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”.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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”.
(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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
I’ve got bad news for him regarding how modern pickup trucks work.
That is definitely not a modern pickup truck they’re driving though.
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.
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.