Replies

The first four...what is that behavior which you consider as acting insanely, that would generate a call to the police?

You said a few decades ago...1980’s, someone acting insane would warrant a call to the police while nowadays, it wouldn’t. I’m just trying to figure out what that behavior is.

Q: Why do we care whether or not people are mentally ill?

A: Because they might hurt themselves or others due to their mental state.

In other words, their state of mind isn't the concern, but rather what actions that state of mind causes them to take.

Ergo, "being insane" is not necessarily a problem. "Acting inane" may very well be.

A few decades ago (more than two and something less than 10), someone acting in a manner that would have called their mental state into question, would have resulted in a concerned citizen reporting it to some authority. The suspected person would have been evaluated and possibly put in an institution, if their behavior or likely behavior warranted it for either their protection or the protection of the general public.

Today, the prevailing collective wisdom is that it is more compassionate to let the mentally ill wander the streets and fend for themselves, often violently, rather than subject them to the indignity of being treated.

I've seen estimates anywhere from 15% to 85% of homeless (depending ont the agenda of the source) are mentally ill.

Most major cities, you can easily find them doing all sorts of crazy things, sometimes harmless, often not. These actions are routinely ignored by the public, largely because reporting it is about as effective as trying to make conversation with the sidewalk.

How many people today would be happy if the govt spent money on institutions for people that do inane or insane things? If Obama wanted to put people in institutions because the govt thought that owning an assault rifle was insane, would you mind your tax money being used for that? Who gets to pay for all those mental illness tests? Would the govt administer the tests? Would that be ok? What are all kinds of crazy things that should warrant this action? Used to be, if you saw someone talking to themselves, they were considered nuts, now they’re just using their bluetooth device.