Talk about a lack of proportion. Some people will use any excuse to tear their hair out. The recent epidemic of Harper Derangement Syndrome we’re seeing is case in point.

Based on the rhetoric I heard at a protest against Bill C-51 on the weekend, you’d think our country had been over taken by force by a gang of Fascist Statist Right-Wing Evil Dictatorship Control Freak Conservatives.

In front of Toronto City Hall Saturday, the most popular placard carried by the thousand or so protesters was a picture of Prime Minister Stephen Harper with the label “TERRORIST” slapped across his face.

“I’m more afraid of Stephen Harper than terrorists” read one protester’s homemade sign.

Each to his own, but you’ll excuse me if I side with the leader from the parliamentary democracy over the zealots who throw people in cages and burn them. But I’m quirky that way.

Also, someone should warn the lady with the sign that hopping on a plane to join ISIS comes with a greater penalty than driving to Ottawa to pose for photos in front of 24 Sussex Drive.

Let’s not have too much fun with this though.

These people are genuinely messed up and need help. This is a unique form of mental illness in which folks living in a peaceful liberal democracy with a decent standard of living feel so guilty about their quality of life that their mind actually tricks them into thinking that they’re worse off in Canadian society than in Burma, North Korea and so on, just so they can sleep better at night. It's like the geopolitical version of anorexia.

Think I’m being over the top? One speaker took to the podium to actually tell the crowd, “I haven’t been sleeping at night because I am angry we are living in a quiet dictatorship.”

You can’t make this stuff up folks. Well you actually can… because that’s precisely what these nuts have done.

Bill C-51 is no masterpiece. The bill’s main problem is that the proposed tweaks likely won’t have much of a difference when it comes to fighting terror.

Since October, a number of suspected jihadis have already been arrested. It’s not like law enforcement is currently working with their hands tied behind their backs. The law we have now works.

But granting CSIS limited policing powers is no great scandal – most comparable countries already have such a set up. Yet this is the main point in the bill that gets people screaming that we're now living in a police state.

And the section on propaganda is poorly worded and must be cleaned up in committee to ensure it only applies to those explicitly advocating material support for ISIS, not to some confused tourist who happens to walk past a pro-Palestinian protest.

But these nuanced points are lost on the frothing mob, so desperately do they want to believe that we actually do live in a dictatorship.

Mental health experts speaking off the record have told me they haven’t seen a case this bad since Bush Derangement Syndrome hit its peak a decade ago.

And at least George W. Bush invaded another country. There was at least something to legitimately get worked up about.

Doctors orders: Put your feet up. Lie down. Read the Wikipedia entry on C.D. Howe and take three doses of reality check with a little chill pill mixed in.

If you don’t deal with this case of HDS soon, you’ll be too far gone – spending the rest of your days standing in front of the library jabbering on about the microchips the government put in your head.

I don’t trust the government either, but I’ve also read Don Quixote and that guy was messed. They’re not giants, dude! They’re just windmills!

HDS sufferers also need to understand that if Stephen Harper truly is an evil conservative terrorist dictator, he’s doing a really crummy job of it.

When they’re being honest, most Conservatives will admit they’re disappointed with Harper’s conservative track record.

The social conservatives are clearly dismayed that after a decade of Harper, there are still no abortion laws, gay marriage isn’t going away anytime soon and prostitution is now more or less legit.

But hey, such fearmongering about the evangelical Christian takeover sold a few subscriptions to The Walrus so it was all worth it, no?

Those of us in the economic conservative and libertarian camps are upset with all the new niche tax credits, the record amount of debt and how the Conservatives will endlessly dole out pork barrel spending to special interests just so long as they can get a nifty photo op out of it.

That’s the thing with HDS sufferers. It really is derangement. The facts don’t fit the narrative.

While Hamlet could still tell the difference between a hawk and a handsaw – and he was bonkers! – these guys can’t tell the difference between a terrorist in the Middle East and the leader of a G7 nation.

Get help. I beg you.