How to Stop Elevating the Ravings of Deranged Lunatics

An Appeal for Human Dignity in the Age of Narrative Warfare

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

To those who strive to uphold human dignity: before sharing the ravings of lunatics, even if what you seek is to critique it, please pause and consider:

Narrative warfare is at an all-time high. We are literally battling over truth itself. This is not hyperbole. It is the central ground of today’s fight for the future of humanity. Trust your instincts about how serious the moment is. Trust that your audience already shares your moral clarity. You do not need to argue with insanity. You need only to call it what it is, and then pivot to truth and solutions.

Consider this Concept Around Narrative Control:

Sharing deranged posts from mentally unstable government figures—whether via quote, screenshot or reaction—does not have the impact you may think it does. You are not just reacting. You are elevating and amplifying. You inadvertently give legitimacy to the very thing you deem depraved.

Take Sarah Kendzior’s post about Rob Reiner as a model of a more helpful approach. Rather than detailing or arguing with the grotesque commentary circulating on social media, she simply honored Reiner’s legacy with reverence and then briefly called out the depravity for what it was without bringing it into our collective consciousness in a way that dismisses it as not even worthy of attention.

1) Pivot Quickly From the Lie to the Truth

Let’s be honest: we all know who patient zero of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS) is. Hint: it’s someone that uses the phrase.

Here’s a mental shortcut to help cut through the noise:

When it comes to people afflicted with untreated sociopathy (ASPD), narcissism (NPD), or f@sc1st ideologies: every accusation is a confession.

We don’t need to argue with delusion. Call it out for what it is, but do not linger. The more we argue against it, the more legitimacy we give to the insanity, even when that’s not our intention.

Those with their morality still intact, i.e most of your audience, shaped by algorithmic silos, already feel the same truth. Your audience doesn’t need convincing on moral points, so don’t waste time “debunking” the obviously unhinged. Focus instead on naming the behavior, then turning toward dignified and collective solutions.

Sarah’s note above illustrates this point, as well as Jonathan Larsen’s latest TFN post, where he acknowledges the horror briefly, relegates it to something obviously nonsensical, and quickly focuses on what matters.

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2) Awareness is Vital, But So is HOW We Share it

Yes, awareness matters. The DHS pinned post on X and the White House’s recent Grinch tweet were both powerful data points that helped people register the depth of America’s moral unravelling. But sharing deranged propaganda from political figures without strategic re-framing, again, just amplifies it.

We must stop circulating the ravings of madmen, slow down the algorithmic spectacle and replace it with something else - something truer, something hopeful and inspiring.

For that same algorithm that optimizes for views, elevating rage over love, gave a madman power to begin with. Let’s learn from that. Share the counter-narratives. Reclaim the space. As in the examples below, there are ways to spread awareness without elevating psychosis.

3. Elevate the New Paradigm We’re Building

What if we spent more energy creating and uplifting the vision of the future we want? Not through the hollow lens of toxic positivity, but as a conscious collective counteroffensive in the culture war over meaning. If MAGA could shape culture through spectacle and rage, we can use the algorithm to our advantage and shape culture through unifying inspiration. It might not catch on quite as much as rage, but people are seeking more realness. More depth. (There’s a reason bands like Pink Floyd, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan became global phenomena. There’s much more we share in common than separates us.)

And it doesn’t have to always be complex. This simple note by Jae Rose in just a few lines calls out the depravity of capitalism while also pointing to the answer, leaving the reader with a sense of hope and unity rather than deflated.

In one of the community projects I’m involved with (and yes, we’re open to new writer contributions), we aim to acknowledge the seriousness of the moment while planting seeds of possibility of a better future - with a dash of snarky satire.

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