In the interest of full disclosure, I liked Keith Olbermann back when he was doing sports. My radio station was contractually obligated to run his “Extra Point.” We did so first thing in the morning, which was at 6, when listenership was low. (We ran Rush Limbaugh’s “Morning Update” a little later in the morning, when more people were listening.) Back then, I found Olbermann to be occasionally insightful and actually entertaining. 

By the time he was hosting his show on MSNBC, I was well on my way to becoming a conservative and disagreed with him on virtually everything. I took particular umbrage with his decision to name a good friend of mine one of his “Worst People in the World.”

Following Olbermann’s latest fracas involving Scott Jennings, a former colleague, Sage Steele took to X and suggested that it may be time for Olbermann to seek help:

The New York Post has a piece out with anecdotes about Olbermann’s behavior, which you can read here. I don’t know if Olbermann has become unhinged or if he is merely so wrapped up in his own head that he is unable to control himself on X.

In his story “The Great Divorce,” C.S. Lewis describes Hell as a massive, gloomy city, filled with people preoccupied with their grievances, self-importance, and identities. They are trapped in a hell of their own making, unable to see that if they could step outside themselves, Heaven and redemption are a mere bus ride away. Early in the story, the protagonist has a conversation with someone who tells him the tale of two men in Hell who went on a field trip to see Napoleon:

“The nearest of those old ones is Napoleon. We know that because two chaps made the journey to see him. They’d started long before I came, of course, but I was there when they came back.” 

“But they got there?”

“That’s right. He’d built himself a huge house all in the Empire style—rows of windows flaming with light….”

“Did they see Napoleon?”

“That’s right. They went up and looked through one of the windows. Napoleon was there all right.”

“What was he doing?”

“Walking up and down—up and down all the time— left-right, left-right—never stopping for a moment. The two chaps watched him for about a year, and he never rested. And muttering to himself all the time. ‘It was Soult’s fault. It was Ney’s fault. It was Josephine’s fault. It was the fault of the Russians. It was the fault of the English.’ Like that all the time. Never stopped for a moment. A little, fat man, and he looked kind of tired. But he didn’t seem able to stop it.”

Is it possible that Olbermann, who believes himself to be superior to his opponents by virtue of his socio-political beliefs, and who at one point was a bona fide celebrity, has spent so much time in his own head that he lashes out as he has on several occasions? Is he sitting at home like Lewis’s version of Napoleon, rehashing old slights to the point that X is the only outlet for his rage?

If Steele is right and the man needs help, is Progressivism (or whatever your preferred term is) a mental disorder? There are plenty of wags on the Right who have been happy to assert just that. And the chaotic demonstrations and riots, the wild-eyed woman posting on social media, the veiled and not-so-veiled threats from the trans community would theoretically offer evidence to support that. 

 Are Leftists crazy?

Let us start with the celebrities. In many cases, they are so far removed from the realities that everyday Americans face that they are clueless about real life. They also know to chirp up occasionally with whatever rhetoric their publicists tell them to say. So, no, they are not crazy. 

Moving on to the political and legacy media classes: These people may be true believers in the progressive cause, but they are so heavily invested in the movement that even if an error is glaringly obvious, they have no choice but to defend their positions. They are in too deep to back out or correct their courses.

That leaves us with the rank and file. These are the people Kevin Downey Jr. refers to as “your purple-haired, nose-ringed sister-in-law.” They are the black bloc agitators, the rioters, the Keffiyeh Studies Majors, the AWFLs, the fire-starters, the window-breakers, the pronoun-obsessed, the race baiters, those who haunt internet forums, and post hateful flyers on campuses and unsettling videos on X. Some of them are quite capable of picking up a rifle and ending a life.

Many such people are obviously mentally ill. It is also a safe bet that many people struggle to navigate life and handle the challenges that come with a world that is increasingly fractured, digital, and isolating. Life was difficult enough before the 21st Century and the chaos it has brought us. For those without a solid footing, it must be intimidating. 

Related: I Was a Teenage Leftist

So perhaps the left has, by accident or design, attracted some who have a mental illness, some who are disenfranchised or frightened, some who are disaffected, and some who, quite frankly, are merely immature. Its leaders have told those people, “Yes, you are victims. You have been injured, and you have been damaged.” And, like Napoleon in “The Great Divorce,” they are walking around their apartments and sitting on their social media accounts and discussion boards and in their groups, saying, “It’s the Republicans’ fault. It’s Trump’s fault. It’s the Christians’ fault, it’s the straight people’s fault, it’s the white patriarchy’s fault.” This, combined with the rhetoric of the left’s political and social leaders, results in these emotions, whether caused by mental illness or garden-variety existential angst, being shunted into a feedback loop that can and has resulted in tragedy.   

Progressivism is not a mental illness. But Progressives have apparently seen fit to co-opt those who struggle with reality on one or more levels and turn them into foot soldiers. And that is diabolical. 

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