r/todayilearned • u/AhmedMostafa16 • 3d ago

TIL that in 18th century England, people would pay to attend Bedlam, a private lunatic asylum, to watch the mentally ill as entertainment

https://retrospectjournal.com/2024/03/24/bedlam-the-mental-asylum-that-became-londons-top-tourist-attraction/
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u/shockjockeys 2d ago

I think calling them mentally ill is kind of brushing aside just how evil they are. I am mentally ill (any possible ableist gotchas can be saved. i have heard it all and i dont care) and think its gross to put the administration in the same ballpack that I reside in. They are pulling insurance and pulling funding for mental health services, which then harms us who need it to survive and be functioning. If i didnt have the care i could afford i dont think I would be here. Please dont compare them to us.

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u/OperationPlus52 2d ago

First and foremost my whole family has mental health issues, as many families do, so let's not get into the whole pity party or "my illness tops your illness" garbage.

Let's be fn real here, is there any question that Trump is mentally ill? RFK Jr with his imaginary brainworm only he's diagnosed himself with? Kristi Noem and her proudly callous dog shooting? Tom Holmgren and his, well, Tom Holmgren-ness? Andrew Tate? Stephen Miller?

Let's go outside of the Trump bubble, is there any question that Hitler and most of the lead Nazis were mentally ill? Pol Pot? Stalin?

You may not want to be in the same ballpark that these horrible people reside in, but for fuck sakes, recognize the symptoms, the repeated evidence, and the other factors.

Lastly understand that saying these people are mentally ill isn't an indictment of mentally ill people, it's saying that their mental illness is clearly part of an underlying cause of their moral failings. It's not excusing their actions and words, it's about understanding what we're dealing with.

Please do not feel attacked, my wife is paranoid schizophrenic, does that mean she's baked one of our kids in the oven because they're demons? No, it means she's afraid of shadow people we don't see. My point is that the mental illness isn't 100% why mentally ill people do the things they do, but it absolutely factors into it, which just means that we have to understand the illness in order to be able to deal with the mess that is these evil people. Parenting is another strong factor too, look at Trump and Musk's parents, and how Trump and Musk are as parents, bad parents cause mentally ill children, not all of the time, because some things are genetic, but definitely any stress and trauma induced illnesses.