I am reluctant to use the term PTSD to describe what I am seeing right now because PTSD is a serious disorder that many suffer through. But I am sort of seeing a strange sociological version of it.

I am not alone. In politics, there has been a fair amount of ink spilled about how everyone’s in a miserable mood about the economy. Anyone who dares to say things aren’t so bad immediately gets railed on. People strongly believe that crime is still out of hand, even though it is clearly falling, but God help you if you dare say that the crime rate is dropping.

When a bad-for-Biden poll drops, the instant analysis is that this is the worst news ever for the president, and wailing on social media commences. Curiously enough, a poll that shows a tie or Biden ahead is met with crickets. Many of the same people freaking out among the party rank and file often are unaware of any good polls.

Some of this is understandable. We went through one of the most traumatic moments in our history. Those memes about how we’ve experienced much worse in the past so shut up are silly; we had the worst president in history, a pandemic, and now the worst president we’ve ever had is neck and neck with Biden. Part of that is social media. We’ve never had the bad news on blast in our face like this before.

Part of the freakout is Trump himself, who is a living wheezing mound of bad vibes. He talks constantly in dark terms about the nation, and after awhile, I feel like that poison spreads throughout the entire society.

In additon, there seems to be huge resistance to any insinuation of progress. Jeet Heer on Molly Jong-Fast’s podcast last week said that Biden’s changing course on Israel is something those of us in the progressive realm should celebrate as being heard and progress, instead there’s a lot of anger that it’s not enough. Take the win, friends, one that you would never have under Trump.

And this freakout/malaise/PTSD-ish behavior seems to have spread beyond politics. Perhaps fitting given how a lot of our media treats the biggest election of our lifetime as a sporting event, I have noticed this weird form of malaise. Here’s a good example of it.

I am a long-time Baltimore Orioles fan. They are my numero uno favorite sports team, one that I have been fan of since the moment I was aware enough to be able to follow sports. My childhood just happened to parallel the team’s golden age, that period from the mid-60s to the mid-80s where they were perennial contenders and won three World Series.

The O’s went through a tough rebuild starting in 2017. The team became a perennial joke, losing with barely-major-league levels of talent and in turn, getting some great draft choices. T

This was tough sledding for Baltimore fans but starting in 2022, things turned around. They went 83-79, won 102 games last year, and this year are on pace to match or even surpass that lofty win total. Those draft choices are turning into legit superstars like Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman. They are a serious contender for the World Series. Like is great in Birdland, right?

However, if you look at any Orioles online community, such as one of the many O’s blogs, you see a lot of malaise and wailing. If the Orioles lose or end up going on a short stretch of not hitting, the reaction among a lot of fans is how terrible the team is and how awful the loss was. If they do well, you see “I hope they can keep it up.”

Again, this is one of the best teams in baseball right now. A running joke among people who are not subscribing to the This Could All Collapse At Any Time thinking is that these Birds fans are still traumatized by the recent lean years. The bedwetters do not take kindly to any mocking of their negativity, so this launches some pretty sad arguments.

It’s rather striking to me how similar this is to our politics. Even good news is met with suspicion, and people get mad that if you question their negativity. There is some reason for concern but the focus is all on the reason for concern.

I just do not see how constantly focusing on the negative is sustainable. We need at least some hope to keep us sane, and if you are being realistic, there is some reason for hope in both our politics and if you are a Baltimore fan, the Orioles. So hang in there, friends.

The last word goes to Beth Orton.