(updates, original post 14 Jan 2011)
On the Berkeley Blog, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, associate professor of psychology, diagnoses insanity via a mug shot and media commentary. He says that the “smiling mugshot of Jared Loughner (has sent) chills down people’s spine.” and then goes on to say that, ” the reports of his increasingly erratic behavior over the past year, convince me that mental illness played a critical factor.”
What is going on? Is mental illness now to be diagnosed via newscasts?
On the right, of course, we hear paeans of panic, accusations that those of us who recoil at months of hate speech are, ourselves, the ones spreading blood libel. Though disgusting, the cowardice of the right in avoiding their all too obvious need for guilt is nothing new. Why is the left abetting this behavior?
Dr. Mendoza-Denton goes on to state that he is infuriated, itself an odd choice of words, because the “stat
es do not make it a priority to update the National Instant Criminal Background Check database with records of mental illness and that Loughner did not receive the care he needed in time to prevent this tragedy. With so many people aware of the problem, including his friends and his teachers, diffusion of responsibility still won out and Loughner was left to manage for himself.
Those of us sometimes seen as “different” may find this Professor’s pronouncements rather frightening. All I need to do is turn on my TV tonight to see at least equally bizarre behavior on the part of Glen Beck, Sharon Angle, and the new governor of Maine or any of the gun toting, Tea Party members of the Sons of the Confederacy.
The crazy man on the upper left is the Governor of Maine. Click to read this nut’s ideas about the NAACP. Govrnor Lepage did eventually show up at the NAACP , but if he is mentally ill I doubt that issue has gone away. Will Dr. Mendoza-Denton sign an order to commit Governor Lepage , Glen Beck and whoever created this ad so they can get help from a mental health professional?
At least John McCain, perhaps alone amongst his party leaders, had the grace to do an op-ed in The Washington Post, shouldering partial blame for the heated state of political debate. The rest of the Republican Party should hang its head in shame and followers of McCain should ask Dr. Mendoza-Denton for help in weeding its orchard of poisonous fruits.