I feel like this is a complicated thing to talk about because while being mentally ill should not be an excuse for bigotry, often times, it can definitely influence a part of it. As you said, mentally ill people are a large, diverse group of people and even two people with the same illness can find that it affects them differently. For e…
I feel like this is a complicated thing to talk about because while being mentally ill should not be an excuse for bigotry, often times, it can definitely influence a part of it. As you said, mentally ill people are a large, diverse group of people and even two people with the same illness can find that it affects them differently. For example, Elliot Rodgers who was autistic fell into incel behavior and murdered a whole group of women. His behavior while absolutely horrendous and inexcusable was also a product of the isolation he felt due to the way he was treated as an autistic person. Omitting that does my community no favours. But, this obviously does not mean that the entire autistic community only consists of incel mass murderers. The main difference between Elliot Rodgers and another autistic person who is mentally stable is the presence of a good support system. I think it would help to focus on that instead of demonizing the autism itself. This applies to all other mental health conditions.
From my experience of mental illness, the availability of "the presence of a good support system" is relevant only if the patient is willing to avail her or himself of it. I don't know about autistic people, but my 40 years of experience with a schizo-affected manic depressive taught me that getting the patient to accept the support weas 90% of the battle.
"being mentally ill should not be an excuse for bigotry, often times, it can definitely influence a part of it"
Yeah, I think you could make a strong case that everybody who lacks a good support system will end up suffering some degree of mental illness. And yes, I certainly don't think Elliot Rodger should be considered at all representative of autistic people. Any more than a "neurotypical" murderer should be considered representative of people who don't have autism.
Autistic people tend to struggle a bit more with the complexities of social interaction and abstract though, and that makes them more vulnerable to certain types of bad thinking. But I'd never heard anybody suggest that Kanye is autistic before Rivka. As far as I'm aware he's not autistic.
But as far as mental illness goes, I guess the question is, is it bigotry if one is saying something because they're mentally ill? Or maybe it's worth going one step back and thinking carefully about what we mean by bigotry. If Kanye "loves Hitler," is that bigotry? How about if he thinks the Holocaust didn't happen? These are varying degrees of stupid, but are they bigotry? I honestly don't think so.
The word "bigotry" (as it's commonly used today) implies hatred that I genuinely don't believe Kanye feels. I think he's a lost, confused man who allows his emotions much more than any thought process to guide him and words. This might work pretty well for music. But not so much for socio-political commentary.
Ah yes, that definitely is true. I think that one of the main issues with most current mainstream discourse is that we're so quick to label everything as bigotry or some form of phobia or supremacy without even examining where it stems from. People can't say that certain elements of autism might make people of the neurotype more vulnerable to harmful ideologies without it either ending with people villanizing autism entirely or the person making the claim being accused of some form of ableism. And yes, we do often confuse misinformation or ignorance for hatred too.
His statements about Jews and Hitler are simply beyond the pale and wholely inexcusable. Whether or not his behavior has roots in mental illness is of only the mildest interest. He's a Nazi. Nazis should be shunned; they should not be esteemed in any way, they should not be allowed in the police, military, or representative government. They should be denied employment but the most menial. Society must express its disapproval in every way short of murdering them.
And I don't regard that crap Kanye creates to be music. That insults all of us who stayed home playing scales and arpeggios while our friends were out drinking and playing foosball.
I feel like this is a complicated thing to talk about because while being mentally ill should not be an excuse for bigotry, often times, it can definitely influence a part of it. As you said, mentally ill people are a large, diverse group of people and even two people with the same illness can find that it affects them differently. For example, Elliot Rodgers who was autistic fell into incel behavior and murdered a whole group of women. His behavior while absolutely horrendous and inexcusable was also a product of the isolation he felt due to the way he was treated as an autistic person. Omitting that does my community no favours. But, this obviously does not mean that the entire autistic community only consists of incel mass murderers. The main difference between Elliot Rodgers and another autistic person who is mentally stable is the presence of a good support system. I think it would help to focus on that instead of demonizing the autism itself. This applies to all other mental health conditions.
From my experience of mental illness, the availability of "the presence of a good support system" is relevant only if the patient is willing to avail her or himself of it. I don't know about autistic people, but my 40 years of experience with a schizo-affected manic depressive taught me that getting the patient to accept the support weas 90% of the battle.
The biggest problem with schizophrenics is that they stop taking their medications.
Ah, that's an excellent point I hadn't thought of. Accepting the help is definitely a huge part of it.
"being mentally ill should not be an excuse for bigotry, often times, it can definitely influence a part of it"
Yeah, I think you could make a strong case that everybody who lacks a good support system will end up suffering some degree of mental illness. And yes, I certainly don't think Elliot Rodger should be considered at all representative of autistic people. Any more than a "neurotypical" murderer should be considered representative of people who don't have autism.
Autistic people tend to struggle a bit more with the complexities of social interaction and abstract though, and that makes them more vulnerable to certain types of bad thinking. But I'd never heard anybody suggest that Kanye is autistic before Rivka. As far as I'm aware he's not autistic.
But as far as mental illness goes, I guess the question is, is it bigotry if one is saying something because they're mentally ill? Or maybe it's worth going one step back and thinking carefully about what we mean by bigotry. If Kanye "loves Hitler," is that bigotry? How about if he thinks the Holocaust didn't happen? These are varying degrees of stupid, but are they bigotry? I honestly don't think so.
The word "bigotry" (as it's commonly used today) implies hatred that I genuinely don't believe Kanye feels. I think he's a lost, confused man who allows his emotions much more than any thought process to guide him and words. This might work pretty well for music. But not so much for socio-political commentary.
Ah yes, that definitely is true. I think that one of the main issues with most current mainstream discourse is that we're so quick to label everything as bigotry or some form of phobia or supremacy without even examining where it stems from. People can't say that certain elements of autism might make people of the neurotype more vulnerable to harmful ideologies without it either ending with people villanizing autism entirely or the person making the claim being accused of some form of ableism. And yes, we do often confuse misinformation or ignorance for hatred too.
His statements about Jews and Hitler are simply beyond the pale and wholely inexcusable. Whether or not his behavior has roots in mental illness is of only the mildest interest. He's a Nazi. Nazis should be shunned; they should not be esteemed in any way, they should not be allowed in the police, military, or representative government. They should be denied employment but the most menial. Society must express its disapproval in every way short of murdering them.
And I don't regard that crap Kanye creates to be music. That insults all of us who stayed home playing scales and arpeggios while our friends were out drinking and playing foosball.