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November 19, 2025 13 mins

First, there's the evolution of raccoon.  Next, something called TDI (more commonly known as Trump Derangement Syndrome).

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm sorry, Jim, it's TDS. It's one more thing.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm strong, and one more thing.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
Before we get to TDS, which I know is a
Trump derangement Syndroke. We talked during the Armstrong and Getty
show about the domestication of raccoons, right, which I found interesting,
And I got the article and I forded to my son,
who's really into evolution and that sort of stuff, so
he'll find that pretty fascinating that the idea is that

(00:30):
it's kind of raccoons are kind of taking the same
trajectory as dogs did. Yeah, wild dogs were not something
you would have wanted to walk out and pet back
in the day, or to chewed your arm off.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
They ran out, they grabbed a wolf. They petted it
a couple of times. The wolf said, hey, this is
kind of cool. You want to get together?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
No?

Speaker 4 (00:47):
No, they'd started hanging out at the outskirts, right, and
now raccoons are hanging around and the bolder, less aggressive
ones we kind of ignore.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
We don't get freaked out, Like if I saw a
what would be a beast that would cause you to
freak out in your backyard mountain lion? Yeah, if I
saw mountain lion out there. Yeah, I'd call the authorities
and maybe get a gun and shoot it myself. But
a raccoon, you think it's gonna eat some trash and
run over to the next yard.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Uh, And it doesn't. It's this one's not shown any aggressions.
I'm just gonna stand here and watch it.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
And so the ones that are aggressive get killed, the
ones that are not aggressive reproduce, thus evolution and cool.
So pretty soon we'll all have a pet raccoon in
our home.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah. Yeah, maybe.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
And the physical changes in the raccoons are interesting too,
and the long story short on that. And there are
a bunch of examples in human genetics. I'm not an
expert or anything that are like this, but for whatever reason,
the there's this special kind of cell where is that?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:51):
That domestication trace back to an important group of cells
during embryonic development called neural crests, and they in early
development they form along and organisms like spine, then migrate
to different parts of the body where they become important
for the development of different types of cells. And it

(02:12):
turns out that the very genes that control Hey, I'm
bold enough to get close to humans, but not really
aggressive is the same group of genes that results in
a shorter muzzle, floppier ears, and like white patches, and
a dampened fear response, not for any logical reasons, just

(02:35):
the way genetics are ranged. Sometimes you get a weird variety.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Pack because floppy ears are cuter, which makes you more
likely to want to have it and take care of it.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
A shorter muscle is more reminiscent of babies. They have
much softer, less contoured faces than Welt babies.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
I've had hardly had a muscle at all.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, if you've, if you, if you look at I've
seen you know, photo demonstrations of this. But baby animals,
including baby humans, all have very similar characteristics, you know,
the shorter muzzles, high foreheads, rounder faces than the adult has.

(03:17):
And that's why we look at a puppy and we
go aw because it tugs that are very anthropological heartstrings,
so any protection.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
In short fifty years from now, you'll see a young,
childless couple pushing a raccoon in a stroller because that's
their pet.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
And I'll say, what the you know, just like I
do now, as people walk their dogs and cats, a
free pass if your dog is old anyway, So I
found that really really interesting, and because you know, I
love dogs so much, picturing that process where dogs became

(03:56):
well proto dogs they called them, became domestic because it's funny,
I think, maybe sort of kind of I had fallen
prey to the idea that that was human motivated or
initiated by humans, But no, it was these proto dogs
were hanging around just close enough to get our garbage
because humans have always produced garbage. And several of them

(04:19):
were so unafraid of humans they like wandered up close
and looked around and the humans chuckled, and so yeah,
it's a good looking creature, you know, and maybe it'd
keep you know, our enemies at bay.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
And over a course of years they became domesticated.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
But it was a street an alert system is one
of the reasons I've read about this. Uh oh yeah,
our deal with we've got with each other. You'll you'll
kind of lay there half asleep, ready to bark at
any sound, so I can sleep soundly and I will
feed you and protect you.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, you know, I live in a safe place, in
a safe house, in a safe neighborhood. But when Baxter
goes and he's always he's already sleeping a lot more deeply.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Than he used to.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
I'm gonna miss that layer of security because he was
an unbelievable watchdog.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
Yeah, that's the thing with having a dog, you know,
if somebody's at the door.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, Anyway, that was an our intended topic. Our intended
topic was I'm sorry, Jim, you have TDS, Trump derangement syndrome.
Speaking of science, very science y in this podcast, and
this psychotherapist is writing about how, yeah, it's real. It
might not be what you think Trump derangement syndrome is,
which is kind of a partisan Trump's always wrong and

(05:33):
everything that's against Trump is always right.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
If Trump asks are bad, I'm wearing a mask for
the next five years.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
If Trump says we should open the schools, I'm going
to clamp down on those schools and torture the little
children's souls for years. Because I'm a mindless, fucking partisan moron.
I will never forgive for that anyway. The actual Trump
arrangement syndrome this guy's talking about is it aligns with

(06:04):
anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders, persistent intrusive thoughts, emotional dysregulation,
impaired functioning, you got sleepless nights, compulsive news checking, physical agitation,
many confessed. And he's talking about his patients, his patience.
Many confess they can't stop thinking about Donald Trump even
when they try. They interpret us every move as a

(06:24):
threat to democracy and their own safety and control.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
I've known a few people like this who would get
up in the morning and say, Okay, what did he
do now? You know, open up their phone, just say okay,
what do he do now? That's the way that's you know,
it's like being in love, like your first thought in
the morning and last thought at night. It's like being
in hate. Your first thought in the morning is Donald

(06:48):
Trump and what did he do to make.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
My life worse?

Speaker 1 (06:52):
And this guy, an actual psychotherapist, is talking about something
a little different than speaking of people on the left
who like being threatened or like pretending to be threatened
or afraid, because then they can draw together in a
community and get lots of approval from each other because
they're all saying the same things about the perceived threat,
and it feels good to them socially speaking. That's kind

(07:15):
of a different phenomenon, but that exists too. One patient
told me. He writes, she couldn't enjoy a family vacation
because it felt wrong to relax while Trump was still
out there.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yep, which is just looney tunes.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Others thought it was in a situation the other day
where God was the topic, and a person said, this
was during the shutdown. The person said, with the shutdown
going on, it's hard to believe there is a God.
I think that's probably fitting into a Trump derangement thing
that the people wouldn't have done previously.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, it's so weird.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
So you can't enjoy having a relationship with the Lord
as long as Trump's around.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
So others report panic attacks or troubles sleeping after seeing
him in the news. Their anxiety has outgrown politics and
become a way of being. At a group level, the
pattern functions like a culture bound syndrome, a condition shared
shaped by shared social triggers within a specific context. From
a diagnostic standpoint, it overlaps with obsessive compulsive disorder, generalized

(08:25):
anxiety disorder, and troummerelated syndromes. And then he points out
and this is as a layman, I never would have guessed,
but he says, it's the clinical importance of distinguishing this
pattern lies and treatment. When it is coded simply as
generalized anxiety or OCD, patients often receive reassurances or validation

(08:47):
that briefly soothes them but ultimately reinforces their fixation. In
this presentation, anxiety is fused with identity.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
That's an interesting thought. That's kind of what I was
talking about.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
The therapeutic workst DELL patients regain psychological distance so they
can separate internal fears from the political figure onto whom
they have projected them. Here's the part I really found
it interesting. Trump himself isn't the pathology. He's the trigger
for many. He functions as a psychological screen onto which
unresolved fears and insecurities are projected. Political disagreement turns into

(09:24):
perceive personal threat. A smaller group of Trump supporters have
similar responses of opposite valance. They experience anger and feelings
of persecution whenever mister Trump is criticized, as if an
attack on him were an attack on them. In both cases,
emotion replaces reason and psychological distances collapse. That's the part
I really hadn't gotten to myself is that these are

(09:47):
people who have a particular psychological issue about how do
you describe it? Unresolved fears and insecurities, and Trump just
becomes Trump or anti Trump becomes how they express that
or how they feel that, how they talk about it.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
God, I hope I don't ever do that with anybody.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Or anything for that man.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, yeah, no kidding.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
I mean, for instance, I don't know. This isn't about
me and it's not about you. But I am extremely
motivated to fight the forces of Marxism and socialism in
the United States because as a student of political systems
since I was a teenager and throughout my life, I

(10:44):
know what that will do. It's not a mystery, and
I hate it. I mean I hate it intensely. I
can barely talk about it without getting fired up. But
the idea that I couldn't enjoy a vacation knowing that
Marxism is knocking on the door. No, hell, I'll enjoy
a round of golf next time I'm on the golf course.
I'll forget about it for a while, then I'll get

(11:05):
back to work. I can't imagine being so tortured by
you know, like any issue like that, right, I mean,
even if I'm like a hardcore pro lifer. Surely I
can go for a paddle on the lake with my
sweetheart and enjoy the colors turning the leaves, you know,
turning colors. But this guy's talking about people who can't.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
That's sad, is it? Is it a God sized hole
as some people describe it. Sometimes? Oh, because people don't
have that anymore. This is slipping in there.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
That's almost certainly part of it. Or you know, we've
talked about politics has become the true national pastime because
people don't have They don't go to church, they don't
belong to civic organizations, they don't you know, volunteer, They
don't have real friends that they get together with semi
regular to go bowling or have a pot luck or whatever.
You know, our generation, our parents' generation did so they

(12:05):
got to fill it with something, and it's generally online.
And as we know, anger and fear are the an
outrage which is kind of anger are the number one
click motivators in the world by far. Anyway, this is
interesting psychologically, the treatment is differentiation. Patients must learn to

(12:25):
separate internal anxiety from external reality and see mister Trump
not as an emotional projection, but as an external figure
whose significance can be managed rather than magnified. They're obsessed
clear talked about cognitive distance, and that's gotta suck.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
I feel for you. That's got it.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
I mean, look, whatever your particular fixation is, that's that's terrible.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Huh. You know what they need? You know what these
people need? A pet raccoon.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
Absolutely, you sit there, you pet your raccoon, You look
out the window.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
You're perfectly happy. You got it in your lap.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
Good, good boy, coony coony coons or a maski boy?
What would you call a raccoon at the same dumb
names people give their dogs, including me.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
Until that thing is leaping at your throat and gouging
out your eyes.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Oh that's a good cat. No, no, don't try this
with a bobcat. Bad idea.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
Maybe you got one that's not quite domesticated yet gouges
your eyes up.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
Well, the early adapters, yeah, they're they're gonna be you know,
probably not have ten fingers on the cutting edge right right,
the biting edge. If you will, Yes, you will never
meet the President of the United States. Most likely he
will be gone in three years.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
Just control what you can in your own life and
just leave it at that.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
The words of wisdom there, folks, Well, I guess that's it.
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