Trump Supporters: When the Sad Dementia Takes Over , Here’s the Science

The caustic stench of bitter coffee mingles with the metallic tang of spite that hangs in the air as another middle-aged man in a faded red cap smirks at his phone, thumbs pounding out another "I love the sound of Democrats panicking in the morning" comment. The gritty satisfaction scrapes across his tongue like sandpaper as he hits send, the dopamine rush flooding his system better than the lukewarm coffee ever could. But what exactly is happening in the diseased neural pathways of these people who derive such visceral pleasure from the distress of their fellow Americans? What clinical pathology explains when someone's idea of a good morning is imagining the tears and fears of their neighbors?

This isn't just politics as usual. This is something clinically significant, pathologically abnormal, and frankly, fucking disturbing when you peel back the layers of forced civility we pretend still exists in American discourse. The gleeful celebration of others' distress reveals a diagnosable …