Serious question

[malaise]

Aren’t all MAGAts mentally ill?
Asking re that mass slaughter in Maine

[Walleye]

1. They certainly are delusional

I think the clinical definition of insanity is the inability to distinguish fantasy from reality. Maga are certainly like that.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. There is no clinical definition of insanity. It is a legal concept, not a medical one.

[Walleye]

4. OK, what do they call the inability to distinguish fantasy from reality?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. Who's they?

[Walleye]

6. Psychiatrists, or the legal definition of insanity

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. Psychiatrists would use terms found in the DSM to describe and diagnose what someone was experiencing.

The legal definition of insanity is used in legal settings, not clinical ones.

[Walleye]

8. I stand corrected.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. No, and making these kinds of conflations is dangerous to people with mental illness, who are some of the most

vulnerable in society. Just because someone is irrational or cruel does not mean they are mentally ill.

[sarisataka]

14. This. Not only

Is it prejudicial towards those who battle mental illness, it is excusing the perpetrator.

'He's not evil, just mentally ill'

[Kid Berwyn]

9. Anyone who supports the NAZI is nuts.

Whether they are ill or it’s a matter of will, both result from a poisoned mind.

[mopinko]

10. i think we need a way better definition of mentally ill.

we define it in law so that ppl not in control of their brains get different treatment in court than cold blooded assholes. it doesnt mean they get off. it often means harsher incarceration in facilities for the ‘criminally insane’, for indeterminate time.
it only recognizes dsm axis 1 disorders.

but there r many forms of mental defects that leads to ppl doing things that r clearly ‘insane’, doing things at odds w their well being and survival. addiction, brain tumors, even some meds, lead ppl to do things that threaten their own lives and those around them.

this guy seems to have had an actual axis 1 disorder. but i think it’s a fair definition of the word crazy to say yes, magats r all crazy, and shooters r too. they certainly arent adults.

[czarjak]

11. Hate can be mental illness

[Yonnie3]

12. No

Most are sick Mother**kers, but mental illness is a different thing entirely.

[usonian]

13. It's a cult.

More about this:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=18083886

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016359282

You can't change "hearts and minds", not in finite time, and unless you're a therapist. Focus on WINNING.

https://democraticunderground.com/100216524810

We can get good laws passed, SC-proof, and replace the scoundrels.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. No, not mentally ill. It is a denial of reality to think only insane people are hard right

Generally, they are less bright and less well educated. That doesn't make them insane.

More importantly they have a psychological predisposition to follow "strong" leaders like The Donald, Prosperity Gospel preachers, Young Earth Creationists (6000 years) like The Johnson, Speaker, Putin, etc. They buy into evangelical christianism without questioning it. Being sheep-like does not make them insane.

They also, more than the average public, have a great tendency to seek confirmation when reading/watching news and websites. They reject out of hand without examination any information that runs counter to the narrative they are fed. Intellectual laziness does not make them insane.

If one denies that sane people can become magats, then one has no hope of understanding how they tick and how they can be blocked and defeated.

Seriously, to all DU members, drop the insanity trope. It's counterproductive.

[malaise]

19. I hear you n/t

[MyMission]

16. What are cult members considered?

It depends on the cult and it's purpose, but overall the general consensus is regardless of mental illness, cult members need to be deprogrammed and reprogrammed.

[chouchou]

17. I call them "Surface" people.

They don't seem to take time to evaluate the actual feelings of people they encounter.
They get "Taken" easily'
"That Trump guy is SO powerful and strong!!"
"I can't believe that nice young man stole all our savings...He was dressed so nice with a trim haircut"
Judging all people by looks will get you nowhere and usually into reality trouble.

[Raven]

18. I'm not sure it's a mental illness, Malaise. I am aware of people who appear

quite normal in their everyday lives but seem to have lost all judgment and ability to think logically and critically when it comes to Trump. What I do notice about these people is that they have very little interest in reading anything but crap fiction and have very little interest in current events outside of their own small world. Many of these people could smell a fake a mile away in their own lives but don't see anything wrong with Trump. I wouldn't call this a "mental illness". I'd call it "mental incompetence" and the loss of critical judgment.

[Stardust Mirror]

20. no, but I think all MAGAts are white supremacist racists

delusional you bet, mentally ill not necessarily