One of the unfortunate byproducts of the dumbing down of America is the increased susceptibility of the populace to mass hysteria. Mass or collective hysteria is a psychogenic condition that occurs when a segment of the population manifests similar symptoms or ailments in reaction to an event.

In the US, the Salem Witch Trials in 1692-93 resulted in the execution of 20 people, 19 by hanging, when eight schoolgirls exhibited strange symptoms attributed to witchcraft and sorcery. More recently, the McMartin Child Care satanic ritual abuse scare in the 1980’s resulted in several people spending years in prison for unproven crimes.

The most recent example of mass hysteria is the reaction of left-wing media and politicians to President Donald Trump’s answer to a reporter’s question in the Helsinki press conference last week.

Like most of Trump’s non-scripted remarks, his press conference answers were disjointed and unorganized. Though Trump had said many times before the presser that Russia did try to “meddle” in the 2016 election, his answer in Helsinki seemed to exonerate Putin, who stood next to Trump.

Trump huddled with key advisers on Air Force One on the flight home and came out with the explanation the next day that he misspoke, saying “would” instead of “wouldn’t” in his remarks. Trump further clarified, saying he believed the U.S. intelligence assessment and not Putin’s denial.

So, given the President’s frequent inartful use of the language when he ad-libs, you would think his explanation would have been accepted and everyone would move on.

Instead, the left-wing media, politicians, and Republican Never-Trumpers went ballistic and remained in high dudgeon the rest of the week.

The epitome of the overreaction was the statement of former CIA Director John Brennan, who said the mere utterance of “would” by the President was “treasonous” and a “high crime or misdemeanor” that should result in impeachment.

This is the same Brennan who admitted to CNN in 2016 that he voted in 1976 for Gus Hall, the Communist Party candidate, for President because he was unhappy with “the system” and recognized the “need for change.”

In her July 20 column for the Wall Street Journal, Kim Strassel provided plenty of evidence that Brennan was the originator and chief proponent of the Trump/Russia collusion trope in 2016, while he was Director of the CIA.

The media and other Democrats howled all week about Trump’s “treason” and his softness on Russia and Putin. They feverishly claimed that Trump’s verbal gaff was as bad as 9/11, Pearl Harbor and the Holocaust.

This is the same media that ignored President Barack Obama’s disastrous policies toward Russia during his eight years in office, including assuring then-Russian President Dimitry Medvedev on a hot microphone that he would have “more flexibility” after the 2012 election; mocking Mitt Romney in a debate because Romney said Russia was the worst threat to global peace; doing nothing of substance in response to Russia’s role in destabilizing Syria, its annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine; and refusing to give defensive weapons to the Ukraine government to defend against Russian aggression.

But the worst malfeasance by Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was in allowing a Russian company to acquire 20 percent of the United States’ uranium deposits. The chief architect and beneficiary of the business deal, Canadian businessman Frank Giustra, a friend of Bill Clinton, then donated $131.5 million to the Clinton Foundation. The scheme is outlined in detail in Peter Schweitzer’s 2015 book “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich.”

President Trump has been tougher on Russia than any recent President. He has imposed the stiffest economic sanctions in history, placed sanctions on over 100 Russian individuals linked to Putin, expelled over 60 Russian “diplomats,” convinced NATO countries to increase their defense spending to discourage Russian interventionism and authorized the sale of defensive weapons to Ukraine.

Trump is bombastic and verbally inconsistent. He doesn’t communicate in diplomatic-speak or Swamp-speak. He prefers substance over process. But he is keeping his campaign promises by lowering taxes, reducing regulations and projecting strength in our foreign relations.

Trump has done more for this country in 18 months than Brennan has done in his entire career in the Swamp, and the President is no traitor. If all the evidence set forth by Strassel in her column about Brennan’s involvement in creating the Trump-Russia collusion fantasy is true, the same cannot be said for him.

Michael Henry writes in Oxford and can be reached at mhenryauthor@gmail.com.