The American left has descended into full-blown mental illness about Trump being sort of Russian intelligence asset.

Here is a 1987 article from newsletter "Elephants and Donkeys" explicitly saying Soviets were cultivating Trump as pres canididate pic.twitter.com/16yiyGpqBd

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) December 24, 2016

Looking back, I can’t believe I ever avidly read Sarah Kendzior or trusted her on anything — she’s no better than the wackiest HAARP/chemtrails conspiracy theorist out there now.

Not that it’s just Kendzior, of course. It’s much if not most of the Left. Never thought in my lifetime I’d see the resurgence of McCarthyism, especially from the side from which it has been renascent this time around. So very bizarre.

The Left’s story is now basically that the entire election was determined by Russia and that they are somehow effectively mind-controlling Trump and perhaps other people in government.

Sure, sounds likely.

My title for this piece was “mental illness” and I do think conspiracy theories count as a low-grade form of it — so in this case I was not exaggerating.

The thinkers I most enjoy reading are ones whose ideas are so unorthodox and divergent that I can’t even decide on a basis of evaluation to determine the rectitude or future applicability of their ideas.

Haraway makes me think of ideas I’d never considered, which is something so few people ever do.

I don’t even care if most of the ideas are wrong, because even incorrect ideas can lead to worthy thought paths.

I’m not a right-thinking individual because there is no easier way to be ever wrong than to be always right.

From what I can tell, Hamilton is just as much kitschy, louche bullshit as a WWE Smackdown or a monster truck rally, but one that appeals to the bizarre biases and manias of the approved cultural elites rather than the less educated.

And yes, I’ve been to a WWE event and a monster truck rally — I grew up really redneck, remember?

Hamilton is also just less likely to impress me I think because I have at least the same if not more verbal cleverness as Lin-Manuel Miranda, but am far less social and am far too inveterately indolent to ever achieve anything like that. It all just seems like cheap parlor tricks to me because I pen that sort of crap in my sleep.

As my partner knows, I literally make up songs extemporaneously much like the ones in Hamilton and sing them to her aloud, often to things that she says (so I respond flawlessly in my own poesy to words she throws to me).

Anyway, I am neither attempting to raise the status of a WWE Smackdown nor lower the status of Hamilton, but to point out that Hamilton has more schmaltz and cliche than a 1980s rock radio station, and only seems clever if you ignore history, sense and the desire for a good rhyme scheme.

(Note that I actually have not seen all of Hamilton, but have watched as much as I can tolerate on YouTube and various other sites.)

There was a time in my life when I cared more about being socially approved by the sort of people who like something like Hamilton, but now I’d rather go to the monster truck rally any day. More excitement and engagement with the world, less unnecessary hagiography.