Collective Munchausen Syndrome

This topic was created in the Politics forum by CancerOnTheCusp on Thursday, February 28, 2019 and has 2 replies.
I came across this guy through a source that's not this particular article, but his take was fascinating. This interview was a little over two years ago:

https://areomagazine.com/2017/01/23/gad-saad-on-hysteria-and-collective-munchausen-around-donald-trump-speaking-out-as-an-academic-and-evolutionary-psychology-101/

I think he may be on to something:

"The problem arises when you have a discourse fully detached from reality. It’s beyond satirical and grotesque in how much stupidity is exhibited. A typical comment on my social feed might state something to the following effect, “I’m a woman of color,” she’s attending some school in Maine and she’s saying, “I’m afraid. Can I still go to class?” Just work it through. What’s going to happen when Trump becomes president? He sets up roadblocks on every street corner whereby he whisks away all people of color to the designated gang-rape centers? What could explain that hysteria? The only thing that explains it is a departure from reality — and hence collective Munchausen syndrome."
Posted by LittleStar

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When you have one to two generations ago experiencing the above - even if you want to forget slavery because it was only 150 years ago - and someone is running on “Make American Great Again” referencing to previous generations of systematic terror and violence against your people, through Jim Crow laws, War on Drugs, etc and when the candidate makes racist statements - you feel scared. Because not only have you heard your grandparents and parents stories but your own see systems that fail to stick up for your rights.

And if you want to know about trauma - trauma actually changes your dna. That gets passed down to your children.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgenerational_trauma

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5977074/

It’s easy if this doesn’t effect you and your family and your daily life to say it’s paranoia.
Per the above...

To quote Dr. Saad again,

"The problem arises when you have a discourse fully detached from reality."

Your honor, I rest my case.