Stephen Armstrong: I'm getting a wee bit tense

The anger and resentment in the Gazette’s letters puzzle me. What could drive people this way? The biggest, wealthiest, and the most generous country ever, in a county that seems to be doing all right — and yet we frame our politics in this?

Liberals think Trump has an obvious problem: He is a psychopathic narcissist who torches people who do not bow down. The right takes this obvious criticism, collects it into a nasty political and cultural fury. This conservative rage is self-justified and amplified by insult. Take that, you snowflake.

Psychologists toddle out weak explanations of anger and resentment. Some talk about “cognitive dissonance,” so fans of Trump cannot acknowledge faults in their thinking. On the flip side, the leftist rage has forsaken reality. It stuns one to read that Amherst is shedding some of its best-trained and experienced educators because of allegations of adults “not protecting” some children.

C’mon. Puh-leeze. Faulty narcissism leads to anger and rage. And to distorted reality.To prepare for November, count your teeth. Do you see this getting better?

Stephen Armstrong

Hadley