• Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Wild that we let a person cover their vehicle with signs that essentially say “I have severe untreated mental illness and no grip on reality”, and society at large says “sure, keep operating that heavy machinery in public”.

    • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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      4 months ago

      “I have severe untreated mental illness and no grip on reality”

      (Emphasis mine)

      That is a vast oversimplification of how people work. It is absolutely plausible to me that someone might believe obvious lies but is otherwise qualified to drive heavy machinery. Analyzing the society you live in is a totally different skill than driving.

      For example, if I found out my bus driver literally believes that reptilians run the world, I would still trust them to drive my bus because driving a bus has nothing to do with lizard people. Conversely, I wouldn’t trust a bus driver who agrees with everything I believe in but is currently having a panic attack.

      This is important to me because I am mentally ill (treated, but mentally ill nonetheless) and autistic (which is treated like a mental illness), and this is the kind of logic that tyrants use to manufacture popular consent to further marginalize mentally ill people.

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        There’s a big difference between a danger that is tangible and immediate, such as a collision with another vehicle, and something that cannot be seen or interacted with, like electricity or a virus.

        There’s nothing about this that tells me this person can’t drive safely.

      • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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        4 months ago

        The guy driving this van is probably about as functional as someone in the middle of a panic attack. Very likely erratic and on meth I would not trust to drive.

        • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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          4 months ago

          The guy driving this van is probably about as functional as someone in the middle of a panic attack. Very likely erratic

          I would have to talk to them first (or watch them drive if I’m in traffic) to see if that actually is the case, just like I would if the person’s car was clean.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Look, I understand the line you are trying to walk here, but encountering a vehicle like this and thinking “this guy just has different ideas than me, but is otherwise trustworthy” is not rational thinking.

        There’s a difference between believing in conspiracy theories and covering your van with warnings about the nanochips on your body that give you computer generated diseases.

        If I learned that someone suffering extreme paranoid delusions like this were in charge of operating a passenger vehicle, I would be extremely concerned with the safety of those passengers.

        This isn’t some unreasonable thing. I have a lot of compassion for those who suffer from mental illness, but I also think that public safety should take precedent when it is clear that someone is mentally incapable of being trusted with things like heavy machinery.

        It’s not the ideas expressed on this vehicle that concern me. It’s that every part of this indicates a serious and untreated mental health problem. The only way my opinion could be redeemed is if the owner of the van came forward and said it was a joke, or a prop for a movie or something, because nobody with a connection to reality is going to write those things all over a truck and parade around town trying to spread the word if they aren’t severely dissociated from reality.

        And I cannot stress this enough, nothing about this story has anything to do with Autism. Paranoid delusions are not a typical issue for Autistic people.

      • Etterra@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        If you’re a crazy enough that this makes sense, I don’t think you should be driving a vehicle even if you’re technically capable of doing so. At least not until you get diagnosed and treated.

        • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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          4 months ago

          I know this is a shitposting sub but this is the exact kind of comment I’m pushing back against. No, I do not deserve to lose my driving privileges because I believe that people with paranoid delusions may be safe to drive.

    • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      What’s the alternative? Locking up people who haven’t committed a crime if a doctor doesn’t like what they’re saying? This guy probably is schizophrenic but plenty of conspiracy theorists aren’t and people saying something true but unpopular sometimes sound like conspiracy theorists.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        I said we shouldn’t let them drive a car, not lock them in prison. Calm down.

        Ideally we would provide people like this with mental healthcare, and get them medicated so that they actually can operate a vehicle without being an inherent risk to everyone around them.

        My point is that, in America, you can basically be screaming “I am extremely unwell to the point of being an elevated risk to myself and everyone around me”, and our usual response is to act like everything is normal and nothing should be done.

        • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          I don’t think this guy would take any pills you tried to give him unless you literally forced them down his throat. (They’re created with computer too.)

          • rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio
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            4 months ago

            (They’re created with computer too.)

            I’ve got bad news for him regarding how modern pickup trucks work.

              • rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio
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                4 months ago

                I’m no expert on automobiles, but that truck would need to be 40+ years old to have no computers onboard. It doesn’t look that old to me, though maybe he just kept it in good shape.

                • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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                  4 months ago

                  It’s honestly hard to tell, because even a brand new equivalent vehicle would look very similar from the side. Pickup trucks haven’t changed visually much over the years.

    • Etterra@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      By “forgot his meds” you mean “forgot to go to the doctor 30 years ago to get diagnosed so he could be prescribed them in the first place,” right?

    • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
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      4 months ago

      Not at all, people believe in magic sky faires and put stickers on their car about it… Hell lots of cop cars abs court rooms have nonsense about said sky fairy on it. In bobo we trust … Aside from scale, there’s no real difference.

  • peteypete420@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    It’s like a Dr Bronners bottle on bath salts.

    Hmmm… maybe they ate (smoked? Boofed?) bath salts in the bath while cleaning with Dr. Bronners.

    • Etterra@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      If you want a real trip, look into the philosophies of the creators of modern cereals, like Kellogg. Shit like Raisin Bran, Grape Nuts, and hell even Graham Crackers were invented as part of this weird moralistic pseudoscientific health crusade nonsense going around at the time. It’s pretty fucking weird.

    • SSTF@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      Oh you have a common beginner question. Let me clear it up with a simple diagram:

  • Zoidsberg@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    if you are addicted to cat and dog you have a nano chip on your body

    so thats what’s causing it

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    i really wish we had a more robust mental healthcare system that could help people like this before they get to this point.

    • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      It’s really hard to reliably treat schizophrenics since they often don’t want to be treated. I don’t expect that this guy would take any pills without being forced to. (And then the medication isn’t perfect.)

      • RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        “Everything that you think about who you are is in fact the result of a mental defect. But, if you take these pills we can make you a different person” is the toughest sell in the world. And the psychiatric community needs to wise up to that fact.

  • gmtom@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Do these people think they’re convincing? Do they genuinely not see how crazy they look?

    • EpeeGnome@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      I’d bet money it’s scitsophrenia, so no this person has no idea how crazy they look. They’re just doing their part to fight back against whatever the hell they think is happening.

  • crusa187@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    We must defend the PPS! (Physical Psychological and Social) From benereal disease. OK Computor