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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow is it that only middle to upper class white males get the label mentally disturbed....
...when they do something so fucking horrific like this?
If this had been a brown (gasp) Muslim this would be labeled terrorism.
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geckosfeet
(9,644 posts)alphafemale
(18,497 posts)geckosfeet
(9,644 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)I daresay, thousands of young men of every ethnicity get labeled as mentally ill every year.
Brainstormy
(2,380 posts)and as the mother of two children who are psychologists, I can tell you that your statement is nonsense. But I could also tell you that with a degree in taxidermy and as the mother of two professional bowlers!
cali
(114,904 posts)Just what, precisely, in my op is nonsense? do tell.
your nonsense was that only upper class white males get labeled as mentally disturbed.
cali
(114,904 posts)geckosfeet
(9,644 posts)Uhhh.
Does that ring any fucking bells at all?? Or is it really that empty in your attic?
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)I've done quite a few evaluations of offenders for issues like competency to stand trial & "insanity" pleas. Somebody else must be getting all the high-socioeconomic-status cases. Most of my referrals come from Public Defenders. I haven't noticed any shortage of minority defendants either. I bill the state about 60% of my full regular rate for these cases, so I must be missing out on all the lucrative ones.
alphafemale
(18,497 posts)You really think that if a brown skinned Muslim had broken into a grade school and slaughtered 28 people including 18 children that we would be discussing...mental health issues?
It would be terrorism. period.
Kei7777
(10 posts)If it's mental illness it will be labeled as mental illness. If it's terrorism, it will be labeled as terrorism. Stop with the paranoia.
cali
(114,904 posts)you stated that only middle and upper class white males are diagnosed as mentally ill. n By the way, dearie, ever heard of Seung-Hui Cho? Not white. Massacred 32 people. Diagnosed as mentally ill. Do try and educate yourself before trying to stir up shit.
alphafemale
(18,497 posts)That if a Muslim male of that age had broken into a school and slaughtered children the assumption would be terrorism.
Not...oh he was sick.
Chicken hawks would be calling for war with some bewildered, sandy country by now and blaming Obama for weakness.
alphafemale
(18,497 posts)Horrific things done by these white boys...all labeled as disturbed behavior.
The one mass shooting by a man that happened to be Muslim? Terrorism.
cali
(114,904 posts)First of all, not all have been diagnosed as mentally ill. And there has been a great deal of speculation about Hassam's mental condition. I said at the time that I believe he's mentally ill and that the Army is responsible for not having done something.
<snip>
According to National Public Radio (NPR), officials at Walter Reed Medical Center repeatedly expressed concern about Hasan's behavior during the entire six years he was there; Hasan's supervisors gave him poor evaluations and warned him that he was doing substandard work. In early 2008 (and on later occasions) several key officials met to discuss what to do about Hasan. Attendees of these meetings reportedly included the Walter Reed chief of psychiatry, the chairman of the USUHS Psychiatry Department, two assistant chairs of the USUHS Psychiatry Department (one of whom was the director of Hasan's psychiatry fellowship), another psychiatrist, and the director of the Walter Reed psychiatric residency program. According to NPR, fellow students and faculty were strongly troubled by Hasan's behavior, which they described as "disconnected," "aloof," "paranoid," "belligerent," and "schizoid."[75]
<snip>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood_shooting#
You really love pulling crap out of your....
DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)I see no difference between mass gun murder and bombs
Brainstormy
(2,380 posts)You see no difference between what Timothy McVeigh did, for very political reasons, and a mentally disturbed individual who goes into a mall and starts shooting at random?
DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)He was a f-u-c-k-i-n-g terrorist, and so was the shooter yesterday.
Sorry you don't get that.
cali
(114,904 posts)that you can't tell the difference between these two situations speaks to your own myopic view. Why not just say all murder is terrorism? After all, all murders cause terror for someone. Terrorism has, for better or worse, specific elements. And a political motivation is one of them. there is no indication that Lanza had any political motivation. There was tons of evidence that McVeigh did. That doesn't make one act more or less heinous than the other.
DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)And I'm sorry you don't think so.
cali
(114,904 posts)Do try. It's sad.
DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)piss off
cali
(114,904 posts)but take great umbrage when someone questions you're clearly lacking critical thinking skills? Don't like it? Tough shit
Response to cali (Reply #24)
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cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)Response to Post removed (Reply #26)
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gollygee
(22,336 posts)It's determined by the motive for the crime: to terrorize people - like to make them scared to go to school.
If this was done because the shooter thought it would make kids afraid to go to school, then it was an act of terror.
If he did it only because of some mental instability or something with no thought of whether it would make people afraid to send their kids to school, then it wasn't.
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)Your posts demonstrate that you don't know what the words 'terrorist" and "terrorism" mean.
Fair enough.
Being ignorant is not crime in itself, but you are using your ignorance as the basis for attacking people, like claiming a poster said Timothy McVeigh was a hero.
At that point, normally sympathetic conditions like ignorance or mental limitation reach the boundaries of sympathy.
Ignorance does not justify such hateful behavior, even if you somehow sincerely believe that terrorism means whatever it is you erroneously think it means.
Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts)does not equate with calling him a hero.
There is plenty of evidence, including McVeigh's own interviews, indicating that he was a political terrorist.
Brainstormy
(2,380 posts)I said nothing about hero. I said McVeigh was politically motivated. That's terroism.
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)(Thought not a Muslim, Mr. Ferguson was assuredly not white.)
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)is committed by foreigners for a "cause." Domestic terrorism may be for a "cause," or it may be for some unknown reason. If the mass killer is warped and there is no political or religious cause, then I don't know if it qualifies as terrorism. I don't think so.
There's nothing to indicate a political or religious cause yet in this case.
The soldier who killed his fellow soldiers (he was muslim)...he had a jihad "cause," according to him or other evidence, as I recall.
But you bring up something that is noteworthy: all of the mass killers in the U.S. who haven't killed for a political or religious cause have been young white males, haven't they?
Dyedinthewoolliberal
(15,577 posts)because the great majority of these kinds of incidents were perpetrated by someone who was mentally disturbed. Not too many (I know there's been a few) by people of color and none that I'm aware of by a woman. 
Cetacea
(7,367 posts)Although in some cultures killing one's children is not considered a sign of mental illness.
Dyedinthewoolliberal
(15,577 posts)but again, not very many women.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)As of August, his attorney says his client wants to pead guilty for religious reasons. The killer says he is guilty.
"the judge addressed a motion by Hasan's lawyers that indicated he wished to plead guilty for religious reasons "to take responsibility for his actions."
The military judge, Col. Gregory Gross, said he was not allowed to accept a guilty plea in the capital case, but that Hasan's lawyers could still enter it. "
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/15/nation/la-na-nn-nidal-hasan-trial-stayed-20120815
RZM
(8,556 posts)Why was this crime committed? Did the shooter tap into an ideology or worldview shared by many others? Or was it weird personal motivations?
Usually if it's weird personal stuff, mentally disturbed is the label used. Terror is for the broader motivations.
I've never heard anybody refer to Timothy McVeigh or IRA bombers as mentally disturbed. But I have heard the Virginia Tech shooter and Omar Thornton referred to that way. And those two definitely were not white.
Sometimes you have evidence of both mental issues and broader motivations in a single crime, which was the case with the Ft. Hood shootings. It's not a coincidence that there was debate/confusion over what to call that.
