Here we go again...

[dazed and confused]

So there's been another mass shooting in the US and who gets the blame? Why the mentally ill of course - especially those of us with psychosis. I swear most of those people who describe the killer as being psychotic wouldn't know if someone was psychotic if they fell over them. They just describe them as being that way because it sounds scary and makes us look like we're deranged but what people forget is that the majority of violent crimes are committed by those who have no mental disorder. So what does that say about the so - called "normal" population? Instead of blaming society's shortcomings on the mentally ill who don't choose to be that way, blame it instead on those who make the choice to do evil things. Or is that too logical?

[crtclms]

I don't know how much clearer he could have been. He said he wanted to kill black people. He told a black woman that he wanted her to pass on a message about why he killed black people. He told his friends about his plans to kill black people. Who wears the flag of Rhodesia, let alone apartheid South Africa? His website was titled something like lastRhodesian. He had a confederate flag on his car. Not that everyone with a confederate flag is a potential mass murderer, but it fits the bigger picture.

But (and this is not my blaming it on mental illness, it's just been really obvious) he has an unbelievably flat affect. I can't get over how flat.

It doesn't change the fact that he knew precisely what he was doing, and why.

He doesn't like Jews either. It makes me proud to be a Jew.

[jt07]

They always say mass murders are psychotic. I think the general population thinks psychotic = violent, but most mass murders are not psychotic and more psychotic people are likely to be the victims of violence than commit violence. It's a stigma and we have to work to educate people.

It's sickens me that someone who is so hate filled (and hate is always learned) is being described as mentally ill. 

Edited June 21, 2015 by jt07

[Gearhead]

People like to blame the mentally ill because it "otherizes" the assailant. And saying that someone must be crazy makes the problem seem easier to deal with. So much easier than addressing racism in America.

I am proud to be a Jew as well...but I pray with one eye open.

Edited June 21, 2015 by Gearhead

[dazed and confused]

They always say mass murders are psychotic. I think the general population thinks psychotic = violent, but most mass murders are not psychotic and more psychotic people are likely to be the victims of violence than commit violence. It's a stigma and we have to work to educate people.

It's sickens me that someone who is so hate filled (and hate is always learned) is being described as mentally ill. You don't learn a mental illness.

Exactly and that's the point I try to make when I hear such comments.

[jt07]

They always say mass murders are psychotic. I think the general population thinks psychotic = violent, but most mass murders are not psychotic and more psychotic people are likely to be the victims of violence than commit violence. It's a stigma and we have to work to educate people.

It's sickens me that someone who is so hate filled (and hate is always learned) is being described as mentally ill. You don't learn a mental illness.

Exactly and that's the point I try to make when I hear such comments.

I took back that mental illnesses are not learned because undoubtedly some mental illnesses have a learned component to them, but hate is always learned. Had the shooter been raised in a black household, he would not have harbored such hate. 

I agree that calling such shooters mentally ill amounts to "othering" them so that people can feel smug and secure that they would never do such things. It makes it easier to avoid the real issues such as the easy access to guns and racism.

[Dzo]

Since when does being a racist mean you are mentally ill? ........ that is my question.

[crtclms]

Alan Poussaint, who is a psychiatrist who used to advise the Cosby Show in the 80s, thinks racism should be in the DSM as a mental illness. He points out that trying to escape slavery used to be considered a mental illness. Still, I don't think you can designate huge percentages of the country mentally ill just because the rest of us "know better."

[Sloane]

I grew up an hour out from Charleston (it was "the big city" we went to when we had to get things), so this hits close to home. All I can muster to say is that this has nothing to do with mental illness, this has nothing to do with SSRI's, this had nothing to do with guns...this has to do with one person who had a lot of misguided hate. I can imagine there being some kind of attachment issue developed on top of being taught hate?

On a different note...I was happy to see the support and peaceful protest for the Victims, their family, and the Church so close to home. Over 20,000 people showed up to Charlestons bridge (they were expecting 3,000!) to form a giant 'Unity Chain'.