A more fair analogy would be if you posted that someone cut your arm off. We would have no way of knowing if it was actually true or not. Your point would be valid if you were speaking to her in person but a few of posts on a message board is not enough to go on.
Yeah, it’s just a flesh wound.
What if I posted and said “Need Answer Fast!” (In IMHO of course, I’ll still follow the rules!)
To your point… If she was faking mental illness on a message board, then it’s still not an insult to call her mentally ill.
Reagan had an astrologer as a consultant.
That wouldn’t serve any point. All delusions have built in delusions to support them. I would tell you that I don’t have a photo because the government, led by the Watermelon Farmers, took the photo and my child from me because they didn’t want me telling their secrets.
How many times did she say, “You all think I’m crazy. I’ve heard it before, but I know the truth!” It was in GQ, and the only real answer is “You are mentally ill and need help.”
Generally, I agree with what you are saying. If in GD a poster said, “I am voting for Michelle Bachmann,” then even if you think that is a very unwise choice, it adds nothing to the debate to accuse the poster of mental illness, as that would simply be an insult and not give a rational rebuttal as to why the poster should NOT vote for Michelle Bachmann. That is the whole purpose of debate.
But she’s been institutionalized for schizophrenia so I don’t think that she has been able to live a normal life.
“The media told me”
The “mentally ill” comment was definitely not an insult but a statement of genuine concern, whether accurate or not.
It’s enough to say that the person either needs a doctor or is trolling.
Conspiracy Theory.
No there are not. The History Channel just feeds these idiots because they have already shown their gullible, and it is easier to sell to the gullible (via commercials).
That’s simply not true, there is not enough to go on. Several posters have claimed she is delusional. I never said she wasn’t. People who believe they can find water by dowsing for it are delusional as are people who think they can predict the future. People who believe that God has spoken to them or believe they have seen ghosts are delusional. That doesn’t make them mentally ill and in need of a doctor.
In everyday parlance, I think she’s looney-toons but she hasn’t posted enough to dismiss her arguments with “this person is mentally ill, mods please close this to protect her from herself” type of comments. If you believe she is really crazy, report her. If you believe she is trolling or trying to sell books pit her. If you disagree with her make your counter argument in a polite way. This is an internet savvy person who has written and is selling a book, she doesn’t need the protection of SDMB mods. Nor from what I can tell, a doctor.
Even if people were wrong in evaluating her as mentally ill (and I don’t think they were), that still doesn’t mean they were insulting her. It was an honest evaluation motivated by concern, not scorn.
Hey guys, I think PlainJain might be mentally ill.
It wasn’t a dismissal.
Do you want me to go through the thread post by post and recap how obviously crazy her posts were? You might want to do it yourself, because if I do it, it will make you look really stupid. From a personal and moderating standpoint, I wasn’t sure if I should participate at all, but several posters were just telling her to get help. There is no way to read those posts and think sannemoore is rational and healthy.
She self published, which you can find out via Google or deduce by identifying the grammar errors on the dust jacket. She typed out a book and paid a publisher to make copies- that’s hardly proof she’s sane. Plenty of crazy people have been published by legit publishers, nevermind the cottage industry of self publishing.
Stating that someone who is displaying classic textbook symptoms of schizophrenia is mentally ill is not an insult. It is a statement that the person’s behavior (in this case, posts) fits a definition of a mental illness.
It’s common that people with schizophrenia will believe that all kinds of coincidental current events relate to them, personally. The “facts” that this woman posted, while containing kernels of truth (dates and times of deaths, for example) indicate that she believes that random occurrences are arranged by the government to relate directly to her.
That is a textbook example of a delusion. To call it so is not insulting her.
Our manager wants to have a talk with you.
Bubbadog,
Lead Guitar and Backing Vocals
White Chocolate Watermelon Lovechild
I guess that’s where we differ; it looked to me like her delusions were going well beyond people who suspect that Big Pharma is out to screw us all over and straight into, “Yup, this person has a real mental illness” territory.
{Off topic} Anyone else getting hungry for watermelon-flavoured white chocolate?
There’s a difference, though. My grandfather was a water dowser. I mean, he didn’t do it for a living or anything. He owned a grocery store. But he’d do it to help friends, and people around town knew that if you needed to dig a well, you should give him a call.
I firmly don’t believe that water dowsing works, but, does the fact that he believed he could do this make him crazy? I don’t think so. He lived in a society and culture where the existence of dowsing was accepted, and that certain people could find water that way was just taken for granted by him and the farmers who lived around him.
Now, contrast that with this woman, who believes she’s Jack Kennedy’s secret daughter because Jackie Kennedy died on her daughter’s birthday, and because JFK Jr.'s plane crashed at a time that had the same digits as a radio station she worked at. Do you really not see a difference between my grandfather and that woman? Do you really think that their incorrect beliefs are really equally reasonable to hold?
Jane, she thinks that John Jr. was killed at 9:39 to send a secret message to her because she was working at a radio station with the call number 93.9FM. This is classic schizophrenia, and yes, it is an entirely dismissible argument.
I would agree that there’s no percentage in arguing with a person who one suspects is genuinely ill. I think reporting the thread for closing rather than trying to convince the person that she’s mentally ill is more productive. At least it doesn’t feed paranoia. Or maybe it does. I don’t know. But just letting her post unchallenged doesn’t help either, so I’d be inclined toward a mercy banning.
I am mentally ill. It’s a thing, like left-handed, red haired, diabetic, fat or short. If those conditions apply to me (some do), then it’s not insulting to say so, even if it might be unflattering.
Unflattering is different than insulting.