Christ on a muffin top I just spewed my morning coffee up on the keyboard and here I’ve been thinking PinkDome was all going to be my new favorite blog. Huh. I’ll be goddamned if this is what the cool kids are saying:
The person that did this, with his manifesto and videos, was no martyr. He was schizophrenic or somehow else deranged. He should have had a lobotomy years ago. Maybe the real fault of our society is trying to mainstream people that clearly should not be mainstreamed. Anyone reading anything else into his message is crazy and should be poked with a stick until they become annoyed and cry.
People believe evil and psychosis are synonymous because we live in a system where evil acts can be pardoned by reason of insanity. Sometimes they come together in the same person, insanity and evil, check.
But to conflate the two is a logical fallacy, psychosis is not evil, and it doesn’t cause evil. Correlation does not imply causation, I assume most people understand this fundamental scientific principle. A person can suffer (and I do mean suffer) from psychosis without doing evil, and a person can do evil without exhibiting psychosis. But when evil and psychopathology co-exist in the same person we’re in for a shitstorm. A coercive, lock-em-up and throw away the key toldyaso shitstorm.
Writhe Safely 
Could be that is was the very rational part of Cho’s thinking that brought him to the conclusion to end his own life. He obviously felt empty about it.
What happened at VT was tragic and has aroused the kind of intense emotions that tend to overwhelm rational thought. I think the PinkDome post was inspired by anger and the fear beneath it that needs to know “the cause” and “the solution” for the evils of the world, so that blame can be laid and “order” can be restored.I would say that anyone reading anything else into that post is crazy and should be poked with a stick until they become annoyed and cry.
Unfortunately, the real fault of our society is that people tend to latch on to popular ideas and opinions, because those ideas have already garnered a great deal of agreement which – in the minds of many – somehow seems to validate those opinions as righteous and true or even factual. These”normal” people worry me.
As my grandmother would say “….the wind blew, and the shit flew.”
We knew this shitstorm was coming. Get out your hip-boots and wade in.
how’d i know that of the many angles available for blaming, the one that gets the most conspicuous attention is the “crazy.”
Hey! There you are, stranger, yeah this is some fucked up shit, I’ve been reading the opinionatry, forced drugging of the shy and sullen, we need to deal with mental health in this country as a form of crime prevention. Ach. Thank god for the bloggers, they do appear to be pushing back. And I’m off to visit you right now. Take care.
I’m so sick of mental disorders being bandied about as the cause of all things bad. To most people insane and crazy are derogatory terms (not to me). Good god I have several mental health disorders and I’m not gonna shoot anyone.
Grrrrr. This makes me so mad
Also I seem, scratch that, am depressed a lot of the time (hopefully less if my new mood stabiliser works) and rarely talk to anyone on campus, i.e. a loner. With my mental history am I gonna be locked up now?
Hiya Burrow,
“To most people insane and crazy are derogatory terms” I was thinking
about that myself, trying to figure out why I am arguing past people the last few days. Of course that’s it, to some being delusional is a moral failing, and I forgot people think that way, and if they do, they’re not being forthright about it, but I’m catching on. I know it’s about starting where people are, defining our terms, and what assumptions lie beneath them, but it’s revolting to discover what people you thought fairly smart think it means to be mentally ill, and the dehumanization can get rather scary.
I have to admit that, as a college student with severe social anxiety and depression, my thoughts after this incident were “oh, great. I’m in for it now” listening to all these descriptions/warning signs. hoping no one judges me. Jeez. The only person I would hurt is myself.
Just remember who were the biggest at planned and killing.
These psychiatrists of WW2 in Aktion T4
“He should have had a lobotomy years ago. Maybe the real fault of our society is trying to mainstream people that clearly should not be mainstreamed. Anyone reading anything else into his message is crazy and should be poked with a stick until they become annoyed and cry.”
THAT just burns my ass! I dont care why that person wrote that;under stress, or anger–those are mean and biting words, and as a parent, a patient, and a teacher of mainstreamed kids, I say piss off to that blogger.
thanks for writing about it here.-stephany
I posted this comment on the PinkDome article this morning:
“I find it sad that the one thing you have to say about this is full of bigotry , hatred and a misplaced anger that has decided to attack the mentally ill population for the actions of one disturbed individual.
Your post is fascist ideology at it’s finest. A lobotomy ? What then, forced sterilization, internment, euthanasia ?
And how does your thinking about this differ from racism ? If a black student with no history of mental illness had done the shooting, would you have drawn the conclusion that integration of African-Americans was the problem in our society ?”
What a shame… at April 20, 2007 7:21 AM
Some sane and humane commenter named BacchusXY was kind enough to clarify for me the errors of my thinking.
It’s not a safe time to be considered “mentally ill.” It’s not a safe time to stand up for our rights. I feel incredibly silenced in my advocacy efforts.
I see all the celebrity shrinks jumping at the chance to diagnose this terrorist. Once in a while they add a short blurb about how people with mental illness are not typically violent. But it’s always an afterthought getting cut off by a commercial break.