General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe need to start having a public health approach to the US political situation
You encounter a man screaming about violent lesbian gangs taking over US cities, he of course has not a single shred of evidence backing his claim up, and he is known for another conspiracy theory.
Is he a schizophrenic? No. He is (or was) a Fox News contributor.
You encountered that man on your television set. Instead of getting him treatment and not enabling him, our political culture promotes him as the "other side of the aisle" opposite of us.
Just how deep does this go really though?
If you have stacks of old newspapers, don't want to give any of that excessive amount away, and are hiding them away from people; then you are a compulsive hoarder. Change it to money, and you're an esteemed "job creator" all of the sudden. Take that money away and the pundits say you are waging "class warfare", not helping a sick person with "affluenza".
If you go out of your way to shock and offend people, make wildly untrue and exaggerated claims, don't care about the feelings of others, are into self-aggrandizement, don't show any empathy, etc.; then there is a good chance you have a serious personality disorder. If you do this in front of a group of white men (Disclosure: White male myself), then you're just being "politically incorrect" and you're just telling it like it is. Weird right?
Confabulation and WernickeKorsakoff syndrome are problems relating to human memory, it means you have bizarre and distorted memories that have no bearing in what really happened. Your memory of what you did does not include the characters from your favorite TV show dropping by and giving you Christmas presents. That's a very clear example of what damaged memory errors are exactly. But hey, say the time before the Civil War "even though there was some slavery" was the greatest ever and you might almost become a Senator. Slap a confederate flag and it's no longer "You don't know what you are talking about", now it's "Heritage, not hate".
I've kind of taken a light break, but I came back with this idea. And it needs to inhabit a good chunk of what we do; from how we vote, to how we do activism, and more.
* Call it out
* Make comparisons to mental illnesses
* Stop enabling, stop supporting enablers
* Learn the traits of people with personality disorders
* Stop supporting politicians and pundits just because they shock and offend people you don't like, see how accurate their claims are, what results they get
* And more
If you're wondering why our political culture has become so toxic as of late, then maybe this is why. Because we are failing to have this approach to it, it's time to grow up, and deal with the increasingly sick political environment.
SWBTATTReg
(22,114 posts)I ignore bullies too because of the exact points you make so well in your post, i.e., bully says something to me outlandish, and I tell them 'what, are you nuts!?' and generally walk away (this is in my family by the way).
Again, good post!
kimbutgar
(21,137 posts)Or they complain about lousy childhoods and blame everyone else for their problems. They have problems looking inward. In serious need of some psychiatric counseling.