The Diagnosis of Coherence

A Prescription for Truth

This is, after all, a philosophy blog.

Okay, so. Hi. My name's Mike Brock. Here's the thing. I went to see the Doctor. Not just any Doctor. The Doctor. Of Logic and Coherence, being the great elixirs for the affliction of Lies, and for the Restoration of Truth. And do you know what I found? I found that I don't suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. That's the good news.

The bad news? Reality itself is deranged.

You see, there's a peculiar inversion happening in our discourse. Those who maintain fidelity to consistent principles, who apply the same standards regardless of political alignment, who insist that words have meaning and actions have consequences—these people are now labeled as suffering from a syndrome. A derangement. A pathology.

Meanwhile, those who contort themselves into logical pretzels, who abandon previously sacred principles with casual ease, who accept contradictions that would make Orwell blush—these are supposedly the clear-eyed realists. The pragmatists. The sane ones.

The Doctor of Logic and Coherence has a different diagnosis.

When you notice that threatening to abandon NATO allies unless they “pay their bills” contradicts decades of American security doctrine, that's not derangement—that's pattern recognition. When you observe that withdrawing from military exercises in Europe creates a vacuum that adversaries will eagerly fill, that's not partisan hysteria—that's cause-and-effect reasoning. When you point out that conditioning collective defense on financial contributions transforms an alliance into a protection racket, that's not emotional overreaction—that's definitional clarity.

The true derangement would be normalizing the abnormal. Accepting the unacceptable. Calling coherence “derangement” and calling derangement “strategic genius.”

There's a reason Logic and Coherence are the physicians of truth. They don't care about your political preferences. They don't bend to personality or power. They simply ask: Does this make sense? Does this hold together? Does this remain consistent across contexts?

Apply these questions to our current moment, and the diagnosis becomes clear. The patient isn't those who express alarm at alarming developments. The patient is our collective capacity to distinguish sense from nonsense, consistency from contradiction, principle from expediency.

This isn't about partisanship. The same standards must apply regardless of who holds power. The same logical rules must govern our assessment of all policies, all leaders, all proposals. The moment we abandon this consistency, we abandon the possibility of meaningful discourse altogether.

The Doctor of Logic and Coherence doesn't prescribe blind opposition or reflexive support. The prescription is simpler: Hold the line on meaning itself. Refuse the invitation to make exceptions for power. Maintain the stubborn insistence that two plus two still equals four, even when saying so gets you labeled as deranged.

Because here's what they don't tell you about so-called “Trump Derangement Syndrome”: it's a linguistic weapon designed to short-circuit critical thinking. It transforms the rational application of consistent standards into a psychological disorder. It pathologizes coherence itself.

This is gaslighting on a grand scale. When enough people accept that noticing contradictions, inconsistencies, and norm violations is a form of derangement, then truth itself becomes negotiable. Reality becomes whatever power says it is. And that is the prelude to something far darker than partisan disagreement.

The Doctor's prescription is straightforward but demanding: Maintain your grip on reality even when reality itself seems to be losing its grip. Remember that the principles that mattered yesterday still matter today, regardless of who benefits from them or who abandons them. Recognize that coherence isn't a luxury but a necessity—the immune system of a healthy society.

I don't suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. I suffer from an inability to pretend that incoherence is coherent, that lies are truth, that betrayal is loyalty, that weakness is strength. If that's a syndrome, then perhaps we need more of it, not less.

The Doctor of Logic and Coherence has one final recommendation: Find others who still believe in the healing power of consistency, of principle, of truth that doesn't bend to power. Because in times of mass confusion, clarity is found not in isolation but in community. Not in retreat but in connection. Not in surrender but in the shared commitment to reality itself.

Remember what's real. Hold the center. Push back the flood.

And know that you're not the one who's deranged.