Sent a complaint to CNN for allowing offensive name for mentally ill

I don't think the policy of always correcting offensive terminology applies at these shows. Anderson Cooper may well have let viewers decide for themselves the quality of comments by their guest. (Though I do think you were right to complain.)

On Fox they said that it was lucky the victims were in church because therefore they were "closer" to God. Also that these shooting can all be attributed to antidepressants.

You gotta be kidding me!!! What a freakin' insult to organized religion! FOX is garbage, so I never tune in. If anything, the fact those poor people were gunned down and/or traumatized in church was a sick form of irony...& might lead some to think God was turning a deaf ear. Politics & religion are both touchy subjects, but when one mixes the two together the mixture is especially toxic...Leave it to FOX.

Oh, crap. Apparently he escaped from a mental hospital in 2012...The big, new, bold headline in the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.8fc08f0e1be0

That's a shame that someone with a very rare case of habitually violent behavior will receive the label as one of the "mentally ill". This will surely strengthen the stigma against mental illness held by the ignorant masses. And though it would normally be the responsibility for the leader of the nation to educate, he will surely instead strengthen stigma, fear and hatred.

I love my country, but I do NOT want to live in a place that is operated like a war zone with most people armed and potentially dangerous!

Yeah "crazies" probably wasn't the best word to use wtf

I absolutely hate the negative attention brought on the mentally ill by these kinds of events. It further stigmatizes mental health, which in turn, directly impacts a lot of us. After all, as was earlier mentioned, we are much more likely to be victims of crime.

On the other hand, I cannot say that people that commit these acts are not mentally ill because often they are. As it appears in this case.

I dont see the stigma and assumptions changing anytime soon.. Sucks.

“His parents had him on high doses of ‘psych’ meds from 6th to 9th grade, the time I knew him,” As reported by fox news.

Also referring to shooters like this as "crazies" is quite a stretch to say he was referring generally to people with mental illness. Please give me a link if you have one, context is everything and I would like to know exactly what he said, I cannot find it via Google.

A FOX viewer asking for citations of fact??? That's news! I thought they were just into comic book heros like Sean Hannity. FOX -- "The No Fact Zone!" The OP just said that it was referenced in a panel discussion...which you'd not find on a Google search of Anderson Cooper.

this is a difficult one. "mad" vs "bad". Is someone responsible for their crimes, or "sick" and in need of "treatment" ?

I struggle with mental problems. I've seen people who -should- be kept out of society go in and out of hospitals, sometimes do brief stints in jail, etc. Then there are people who mess up, 1 time, and...boom! that's it. society brings the hammer down, big time.

I've also seen violence against the mentally ill. I've been a victim of it, myself. Attacked on the street, bashed on the head with a pipe by some angry dude out to hurt...somebody, anybody, I guess. Why not me?

Thing is, violence against the mentally ill isn't limited to random acts of violence against "weaklings," "The Other," etc. I've experienced violence from "professionals," in hospitals. I'm hardly the only one.

Not to sound antipsychiatry, but...I'm starting to wonder if maybe there's a better way to deal with madness than shrink visits and hospitals and pills. Maybe a lot of us should just try to band together and live in communes or something?

I do not know how well that is actually working out, but I do tend to agree...

Intentional Community for the Mentally Challenged

Aren't sociopathy and psychopathy mental illnesses?

Good for you! I'm tired of mental illness being blamed for gun violence as well. Strange how it doesn't cause gun violence in other countries...

I was once at a medical conference and the keynote speaker, a psychiatrist, uttered the words "crazy people". It's everywhere, even coming from the "experts".

I agree.....specifically with your characterization of "lazy". Perhaps I'd amend it to say "brainwashed".

I think we've established that the shooter was mentally ill now. When it first started, no one knew he had a history of mental illness - it was just assumed. I think the OP's primary issue was someone on CNN using the term "crazies" to label the mentally ill. The thread kind of meandered & raised important questions as it went along.

Is a sociopath or psychopath mentally ill? A good question, which I haven't researched. The Vegas shooter had no history of mental illness; there were no signs of something going on in his life that was out of the normal. Is a guy who beats his wife mentally ill? I'd say that's a form of sociopathy. Examples like this abound. The question is, do we, as a community, want to be lumped in with people who commit unspeakable acts of violence for the sake of being violent? Yeah...There are sociopaths & psychopaths in society...the prisons are full of them. Is someone with bipolar disorder or severe depression in the same class as a gang banger who kills without a conscience? "Crazies?" There are many different kinds of "crazy." Do you want to be identified as a "crazy person" like the Vegas shooter, or a gang banger member of The Crips? I'm not pointing fingers at anyone; I'm just saying that this argument can be stretched too far. There's a pretty broad spectrum, & I think that's pretty much what pissed off the OP...& me, too.

I had to stop reading this thread 2 pages in. Too triggering.

Mental illness has been stigmatized and feared through out history. I think most people would automatically assume that anyone who would shoot a bunch of innocent people is mentally ill. Also these stories are the ones that stick in most people's head and becomes their idea of what mental ill people do. So we all get lumped together whether one uses the word 'crazy' or not. I'm not supporting using derogatory labels I'm just saying that the stigma is there already.

back in the day, we'd call mass murderers "evil." now, we live in a postmodern society, so we turn to the mental health people for labels and explanation. they've become the high priests and priestesses of our society.

People with mental illness are incapable of rational thought and appropriate action -- they unwittingly *cannot* think rationally or act appropriately -- where "evil" people wittingly *will not* employ rational thought to arrive at appropriate attitudes and actions. Hence, anyone with a self-serving, ego- or pride-driven motive -- an act of one's own will -- for committing an evil act is not "mentally ill" (and possibly still not inherently evil or "criminally insane"). For example:

I once had myself locked up (voluntary commitment) for a while because I believed a psychotic break or whatever was looming on the horizon and I did not want to commit homicide. In contrast, there have been times when I have *willingly* considered homicide for some kind of personal satisfaction. A court would have considered temporary insanity as a plea in the first case, but the second case could have stemmed from nothing other than conscious criminal intent.

If this guy was on psychiatric meds as a kid, why on earth was he allowed to join the military? Why on earth was he not added to the no gun data base after he committed several violent crimes? Whose job was it to enter his name? Shouldn’t there have been a protocol to follow up and make sure he was added? Lots and lots of failures here. This guy was obviously off his rocker and had many people not failed to do their job, all of those lives might have been spared.

Not everyone with a brain tumor shares the same symptoms obviously.....not everyone with mental illness shares the same symptoms. Some with brain tumors become violent, some with mental do also. Denying this gets us nowhere. Right now would be a great time for those in the media to talk of mental health awareness.......to make a statement that violence is not the rule but a consequence of people failing to act when someone ends up in front of them needing help.

Unfortunately this thread has gone to discussing politics and religion.

Discussing how labels are unhelpful/helpful and the situation in Texas is okay and should be done in the Current Events forum.

If you wish to get into the political side of this conversation you are welcome to either join a Social Group that's already provided or you can start one of your own to continue political/religious discussions.

At this time this thread will be closed.