Year: 2011
Odd Logic by the Anti-Medication Crowd
Posted on August 15, 2011 in Mania Psychotropics
The anti-medication crowd among us bipolars sounds off in a strident voice. Medications, they tell us, are little more than an attempt by the pharmaceuticals industry to enslave us. According to them, psychotropics kill us and prevent us from experiencing the full impact of our glorious emotions ((Fuck you, [[Thomas Szasz]].)) . Psychiatrists are predators who don’t know how to cure people, only get them addicted.
Sometimes, their arguments betray a certain loss of reality as does this gem from a comment by an anti-med proponent:
Consider for example: “Drugs Work” because “We Tried Drug X on patient Y” and “Effect Z happened in response to Drug X tried on patient Y” and “We Liked What We Saw” and “We Are The Sole Arbiters Of What We Like” therefore “We are Right” and “We Know What We Are Doing” and “Drug X has effect Z” and “People like patient Y need Drug X” and “We Can Supply Drug X” so “Patient Y should get Drug X from us on a perpetual basis” is not explicitly circular, but if you try to complete the logical dependencies, logical circularities will result or else the explanation will grow out of control. Any thoughts on this kind of thinking?
Did you follow that? Later, when the talk turns to statistics:
[C]onsider these: 100% of dead people who have taken medication have died. 0% of living people who have not taken medication have died. Living people who have been given medication may die, and almost certainly will. So, based on these statistics, should we be offering medication?
This writer thinks he has hit on a profundity. I think it illustrates the tragic loss of rationality that can afflict us in mania.
Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #110
Posted on August 14, 2011 in Roundup
Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible. — Frank Herbert
Memes. A couple of memes driving extremists caught my attention today. The first was suggested by the comment of a progressive who told an African American woman that she had to “get over being black”. The meme is that most African Americans have an unreasonable hair trigger about race and are only supporting Obama because he is black.
It’s an echo of a meme that the Republicans have been circulating for years, one that they apply until their black candidates get criticized for their positions. Then invoking racism becomes just fine as [[Alan West]], [[Clarence Thomas]], or [[Herman Cain]] will show you any day.
Another folk theory that I encountered this past week is “all politics is corrupt”. This dripped off the honeyed lips of a Tea Party minion. I’ve been hearing this one since Watergate and it is always Republicans who invoke it. The idea here is that if all politics is corrupt, then the Democrats do it, too, and we can’t fault them ((I don’t tolerate corruption from any politician regardless of party.)) .
There’s an insidious intent behind the meme and that is to block any attempts to reform the political process. A secondary aim is to treat corruption involving millions in donations from corporations or wealthy individuals as insignificant. “Ah, politics is always corrupt. Live with it.”
We must resist such memes. First, we must recognize that we are a long way from a post-racial age — just look in the prisons and in the unemployment figures ((For that matter, we’re hardly in a post-feminist age. We need to struggle for equality just as surely now as ever.)) Second, we must never let anyone tell us to give up — that we can’t do better than we are. Finally, let’s not knock down the good that has been accomplished because we’re told it’s just hopeless. It is time to tell the GOP that you can’t be a party of morals that takes paybacks. When you sell out to the rich, you are contributing to a national rot. Stop it now.
- Lessons from Wisconsin — Have the Democrats ever heard that they are having messaging problems? Is there wax in their ears?
- Voters Can Fix the Court’s Citizens’ United Mistake — Using an old trick from long ago.
- The error of political prayer — Roger Ebert explains why prayer in government or for government is a bad thing.
- Roger Ailes and the rise of Fox News — From liberal Mike Douglas to Nixon to world domination.
- Strobe Illusion — This will distort your reality without resort to drugs. Safe for non-driving situations.
- New Twitter Algorithm Could Out Dudes Pretending to be Lesbians — This has been going on for longer than you can imagine.
- Arctic Ice Melt Could Pause for Several Years, Then Resume Again — You can bet ALEC will use this as an excuse for helping the oil companies to keep squeezing petroleum profits out of the rest of us.
- You can count on this: Math ability is inborn — I kept telling them it was so!
- Narcissists look like good leaders, but they aren’t
Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #109
Posted on August 7, 2011 in Roundup
A despot doesn’t fear eloquent writers preaching freedom–he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold. — E. B. White
No AAA for Effort. The final news about what S&P will rate U.S. bonds is still waiting on its number crunchers to correct their accounting error that the Obama administration found late on Friday. (S&P seems to be off by a couple of trillion dollars.) In the meantime, we have another financial crisis brought on by the Republicans. As usual, a paucity of responses dominates the discussion on the anti-Obama side. Their primary talking point is the solo, monolithic “blame it all on Obama”.
The S&P report explaining the decision to lower the rating on U.S. bonds is clear: the problem is our lack of revenue coupled with the late proclivity of our Congress towards “brinksmanship”. Extrapolating from this enables us to level the finger at the party whose philosophy encompasses both of those: Republican ((Blue Dog Democrats have done their share on the revenue side, but the theatrics belong exclusively to the Tea Party-driven GOP)) .
Nonetheless, Obama-bashers of both sides obstinately get the story wrong. One of the most creative and wrong was that of a cowboy-hatted Tea Bagger who told me “read the damn document”. I did. And it said what I said it said, Mister.
Of course, this was never meant for me. It was meant for his fellow Tea Baggers and those who will never read the document for themselves. It suggests esoteric knowledge that absolves the Tea Party of all the wreckage they have caused in the last few months. Denial is the Tea Party way: ’tis better for these rabbits to call themselves coyotes so that maybe, just maybe, they will not be eaten by the wolves who back them.
- After the Debt Ceiling Debacle — Look at all the stories that went unnoticed while the Tea Party was trying to crash the nation.
- Did Obama Cave — Did the Pope convert to Satanism?
- Al Gore and Keith Olbermann Send A Wave of Terror Through Fox News — Is it time for an American Spring?
- Seven types of troll: a spotter’s guide — The stupidest for me are the Obama-bashing “progressives”, but they aren’t mentioned here.
- Five Scriptures You Won’t Hear at Rick Perry’s Event
- Life Hacking: How to sleep anywhere, anytime — The principles here seem sound.
- Is Land — This wonderful balloon is now adrift. Curse the clods who cut its anchor.
- Breeding Crops With Deeper Roots Could ‘Slash CO2 Levels’ — Those in my circle who dislike genetic engineering reject this approach, but I think it is worth thinking about.
- Northern Humans Had Bigger Brains, to Cope With the Low Light Levels, Study Finds — Big brains make you see better, not make you smarter than Africans.
- Blame Game: Sleepier College Students Are More Likely to Blame Others and Plan Revenge — I see this playing out all the time on Twitter. I am at my worst when I don’t sleep. Others?
Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #108
Posted on July 31, 2011 in Roundup
Money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around, encouraging young things to grow. — Hello Dolly
Letters from the front. I’m reminded of the letters and diary entries that survive from the Civil War. News of distant battles took time to reach people in the north. As the bad news — and the good news — filtered in, people would express their despair and their faith in the righteousness of the Cause of Union and freedom for the slaves.
When I look at Twitter or Facebook or Google+, I see that we’re still distant from the great battles that beset our nation. The media that covers it can at best be described as untrustworthy: who really knew the details of the president’s plan from watching Fox or even CNN? What can you say when the media announces that Reid’s plan is in trouble because 41 Republicans voted against it (but it still got 57 votes from a mix of Democrats and Republicans, meaning that it would have passed if the GOP hadn’t filibustered)?
Yet despite these distortions, some journalists get what is happening. They don’t reduce the issues to a sound byte. They explain. It is these that I seek out here. They come from all kinds of places. I avoid the panicky progressive and the cynical tea party minion. I strive to find what is accurate and provocative. That people are learning not to trust the news is a hopeful sign to me.
Then there was the tweet from a Democratic congressman that I saw yesterday. He described the silence that descended on the floor of the House after the squeaker win for Boehner’s poisoned deficit proposal. “#eerie” is how he tagged it. I am glad for him. I am glad for the others who go to demonstrations or Congress or write about the trials of their neighbors or their own sufferings. It means that the letters from the front with the facts are reaching us.
- Three ways Obama could bypass Congress — And each of them is legal. Even Paul Krugman thinks they deserve consideration.
- Why Democracy is Public: The American Dream beats the Nightmare — If you’ve been losing sleep, the Nightmare could be why.
- Smash the Ceiling — Where did the idea of the debt ceiling come from? Isn’t it stupid? Then read about these Republican debt hawks who are in serious personal debt.
- OMG! COLA! Cut! Duck, everyone! — The next time a panicky progressive tells you that Obama “gave it all away”, have her or him read this. Then send them: Earth to the Left: Obama Is Into You
- Axelrod claims Democrats passed 25 tax cuts last year without the help of Republicans — And Politifact rings “TRUE TRUE TRUE!” on this one as well as on this one!
- Why Anti-Abortion ≠ Pro-Life Also check this article on “The Fundamental problem with Fundamentalism“
- Privatization myths debunked — No, government costs are not going to go down if you hand services over to the private sector. Then check the statistics on who grew jobs and who didn’t.
- 12 Ways Rupert Murdoch’s Media Empire Has Made the World Worse
- How my message to Washington got taken over by the people — In less than 24 hours, the message went viral. I took part!
- Traveller’s Point — A neat way to plan and blog about your trips
- What do you do with old bumper cars? — Gosh, how I want one of these to tool around in. Someone send me the money!
- Bipolar patients show poor decision-making in all illness phases — Ah damn. I’m never gonna be any good.
Dream
Posted on July 27, 2011 in Dreams
I’m riding a bike along a winding mountain road when I round a bend and find an accident.
Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #107
Posted on July 24, 2011 in Roundup
Your representative is not beholden to you as much as s/he is beholden to the people who bought the seat for her/him.
The First Refuge of Scoundrels
Posted on July 23, 2011 in Stigma Terrorism Violence
“Madman” is right-wing political correctness for white male terrorist.
I’m Picking on Batman, Again
Posted on July 21, 2011 in Stigma
I’ve gotten in trouble for this before — taken to task not only in the comments section of this blog, but also on Twitter. But what needs to be said needs to be said. Batman is teaching people awful things about mental illness, things that are not true. Take The Joker for instance. How many times have Gotham City authorities thrown him into the Arkham Asylum? Does he really belong there? Psychiatrist H. Eric Bender M.D. thinks not:
“Someone who is ‘psychotic’ is experiencing symptoms of psychosis, a mental disorder, which can include auditory hallucinations, such as hearing voices; visual hallucinations, where they see objects that are not truly there; or have delusional thoughts, despite evidence to show that such beliefs are incorrect — such as believing that one’s movements are being tracked by deep space satellites — or disorganized behavior,” Bender said. “In the vast majority of depictions, the Joker is not experiencing such symptoms; rather, the Joker has shown symptoms of psychopathy.”
Bender says psychopathy is a personality construct and not a diagnosis of a mental disorder.
“Psychopathy reflects interpersonal characteristics and behavior that are often rooted in a lack of empathy,” Bender said. “In the comics, television shows, and films, the Joker is much more akin to a psychopath and is not psychotic ((More here)) .”
What our comics and what our cinema say about mental illness transfers to the minds of people who are too lazy to pick up a genuine work about abnormal psychiatry. These same people vote and the representatives they choose make decisions that affect my life. So it behooves me to be aware of what comic books promulgate and to challenge their errors wherever possible.
Art is not above criticism for its values. It is not to be ignored when it suggests bad policy. To go by Batman, you would think that most criminals of the like of The Joker trick the system into putting them into mental institutions. Nothing is farther from the truth. As the same article notes, only 1% of all criminal cases center around legal insanity pleas and, of those, only 20% actually succeed. So we’re not in danger of giving the criminal masterminds of this world an easy ride.
What is actually happening is that many of our mentally ill end up in prisons where they are victimized by the real sociopaths. We have closed down our asylums ((Remember that word means “place of refuge” — except as run in the past, it often was not.)) and thrown the psychotic out onto the streets. To get treatment where community mental health centers have not appeared as promised, some of these have resorted to petty crimes. In jails, they get the meds they need to function, but they also get beat up and raped.
When this happens on the outside, people who might otherwise have helped turn their back because they have learned to equate the mentally ill with serial killers or other violent denizens of the demimonde. Some go past indifference to outright hostility: they beat those who are sick. And when it comes to the community, there are those psychopaths who have risen to places of power. Their lack of empathy results in policies that prevent the mentally ill from getting the treatment they should have for their sake and the sake of the economy.
I hope that when the new series starts coming out in September, Batman will become a new kind of Caped Crusader, one who knows the difference between the psychopath and the psychotic. As one of the latter, I am tired of getting the blame for crimes I don’t commit, much less imagine.
Bachmann’s Migraines: New swing on stigma
Posted on July 19, 2011 in Accountability Campaign 2012 Neurology Stigma
If John F. Kennedy could get us through the Cuban Missile Crisis with the threat of migraines hanging over him, this issue should be dead, cremated, shot into space, and buried in a black hole.
Dream
Posted on July 19, 2011 in Dreams
This dream occurred several days ago. Sorry for the delay.
I’m at a pet store, maybe with Lynn. I have several aquariums at home which I’ve left to deteriorate. I’ve come to get new fish and trade in some of the ones that I have. Several deals transpire. I arrange most of my fish into clean tanks. I have one large tank left filled with angel fish, sharks, and gold fish shaped like puffers. The store owner shows me his reptiles. He produces one snake that has irregular, flat lead crystals sticking out from its body at right angles. It has a pair of feet just behind the head. He sets it down on the floor. Immediately, it snatches a twelve-inch long gold dust gecko from a tropical rain forest display and swallows it. I go out the back to look at the goats. My job is going to be to take care of them. They have mangy hair. Some are missing eyes.
Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #106
Posted on July 17, 2011 in Roundup
The Tea Party and the regressive progressives share a common goal: to eliminate the middle.
Bemusement Parks and Drama Queens
Posted on July 11, 2011 in Anxiety Micro-blogging Reflections
Twitter has been delivering me to a state not unlike a dead whale on the beach, roasting in the sun. This is my own fault. I “have” to keep checking it to see what the news is. Then I get into arguments about just what the role of the president of the United States is supposed to be. He’s not a dictator, I point out. He doesn’t get to write the laws and he doesn’t instruct Congress on how to vote. But they keep coming around with the same old arguments and imply that I am delusional, that I don’t understand the real nature of power in this country.
It’s become a bemusement park, full of drama queens, and I am the first up to put on the rouge and the cheap blond curls, screaming my politics like a shrill aria. At this historic impasse in American history, I find myself trembling on the inside with rage at accounts without faces. What disturbs me is that I feel I might be the only one wondering if the emotion is getting out of control. While I have my supporters (the numbers are on the increase), I’ve devoted too much time to combating the cynicism and the myths being spewed by the ignorant and the tools.
I give people advice — like don’t pay any attention to the tools. Concentrate on the good people. Stick to message. But my Seesmic windows remain cluttered by the rants and retorts of people who just can’t let go of their stalkers ((I just messaged one friend about a fellow who keeps coming back at her with new accounts: “He’s what we call a Troll. His purpose is to make you waste time and energy so you don’t get your message out.” I’m an old hand at this.)) .
Of course, my therapist says I should just walk away from Twitter. Maybe I should just let people have the world they seem to want so badly. I’m not into secret agent games. I know that my life is pretty pointless and unimportant. No number of chat victories will make me vital to the intellectual life of the nation.
But between me and sanity is the Door. Closing the portal on the other side means divorcing myself from other minds who share my interests and concerns. So what have I to gain?
Right now, I’d just like to spend more time with people who don’t need makeup and wigs.
