Paranoia Strikes Deep, Into Your Life It Will Creep!

The purpose of the Society’s Building Blocks blog is “Critically Thinking About Things That Change Society” and it’s been a rather depressing task in the 21st century to witness all the absurdities coming to the forefront of our society that are destroying our culture and the core foundations of our country. It’s evident that hysteria, paranoia, bigotry, persecution, hate, mob justice, apocalyptic predictions, silencing of free speech, and Stalin’s show me the man and I’ll find you the crime kind of “justice” have all crept their way so deep into our society that they seem almost expected and acceptable to some people. This is thoroughly eroding our culture and society at its very core.

In todays installment, we again have a terribly biased blogger that’s local to the Madison, WI area. Dave Cieslewicz is the author of the Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos blog and he describes himself as a moderate and in some instances he has stated that he’s a classic liberal. Unfortunately; much (not all) of the rhetoric that Dave has shared in his blog essays can’t be considered moderate or supporting classic liberal ideals, some of it is way out in left field, aka extreme left.

Dave posted his most recent essay on Monday February 2, 2026 at exactly 8:00am titled “Does Paranoia Strike This Deep?” Dave starts this particular essay by stating,

“Sometimes I think I’m being paranoid. Other times I believe I’m right.”

So I think what Dave is trying to tell us with those two sentences is that he’s self aware and thinking critically about his own opinions. However, after that attempt to signal his virtue, Dave jumps straight off the rhetorical cliff into the dark abyss of Magic 8 Ball predictions, thus figuratively dropping his pants and exposing his hysterical paranoia.

“Today I believe I’ve got a justified concern. My worry is that Donald Trump will try to steal the mid-term elections in November and then try to run again and stay in power after 2028.”

To be completely transparent; towards the end of President Obama’s second term in 2014-2015 I had the impression that President Obama didn’t want to leave office, but I don’t think I ever went to the extremes writing that Obama “will try to steal” elections or “try to run again”. I do remember that there were three distinct bills proposed during President Obama’s two terms to repeal the 22nd Amendment thus allowing Obama to run again. These kinds of bills seem to be introduced routinely and never go anywhere, but the rhetoric from the political left at that time was really thick with the Saintly Obama could do no wrong kind of rhetoric.

Now you might be thinking something like, “that’s not being very fair Steve, give Dave a break, that’s only one example of hysterical paranoia” and you’d be correct; but unfortunately, Dave has given us a nice listing of what I think are the rough equivalent to Magic 8 Ball predictions with the addition of some rather pointed demonizations including a very, very literal demonization statement and that’s all in just one of his many blog essay’s.

Here is a list of Dave’s Magic 8 Ball predictions with some of my commentary. Please notice how Dave repetitively and intentionally uses the word “will” (which I bold for emphasis) as if these predictions of the future are already verifiable future facts:

1. Donald Trump “will try to steal the mid-term elections in November”.
   Where’s your evidence to support that Dave?
   
2. Donald Trump will “try to run again and stay in power after 2028”.
   Other than Trump’s trolling rhetoric, where’s your evidence to support that Dave?
   
3. Trump “will order Bondi/Patel to seize ballots in several Congressional districts won by Democrats”.
   Really, Trump will “order” them to do this? Where’s your evidence to support that?
   
4. Trump “will allege, without any evidence, that there has been some sort of voter fraud”.
   Interesting prediction? So Dave, do you have future newspapers to support this claim?
   
5. Trump “will order Mike Johnson to refuse to seat those Democrats, thus maintaining a Republican majority”. 
   Again, do you have future newspapers to support this claim?
   
6. The Supreme Court of the United States won’t do anything to stop Donald Trump.
   Let me get this right; you’re a taking a cheap shot at the Supreme Court because you don’t think they will intervene in something that hasn’t taken place? So their supposed to stop Donald Trump from doing something that he hasn’t done? Your prediction, aka false smear, of the Supreme Court is a really low cheap shot. I think your cheap shot at the Supreme Court is disgusting and you should be thoroughly ashamed.
   
7. “Every month or so there’s more evidence that this will be a Democratic blow out year”.
   So now you’re parroting election predictions as if they’re fact? To what end Dave? Is this some kind of preliminary setup to justify your predictions that Trump is going to steal the election? I think this is a type of circular argumentation, one unprovable prediction is used to support another unprovable prediction.
   
8. “What may happen in November will go way beyond that. It could be a full-on coup”.
   Now what’s going to happen is a “coup”? Can’t you hear how unhinged that sounds Dave?

Now that you know Dave’s partisan hackery version of verifiable future facts, aka pure propaganda, let’s list some of the additional fear mongering and literal demonizing rhetoric. I’ll add some commentary as I go:

1. “But that would require a Republican Party that hadn’t also sold its soul to the devil long ago.” Invoking the Devil when talking about the soul of Republicans is literally demonizing. “Sold its soul to the devil”, is stating two things as if they’re fact, first that Dave has proof that they sold their soul and second that the devil is who they sold their souls to. Dave must prove beyond a shadow of doubt using actual facts that they sold their soul to the devil by first specifically identifying who the Devil is and second Dave must provide proof that they sold their soul to that specific devil (are there contracts) or his claim is a baldfaced lie. If Dave can’t do this then Dave risks being publicly tarred as an immoral liar. PROVE YOUR CLAIM DAVE!
   
   Personally I call bull shit Dave, I think this claim is an IMMORAL LIE and you should publicly retract your lie.
   
2. Trump’s “complete take over of the Department of Justice and the FBI”. Complete take over? The President of the United States telling law enforcement agencies that they must do their job and enforce the law is not a take over of these institutions except in the mind of an extreme leftist. Telling these institutions to do their job is what’s called leadership. “Take over”; HOGWASH! Your claim is pure fear mongering targeting gullible people.
   
3. Trump’s “creation of his own paramilitary force in ICE”. Trump didn’t “create” ICE, ICE has been around for many years. You thinking that ICE doing their job, as opposed to Biden’s non-enforcement of the law, is somehow evidence that Trump created a paramilitary force, well I think that’s a stretch to absurdity. Maybe Dave doesn’t realize that ICE is an official law enforcement agency that is supposed to enforce the law. This statement from Dave is pure fear mongering and the implications of the “paramilitary force” statement are a baldfaced lie. You’re really scraping the bottom of the rhetorical barrel Dave.
   
4. Trump’s “got his Brown Shirts ready to restore ‘order'” if people protest. I thought you were scraping the bottom of the barrel, and had dug yourself in pretty deep but you kept digging. Invoking the Nazi brown shirts vs peaceful protesters completely undermines Dave’s integrity and gives the distinct impression that Dave is a political hack shilling for the Democratic Party. This was a foolish demonization.
   
5. Trump will “order in the National Guard and maybe even Federal troops”. If protesters remain peaceful and lawful, there won’t be much need, if any, to “restore order”, thus no need for the National Guard or Federal troops. This is pure fear mongering.
   
6. “The hard-right likes to talk about ‘Trump derangement syndrome’ as if opposition to a man who has quoted Hitler is a form of mental illness.” Invoking Hitler completely undermines Dave’s integrity and gives the distinct impression that Dave is a political hack shilling for the Democratic Party.

The following statement is an example of a pure conspiracy theory:

“That’s what all those “anti-crime” surges were about this summer and fall. Get people used to the idea of seeing troops in their cities.”

No Dave, Correlation ≠ Causation. This kind of rhetoric is a perfect example of how shills and propagandists try to intentionally manipulate the people around them by gaslighting. Maybe some gullible morons would accept this conspiracy theory as fact.

Additionally; I thought the following statement in Dave’s final paragraph was interesting.

“Trump has created so many constitutional crises that nobody even recognizes them as such anymore.”

Constitutional crises?

I call bull shit!

I don’t think Dave understands what a Constitutional crisis is and he’s simply parroting the rhetoric he’s heard from other Democratic Party shills, propagandists, and political tools. If Dave would like to try to prove his constitutional crisis claim by providing facts and precedence to support his claim, I’d like to read it. Barring that happening; I think Dave should dive into reading some of Jonathan Turley’s discussions on this topic.

The Klarman-Turley Debate: A Video and a Response
The Farbman-Turley Debate: The Video and Results
Panic Politics: Law Professors’ Umpteenth ‘Constitutional Crisis’ Falls Flat
Democrats Jump the Shark: The Latest Claims of a Constitutional Crisis Will Not Lead to “Happier Days”

There are also a couple of video debates specifically about the “Constitutional Crisis” topic that Dave should watch in their entirety.
The Klarman-Turley Debate, September 18, 2025
(Klarman made a fool of himself in this debate)

The Farbman-Turley Debate, September 30, 2025

I’m sure more of Turley’s discussions and videos on Constitutional crisis can be found if Dave would choose to look and learn. Also, if all of that isn’t enough for Dave to understand how wrong he is about the Constitutional Crisis rhetoric, then how about some video seminars from Alan Dershowitz. The Dershow With Alan Dershowitz has some very good informative videos on the claims going around regarding “Constitutional Crisis”.

Now if my readers don’t know this, neither Jonathan Turley or Alan Dershowitz are raving conservative hacks or even Republicans. They are both life long liberal Democrats that call out both sides of the political aisle when they are wrong about issues regarding the Constitution. These two professional academics have taught Constitutional law all over the USA and fought for constitutional rights for everyone. They fight FOR the constitution, as written, and they don’t kowtow to constitutional hacks that have been lying about it and trying to bastardize it into something it’s not.

Now back to Dave’s quote. The political left uses this tactic all the time, they accuse those they hate as if the accusation is verified fact and wide spread knowledge, but yet they provide no evidence to support their accusation. None. Zero. They will provide innuendo, implications, and statements by others accusing the same thing as if any of that proves their unsupported accusation.

It’s been shown to me on a regular basis that…

“The political left has shown its pattern of propaganda lies within their narratives so many times that it’s beyond me why anyone would blindly accept any narrative that the political left, their lapdog Pravda-USA media, their woke consumed bureaucracy, or their activist supporters actively push?” Steve Witherspoon

I’m not buying Dave’s parroted constitutional crises narrative either.

Dave also boldly tells us something else in his essay that critically thinking people have known for quite a while;

“…nobody is voting for any kind of Democratic agenda, Rather Democrats are showing up in droves, motivated by all of Trump’s outrageousness”

This is some pretty telling evidence supporting claims of Trump Derangement Syndrome and Dave just said/wrote the quiet part aloud.

The political left really hasn’t had much of an agenda since Trump jumped into politics. If Trump is for it, Democrats are against it; if Trump is against it, Democrats are for it – it really is just that simple. The Democratic Party fully expects their base to vote for anything that has a “D” (for Democrat) after the name. In fact Dave has openly stated in a March 2021 comment on his blog, “I am a center-left moderate. I vote for Democrats, but I’m not a partisan.” Yes, I’m aware that that statement contradicts itself. Dave further confirmed his partisan voting pattern in his September 9, 2021 blog post when he openly wrote “…I always vote for Democrats…”. Dave appears to be one of those allusive non critically thinking Democratic Party sheeple that always votes for Democrats that they claim doesn’t exist.

At this stage of the 21st century, it appears that the Democratic Party expect the votes they get to be based on pure anti-Trump derangement, hysteria, paranoia, bigotry, prejudice, hate, mob justice, apocalyptic predictions, silencing of free speech, and Stalin’s show me the man and I’ll find you the crime “justice”. Their ignorant voting base will kowtow to the party and willfully follow them over the cliff into oblivion by continuing their cultish voting bigotry. Of course the Democratic Party wants everyone to join their mindless cult and vote based on that nonsense too.

In my opinion; Dave doesn’t seem to have enough self awareness to understand that the image he is projecting to the world around him is not that virtuous, center-left moderate, classic liberal figure he thinks it is.

Generally speaking; so many Democrats over the years have shown others that their pompous, all knowing self image, is hokum and the Democrats can’t seem to shake their pompousness because they just know they’re right about everything. For the political left, there are four tenants of their so-called “truth”; the left is right, the right is wrong, wrong is evil, and evil must be destroyed and that’s the dead end of the 21st century political left’s critical thinking. It’s apparent to me that their bias and bigotry has completely consumed and blinded them.

Dave ended his essay with this conclusion…

“…at least as of today, I don’t think I’m being paranoid.”

I disagree with Dave’s conclusion.

Dave Cieslewicz’s blog post is evidence of exactly what’s wrong with the USA right now.