It is unbelievable that anyone could get that angry. But that anger in itself is not mental illness. Just isn’t.
The mentally ill are less prone to violence than mentally health people. Violence including murder.
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And you didn’t see me say she did. But she made a poorly-worded statement that could be framed as less-than-condemnatory. Which is why she had to clean it up a bit.
The reason she had to clean it up was not because her colleagues objected to her criticism of the health insurance industry. It’s because they objected to her leaving them open to allegations of thinking the murder was justified. Sensitive issues require carefully considered comments, and hers were not.
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Being completely set against the profit motive in medicine is understandable on many levels. Medicine is not a private good. Medicine is a public good. Medicine matters to human life even when the poor need it. Etc…etc…Denying medical care is a tragedy.
It’s not about me personally. You were already seeing republicans and conservatives attacking her as encouraging this type of violent activity. It’s politically damaging if you don’t nip that in the bud. It’s not a huge amount of damage - the consequences of one stray comment rarely are - but neither is it a huge amount of work to clarify your statement.
Seriously?
You think if Warren gets up in the morning and never says a thing the Republicans won’t faulter her? The entire predication of the defense is laughable. Life in politics will never work that way.
God could descend and tell everyone here Warren is his daughter and she will be faulted more by the conservatives not less.
You are making something up entirely that does not exist. But you are not alone in this nonsense.
We better stop talking entirely. There might be someone from the GOP here. Put them in charge even when we have power. Silence on all topics of concern. Yes the public totally agrees but we must be absolutely silent until we can frame what we say as next to nothing said.
Nope. But that’s not a problem when it’s deliberate. She has positions Republicans disdain. That’s fine.
When a politician says something inartful that might be misconstrued, though, then you can cause problems.
That’s why she cleaned up this statement, when she generally hasn’t cleaned up any of those other comments that Republicans fault her for. She knew that this was a poor choice of words, so she fixed it.
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20% of the vote is a given. Half red half blue.
80% think we are lying BSers. Nothing will move them. Only price stability matters.
The devil can show up and get their votes. 65% of them vote.
Warren or TFG can quote Hitler and they won’t mind.
I think you are over estimating them.
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Not at all. Again, this is a minor bit of political damage. But it’s an easily avoided - and easily repaired - political damage. Which is why she revisited her comments.
Elections aren’t just determined by campaigns. They’re won or lost by thousands and thousands of small actions that are taken in the years leading up to the election as well. Constituent services, voter outreach, newsletters and speeches and phone calls and a thousand other small choices that factor into whether a politician - or their party - is thought of favorably or not. Warren is a good politician, so she knows this. Which, again, is why she didn’t let a tiny self-inflicted wound go unaddressed.
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Aside from getting into the philosophical free will arguments, the practical difficulty of this idea is that there should be no criminal penalty then. Confinement in most cases, certainly, but only in a mental health facility. If someone commits murder, their mental illness absolves them of any volitional responsibility.
Pete
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and that creates the real damage in the public’s eyes.
It is not what she said in the first instance.
It is what that she is not trustworthy to stand by a simple statement without going weak. Why make any promises?
You see the finer points of promises. The larger public sees someone who does not stand by things. The perception is damning.
The GOP steered her into being weak and not standing for anything. She figured out how to be steered by the other party. She just does not see that.
If she had chosen her words carefully, then sure. Then it’s a substantive backtrack.
It’s not “weak” to recognize that you said something that might be misconstrued, and then clarify what you meant.
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Except it is not philosophical. Mislabeling people as mentally ill is wrong.
Murder is murder and human beings commit murder.
Was he bio polar, or depressed, or schizoid? Possibly a tad like many people but not mentally ill.
He did not have to have any break with reality to commit murder.
You are kidding yourself.
We have zero to show for it.
This is like did I dot that i? Let’s get back there and dot that i if we want people to like us.
Living your life color outside the lines. It will be okay.
The best artists loosen up. Those who can’t make crap art. The public perception is the opposite.
Ah, but even with no “break with reality” that doesn’t in itself mean he’s not insane. Anybody think mafia hitmen aren’t crazy? Clinically not idomatically. Of course they are. But they always know what they’re doing. This is merely a matter of the cautiously clinical way they define insanity as a legal defense.
How about businessmen who run the numbers to maximize profits while knowing the doing of it will necessarily cause other people’s death directly? And I’m sure they took lawsuits and deaths caused into account with those numbers the way GM did with the Corvair. That could be portrayed pretty easily as a mass murder, schizoid, detached from reality type. Guilty or not guilty?
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Insane is not a psych word. It is a legal definition for knowing right from wrong.
He may well have been completely sane.
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The fact he fled and did as much as he could to get away with it, to me, signifies sanity. He knew right from wrong. He knew what he did was wrong. He did it anyway. As that guy said, “the pitchforks are out”. Right or wrong is close to irrelevant now. The question is what will the industry and TPTB do about it? Will anything change? Or will we hang up on this wake up call and go back to sleep?
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Re: Mentally ill
You might suspect lots of pain meds are part of the story.
Yup. So, if the media doesn’t paint him as a “disturbed individual” aka nut, they paint him as a “Commie that hates free enterprise”.
Steve
Re: Plan get away
Yes, to me a pre-planned murder is a capital crime. Should be subject to death penalty.
Sane enough to plan a murder is not mentally ill.
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yes but plenty of people addicted to pain meds are not murders.
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