Reminder: Crazy People Are Dangerous
1st July 2015
The Other McCain makes sure it doesn’t slip our minds.
How many times do I have to explain this? You let enough kooks run around loose — as has been the policy in this country since we de-institutionalized the mentally ill in the 1970s — and people adjust their expectations. People become accustomed to encountering weirdos, freaks and lunatics, jabbering madness to themselves on street corners or posting deranged nonsense on Tumblr blogs. You’re not even supposed to notice there is anything strange about these wild-eyed nutjobs roaming around with facial piercings, tattoos and purple hair. I’ve been denounced as an “ableist” for pointing out that a Tumblr feminist is mentally ill, even though her “about” page listed a long litany of psychiatric diagnoses and her writing was self-evidently crazy.
Well, you can’t call them “crazy” anymore, because then you’re stigmatizing the mentally ill, and stigma is bad. Probably not as bad as getting bashed in the face with a hammer, however.