an abbreviated trial

Michael Tracey @mtracey
If it was really Trump’s intent to “incite an insurrection” that day, why did he immediately slink home to tweet and watch TV as opposed to, I don’t know, deploying the resources of the federal government at his disposal to assist in carrying out the alleged insurrection

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota randomly submitted an impeachment question for the sole purpose of affirming that Trump was the most pro-Israel president ever

Michael Tracey @mtracey
House Managers' repeated use of the word "insurgents" to describe the Capitol rioters is extremely creepy, and deliberate. If there's an "armed insurgency" ongoing in the US, the state is entitled to take aggressive action to crush it

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Always funny when fragile journalists cannot take a light rebuttal to their overt stupidity and immediately block :(

Michael Tracey @mtracey
No one's asserting "equivalency" -- try to use your brain to understand what's being asserted is that the very same language being denounced by impeachment advocates as "incitement to insurrection" is constantly used by politicians in an endless variety of figurative contexts https://twitter.com/EllenKilloran/

Michael Tracey @mtracey
This impeachment trial is the latest manifestation of what is now an indisputable trend, which is that left/liberals have largely abandoned any principled defense of protected political speech -- because they increasingly control the mechanisms by which speech is regulated

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Trump's conduct in spreading BS about the election and deluding his supporters was obviously worthy of rebuke, but as usual Dems screw it up with their incoherent "incitement" theories and melodramatically pretending that the government was literally on verge of being overthrown

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Seeing clip after clip of Democrats using the very same rhetoric they want to impeach and convict Trump for using ("fight like hell"? Really?) should probably indicate that these impeachments have largely become exercises in asserting partisan power

Michael Tracey @mtracey
lol Elizabeth Warren implored her followers to "fight" approximately every five minutes

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Impeachment is a constitutional process of such profound gravity that it increasingly appears to hinge on forensic examination of tweets

Michael Tracey @mtracey
There are no uniform standards as to when figurative political speech magically becomes "incitement" -- the only relevant standard is who wields enough power to use "incitement" charges to attack and punish opponents

Michael Tracey @mtracey
If the Capitol riot was such a huge threat, and was so easily anticipatable based on internet posts, why aren't the massively-funded intelligence agencies being blamed for operational failure? Everyone knows they act quasi-autonomously and would not have been hindered by Trump

Michael Tracey @mtracey
This impeachment is historic in that the High Crime is alleged to have been not so much against the People, but against elected officials who claim their "trauma" is representative of the People -- when in reality few care that they were temporarily inconvenienced by a dopey mob

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Seth Abramson would have never been "a thing" without the vast body of fallaciously-premised mainstream Trump/Russia "journalism" that he uses as source material. Fixating on outlandish bizarro-cranks like him gives the entire rotten industry a pass

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Raskin says he won't "re-traumatize" Senators by exhibiting the evidence again -- perhaps a mistrial should be declared on the grounds that all participants have been incapacitated by "trauma"

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Impeachment managers keep saying Trump committed an "offense against us" -- as opposed to the country writ large. The rioters "defaced these sacred walls," they claim. The allegation is ultimately that Trump committed some grave metaphysical offense against the political class

Michael Tracey @mtracey
The "national security" portion of this trial might be the most illuminating. The "insurrection" struck such a symbolic blow that it's catastrophically harmed the standing of US global hegemony -- thus Trump is to blame for empowering Russia, China, Iran, etc.

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Wouldn’t have been a proper Trump-era impeachment without wildly unsubstantiated references to Russia. Joaquin Castro warns that “foreign spies” were among the MAGA mob, as demonstrated by one woman’s slapstick plan to allegedly send Nancy Pelosi’s laptop to Russia

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Kind of odd that half a billion dollars spent on militarized security theater -- and the total will definitely be higher once the final bill comes in -- is being depicted as something other than a ridiculous waste of taxpayer money

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Impeachment manager Ted Lieu declared this afternoon that the "violent mob murdered a police officer" -- but that would be news to federal prosecutors who apparently can't even put together a murder case given the numerous outstanding ambiguities around Officer Sicknick's death

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Dems' lead impeachment manager said today, "What makes you think the nightmare with Donald Trump and his lawbreaking and violent mobs is over?"

There's a reason why they refer to the rioters as "insurgents" -- an "insurgency" requires a long-term commitment to forcibly expunge

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Raskin going all the way back to video clips of Trump making statements at rallies in 2015 -- along with Charlottesville, etc. -- turns this impeachment trial into a referendum on Trump's entire political ascendance (which they want to purge) as opposed to just the Capitol riot

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Jamie Raskin claims that Trump "wanted to incite and provoke" a "race war" because it furthered his political objectives. The purpose of this trial is to furnish a public record to justify future crackdowns on so-called "insurgents," as opposed to actually convicting Trump

Michael Tracey @mtracey
“Incitement” is an extremely narrowly-circumscribed concept in First Amendment law and for good reason: political speech is often highly incendiary. Dems could’ve chosen any number of methods to rebuke Trump and they go with one that undermines long-established speech protections

Michael Tracey @mtracey
In addition, the effusive emotional appeals that form the basis of Democrats' impeachment case are heavily centered on Sicknick. But basic facts like cause of death have yet to be established; key details previously trumpeted to the public now shown to have been false

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Raise doubts about various responses to Jan 6 (corporate censorship, militarization of DC, weaponization of "trauma" jargon, expansion of "incitement," etc.) and the rebuttal is always "They Killed A Cop" -- yet basic facts about the circumstances of that death remain concealed

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Corporate officials unilaterally decreeing what information is too "dangerous" for adults to consume online seems like the real "danger" here

Michael Tracey @mtracey
It's also amazing how eager the media is to spend day after day proclaiming that society writ large is obliged to validate the victimhood claims of powerful elected officials (but only when those officials share their political priorities, of course) [emphasis added]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Melodramatic, baseless speculation masquerading as statement of fact

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Who knew it was so easy to squash an "armed insurrection" -- just announce a curfew and most of the "insurrectionists" will voluntarily abide

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Members of Congress undergo a few hours of inconvenience (none injured) and the entire country's business grinds to a halt for like two months

Michael Tracey @mtracey
And the primary argument impeachment advocates are making against Trump is that he "failed to protect us," meaning he failed to "protect" them, the politicians. This whole exercise is about the well-being of politicians, whose "pain" they then attempt to transfer onto the public [emphasis added]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
All the emotionally-riveting evidence put forward today was intended to convey that our elected representatives were put at unacceptable risk, with more tearful testimonies from members of Congress. It's becoming very bizarre

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Impeachment manager / actor Madeleine Dean's weepy voice-quivering comes across as particularly calculated

Michael Tracey @mtracey
the impeachment managers should be genuinely embarrassed that they're on the floor of the Senate reading out random BS online memes and posts, but... they are clearly not embarrassed

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Note that impeachment manager Stacey Plaskett refers to the MAGA rioters as "insurgents," importing the terminology of US foreign intervention to the homefront: and implying that the "insurgency" is still ongoing, which would justify all manner of punitive measures to suppress it [emphasis added]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
The overarching problem with both of Dems' impeachment exercises is that they've accused Trump of treasonous high crimes like soliciting foreign interference, fomenting insurrection, etc. but nobody believes in the authenticity of their melodramatic appeals to quasi-patriotism [emphasis added]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
A riot that happens to take place in/around the Capitol building, and temporarily disrupts a Congressional proceeding, in no way could have ever "overthrown" the most powerful government in world history -- to even describe it as an "attempt" at doing so is 100% ridiculous [emphasis added]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Sen. Blumenthal just repeated a canard that from the outset has been used to justify everything from corporate censorship to the militarization of DC: "It was a coup attempt, an effort to overthrow the government." No, it was neither of those, except in your fevered imagination

Michael Tracey @mtracey
It's amazing how central Trump's use of the word "fight" is in Democrats' "incitement" argument, as though that word is not used in figurative contexts all day everyday by politicians across the spectrum

Michael Tracey @mtracey
You can tell this impeachment trial is extremely important because it seems to largely consist of carefully analyzing tweets

Michael Tracey @mtracey
You can tell Dems aren't particularly interested in swaying GOP votes because they put Eric Swalwell front-and-center, kind of like how Adam Schiff was the lead impeachment manager last time. TV spectacle

Michael Tracey @mtracey
It's thus appropriate that the impeachment trial currently underway is mainly predicated on the "lived experience" of members of Congress who claim they were so profoundly victimized by the MAGA goofball riot

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Because the "emoting" is always ultimately a power play, even if unconsciously. It's intended to place primacy on their "experience" for the purpose of demanding compensation, whether it be via cultural cache or various political outcomes

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Bill Clinton once famously exhorted, "I feel your pain." The rising breed of politician increasingly exhorts to the public to instead feel THEIR pain, and if you don't, you are maliciously victimizing THEM

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
It's such a perfect move to dish out the most incendiary, deliberately provocative journalism and then cry "harassment" when that journalism engenders exactly the reaction you wanted

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
"Perhaps it is even a bad sign in a writer if he is not suspected of reactionary tendencies today, just as it was a bad sign if he was not suspected of Communist sympathies twenty years ago." -- George Orwell (1948)

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
*David Schoen, Doug is another dopey political lawyer

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
Only a few hours in and both the impeachment managers + defense have managed to break down in tears, Trump's lawyer Doug Schoen having done so while reciting poetry (?)

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
MyPillow guy would've done a better job than this weirdo

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
Bruce Castor was the District Attorney of Montgomery County, PA for eight years and he sounds like a rambling and confused internet commenter

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
Impressive that he's been a lawyer for his entire adult life and never learned how to structure an argument

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
Does this Bruce Castor fellow know where he is or what he's doing

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
Now we've moved from sob stories to Trump's lawyer effusively praising the Senators for their extraordinary gallantry

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
Suddenly the primary purpose of Congress is to implore that the public sympathize with their sob stories

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
Still very strange that none of the participants in what's being called an "armed insurrection" ever brandished firearms

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
"They could have killed all of us," David Cicilline melodramatically declares. Really looking forward to the hard evidence that these alleged mass executions were imminent, because none has been presented yet despite 200+ ongoing criminal prosecutions

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
The political/media system is once again consumed with debating the personal conduct of Trump. As with any chemical dependency, withdrawal is really hard and sometimes you go backward

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
The impeachment argument requires defining down "insurrection" to mean something other than its normally accepted meaning, i.e., attempting to overthrow the government -- which never could have possibly been accomplished by the conspiracy-addled goofball MAGA rioters

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
The argument that a president cannot be impeached for things he did shortly before leaving office is indeed stupid -- the real issue is their "incitement to insurrection" rationale for impeaching Trump is incoherent. He didn't exhort his followers to overthrow the government

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 10
It's a fitting representation of the USA's decrepit political leadership that this impeachment trial is being presided over by a barely-audible 80-year-old

Michael Tracey @mtracey · Feb 9
The ingroup psychology of online media: He's not just wrong about some issue, his wrongness means everything he's ever done privately or interpersonally must now be re-interpreted (with explicit malice) through the lens of the moral disreputability you've suddenly proclaimed

Michael Tracey @mtracey
If you hallucinate something, you can be legitimately psychologically harmed by something related to the hallucination -- but per the new "harm" doctrine, others are now also required to "validate" that all of your beliefs stemming from this hallucination are rationally founded

Michael Tracey @mtracey
"Harm" doctrine increasingly presupposes that if you believe you've been "harmed," everyone else is required to agree that this "harm" has a rational basis. Or in other words, no longer is it permissible to say that the "harm" you experience is based on beliefs that are mistaken

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell ha[d] ultimate jurisdiction over the Capitol Police force, that's just a fact. Kind of like how a mayor gets blamed for police conduct despite not having day-to-day involvement in the tactical minutiae of officer deployments

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House has direct control over the Capitol Police, which was clearly under-staffed on January 6. A little more backup that day and there's no "insurrection"

Michael Tracey @mtracey
I've asked Jay Rosen if he applies a similar analysis to the Democratic Party, which was plainly "held together" by several years of fanatical Russia conspiracy lies. Never gotten an answer

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Is there any evidence that any of the "armed rebels" who breached the Capitol were actually armed and/or brandished their weapons? Seems like a relevant consideration in evaluating the severity of the "insurrection"

Michael Tracey @mtracey
If you comment on what AOC does in a skeptical manner, you are deemed "obsessed," despite her insanely prominent position and platform. Kind of like when media/activists turned last June into Trans Lives Month, but you were "obsessed" with Trans if you commented skeptically on it [emphasis added]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Our brave watchdog media won't rest until every venue for online political expression is regulated in strict accordance with what they view as permissible

Michael Tracey @mtracey
"Issuing fake, groveling apologies in response to bad faith criticism will inevitably just make things worse" is a lesson that apparently still hasn't dawned on lots of people

Michael Tracey @mtracey
NYT should change its tagline from "All the News That's Fit to Print" to "Inevitable ritualistic self-flagellation when journalists are accused of stuff"

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Still waiting on the definitive account of how "let's not stigmatize seeking help for mental illness!" turned into "let's actually valorize mental illness and for some reason make psycho-therapy the lingua franca of US political discourse" [emphasis added]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Trump supporters were "fraud-pilled" by MAGA media charlatans and obsessed with proving sinister, criminal fraud schemes. Everything described in the article was legal and largely conducted in public

Michael Tracey @mtracey
The takeaway from this article is that the Dem-aligned foundation/activist/media power structure in the US successfully used every tool at their disposal to oust Trump, which had been their sole monomaniacal objective for four years

Michael Tracey @mtracey
This whole "lived experience" and "trauma" ideology inverts the normal relationship that constituents have with their elected representatives. Now politicians are saying it's the PUBLIC which has an affirmative responsibility to validate THEIR emotional issues. Very weird

Michael Tracey @mtracey
“The Squad” has become the most potent engine of partisan polarization. Dem Leadership loves how relentlessly focused they are on slamming Republicans, even accusing them of attempted murder. GOP loves to use them as a foil. They’re perfect for keeping the entire edifice in place

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Of course there shouldn't be any stigma if people suffering from genuine mental distress need to seek help -- but that's not what's happening here. They are inserting the language of private psychotherapeutic evaluation into the public domain for expressly political purposes [emphasis added]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
AOC says here what she's doing now is "telling that story as many times as possible" in order to "heal." Jason Crow says "doubters" of any aspect of AOC's account are "re-victimizing" her. Any affront to AOC is an affront to all "survivors" of "trauma"

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Today was the day that Oprah finally became Speaker of the House

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Doing a stream momentarily in which I too will share my "lived experiences" . . .

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Does anyone else still find it ironic that the only person against whom lethal force was actually used inside the Capitol Building was a Trump-supporting woman who got shot dead at point-blank range by police

Michael Tracey @mtracey
IT NEVER ENDS

Michael Tracey @mtracey
AOC's voice is quivering as she concludes this bizarre group therapy session. She has successfully imported the language of self-confessional therapeutic moralism into the House, with full support from Dem Leadership. Gotta give her credit for achieving her objectives! [emphasis added]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
"Everybody's experiences must be validated," says Cori Bush. Sorry, you are no longer allowed to "invalidate" the "experiences" of politicians -- that's "harm"

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Rashida Tlaib is bawling on the floor of the House. She can't even get through a sentence. This is a group therapy session (taxpayer funded and televised)

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Rep. Mark Takano condemns those who have sought to "gaslight" AOC and others who claim they underwent trauma

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Rep. Dean Phillips is tearfully apologizing to AOC for previously failing to recognize his privilege. This is the business of the House of Representatives right now

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Pelosi gave AOC a special 60-minute order to allow "space" for members of Congress to publicly express their emotions and "lived experience" on the floor of the House. That is what's occurring right now

Michael Tracey @mtracey
AOC is on the floor of the House saying that anyone who questions the claims of "survivors" -- because everyone in Congress is apparently a "survivor" now -- is guilty of exacerbating the "trauma" of ALL "survivors" everywhere in the country. Again, this is insanely manipulative

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Congress has turned into some kind of bizarre public psychotherapy session where elected officials compete amongst one another for who can exhibit the most overbearing narcissistic personality disorder

Michael Tracey @mtracey
There are also possible downsides to people meeting in person on a park bench and saying "misinformative" things to one another. We should consider banning this dangerous activity

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Interesting that "trauma" has evolved from something you work out in private with your friends/family/therapist to this whole public spectacle of a self-reinforcing ideological construct [emphasis added]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
An entire corporate media-entertainment complex was erected around Trump -- pro and con -- and now they're flailing in desperate desire to keep it going. So all they can do is what they do best -- ratchet up the fear and anxiety levels to a permanent 10

Michael Tracey @mtracey
I'm "batshit discredited," Marcy Wheeler ran around claiming that she was being targeted for assassination by Trump-backed Russian death squads and then became an FBI informant -- we all have our different definitions of things in this wonderfully diverse society

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Jake Tapper immediately started screaming that Jan 6 was a "MAGA terrorist insurrection" -- a term expressly designed to engender maximum hysteria and threat inflation -- and then he lambasts anybody not mindlessly spouting this insane narrative as a deluded MAGA dupe. Of course

Michael Tracey @mtracey
I've never been "MAGA-allied" -- never voted for Trump, criticized him throughout the entire ridiculous presidency -- but it's nonetheless easy to point out that CNN has engaged in a month's worth of purposely fear-inducing propagandistic manipulation on this topic

Michael Tracey @mtracey
This press release also perfectly encapsulates what this new wave of social media-addled left-wing legislators are all about: "creating space" for sharing their "lived experiences." I mean, it's a goddamn parody

Michael Tracey @mtracey
This is becoming a contest to see which lawmaker has the biggest narcissistic personality disorder and/or persecution complex, which is fitting because a new champion needed to be named with Trump out of the picture [emphasis added]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
You'd think in order to adjudicate this dispute, journalists could inquire as to whether there were in fact any "insurrectionists" in the hallway -- rather than instinctively and emotionally rushing to the defense of AOC's purported "survivorship" [emphasis added]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
So then why not just admit that the extreme remedial measures being taken -- from corporate censorship, to semi-permanent militarization of DC, to calls for expulsion of members -- are about preserving the symbolic sanctity of the "temple," as opposed to physical "safety" [emphasis added]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Let's take a moment to review. Rejecting that Jan 6 was a literal "coup attempt" or "insurrection" -- and rejecting the subsequent censorship/militarization -- is now deemed tantamount to rejecting individualized "trauma," and therefore abusive [emphasis added]. Really healthy, rational stuff

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Don't you find it odd that virtually none of the media accounts around this story bothered to note that there were never any "insurrectionists" in the House Office Buildings... seems like an important detail

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Keep the melodrama going at absolutely all costs

Michael Tracey @mtracey
If we don't do this, we invalidate the trauma of those who suffered

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Correct

(Michael Tracey Retweeted)
Maarek @Maarblek
I was vewy scawed pwease thwow all my powitical enemies into pwison [Pleading face emoji, Pleading face emoji, Pleading face emoji]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Biden as a persona does not generate anywhere close to the animosity/adulation of the previous several presidents, and compared to Trump it's a cartoonishly massive dropoff. So in that void all kinds of strange figures are going to compete for the media's "main character" arc

Michael Tracey @mtracey
This is some kind of talking point mantra floating around. And look what it now comes in reference to: dispute that the events of January 6 constituted a "coup attempt," and you are thereby minimizing the "trauma" allegedly associated with sexual assault [emphasis added]

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Also everyone with a prominent online profile receives hate mail / death threats, this does not make you special in any way

Michael Tracey @mtracey
About ready to move on from the AOC drama -- but in conclusion, it really should be emphasized that there were never any rioters in her office building, she was not in danger while hiding in the bathroom

Michael Tracey @mtracey
As a journalist it's my responsibility to "help AOC heal," not critically evaluate her political rhetoric. Thanks Rabbi

Michael Tracey @mtracey
Where do I go to get my hot take royalties for today? There are like twelve of these articles: