Once again, are you aware that crazy people don’t necessarily (or even mostly) have the crazy turned on all the time?
Which “crazy people” are you talking about?
What’s your dispute now, Hentor? That there’s such a category, recognizable to a layman, of ‘crazy people’, or that people with mental illnesses never hold down jobs or make youtube videos or do anything that doesn’t seem crazy?
I’m asking you simply, given your statements about the episodic nature of crazy people’s difficulties, which type of crazy people you are talking about.
I had to find the exact quote for the full, yummy schadenfreudy flavor:
I’m an unpaid volunteer at the Kansas City Obama office. All the paid people seem to be very bright, competent and sane(1). I would expect that the McCain campaign’s staffers are the same type of people. This is someone serving as the public face of your campaign. She has been representing the McCain campaign on various college campuses. What mental illness would enable her to get into a sensitive position like that, yet remain undiscovered until now?
1 - Note: I am also bright, competent and sane. But I don’t particularly like dealing with people, so I’ve been doing data entry. This lets me sit and listen to music, yet make a valuable contribution.
All of the cites, from police and press, that Ashley Todd is mentally ill appear to stem from only one source: Ashley Todd.
And all of the cites that she’s really a conniving racist who intended to stir up unrest stem from where? And what makes you think it’s unlikely that she’s telling the truth?
Assuming Todd IS mentally ill, it might make me have some sympathy for her. The sad thing is that we have only her word that she’s mentally ill at this point, and of course her word is worth exactly jack shit. She also said a 6’4" black man carved up her face and sexually assaulted her. That turned out to be the opposite of true.
ETA: Frank made my point already, but seriously - if the FIRST thing you ever hear someone say is an outrageous lie, why would you believe the second thing?
There are a number of reasons. One is that when she told the lie, it was apparent from the reports that the police were investigating the possibility that it was a lie. There is no such indication that they think she’s lying about a history of mental illness, which it would be trivial to almost immediately disprove. If they had done so, I think we’d know that by now.
Another is that ‘I said that because I’m mentally ill’ is not an inherently suspicious statement, certainly without not one shred of counter-evidence except what some blowhards on the internet have decided must be true instead. If a random person came up to me and told me the story about the Big Black Mugger, I would be instantly dubious. If a random person came up to me and said they had a history of mental illness, why would I think they were lying? Because they had previously said something crazy? How much sense does that make?
Don’t know, don’t care. She committed at least one crime, whatever her motivation. She’ll have her chance to use the mentally ill excuse at trial.
She’s already lied. I have at least that much evidence that she is capable of telling an untruth.
If you don’t care, why are you talking about it?
Your second point is ridiculously simplistic. Again, why is “because she acted crazy before” somehow evidence that someone is not crazy?
Wait a sec. How could we even prove that a person is not mentally ill (aside from an examination)? Especially if, as you say, it can be episodic and medical records are private?
Because, for whatever reason, you’ve decided to be an asshole about it in two threads. Why are you so invested in this?
There is no proof that she is mentally ill. There is some proof that she is a liar.
You couldn’t, so why are you (as a group, I don’t know about you personally) claiming you know she’s not? You have three pieces of positive evidence: She’s done obviously insane shit, she says she has a history of mental illness, and the cops and press have repeated that easily verified statement without any sign of doubt so far. In order to shift that evidence, you need to present positive (because, as you say, there’s no such thing as negative) evidence for another theory. So far, all that has been presented is ‘because I really think she intended to cause racial unrest’.
Of course it could still come out that she’s lying – I might be wrong, but right now I have absolutely no reason to think so that didn’t come entirely from speculation no more supported than the idea that it was CIA brainwashing that made her do it.
Where am I being an asshole? I’ve been called a dipshit and otherwise insulted, when all I’m doing is consistently defending my position with logical responses that should be easy to take apart if your position is correct.
Why do you choose to disbelieve this specific part of the reports but accept all the others? If she said ‘Okay, I’m just a liar’ instead, would you refuse to believe her because she lied before?
How? They have access to her medical records? Her imaginary psychiatrist told the cops he was didn’t exist?
She didn’t tell a story about a Big Black Mugger. She told a story about a Big Black Sexual Predator with Political Motivations That Happen to Run Counter to Her Own, Which, If True, Would Create Sympathy for Herself & Most Likely Benefit the Campaign For Which She Worked.
You don’t see the difference there? It’s really all just explained AND JUSTIFIED by “mental illness?”
You don’t seriously believe that the police have no way to verify whether someone has been treated for mental illness?
Please come back with specific quotes from my posts that you disagree with, because I’m not going to argue with the simulacrum of me you’ve invented to follow your script for me instead of the words I’ve actually supplied. I’ve asked a number of questions that I would love to read your answers to, and made a number of statements in support in of my position that I would love to see your direct refutation of.
She is, of course, a McCain supporter. Q.E.D ipso facto batshit insane.
Yes, I do. Medical records are confidential. You have no idea how much I had to go through to release my own records for a government job. And they weren’t really mental health issues, more like acadmeic counseling. The cops can’t just ask who her doctor was and call him/her up for confirmation. The doc probably would not even be able to identify her as a patient.
Mack Trucks have been driven through the holes in your “logic”. Your “logic” is an edifice built of tissue paper and spider webs.
Why don’t you go defend her in court with your “logic”? “This was a crazy action, so therefore she must be crazy!” That’s worked well for so many others.