this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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This came up in my health care forum.

Right now, you can legally detain someone medically when they are a danger to themselves or others for up to 72hrs. The details vary by state, but this is how we lock down individuals trying to suicide or someone mentally off the rails making threats of violence.

This variation on that law would also make opposition to Trump qualify.

Civil commitment can follow as with individuals who have profound mental illness and are not safe to be out in the world.

This is the loudest scream that democracy is dead short of hauling people out into the street and shooting them.

It’s important to note the police are currently the people who bring individuals in for the 72hr mental health holds.

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[–] iz_ok@sh.itjust.works 15 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Oh shit! Free mental healthcare.

Fuck Trump!

I'd like to talk about my mother when possible.

[–] warbond@lemmy.world 12 points 5 hours ago

What makes you think it would be free?

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 35 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Psychiatric hospitals are also allowed to lie to you. You can go in voluntarily, and be upgraded to “involuntary” with no recourse.

Mental health techs will lie - cause problems? Guess what, your notes now say that you are “paranoid” and “hear voices.” You’re “paranoid” because a tech beat the shit out of you two hours ago - you don’t hear voices, but you are “crazy” so obviously lying.

Check what rights institutionalized people have in your state. I can tell you where I live, there are none.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 15 minutes ago

And keep in mind that this is the state of things prior to our current regime that runs on cruelty.

[–] melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

LOL, the stuff of nightmares.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 19 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Quite literally in my case.

PTSD from “psychiatric care” is pretty difficult to deal with (and understudied. fascinating how PTSD only garners you empathy and understanding if you’re a combat rep, despite the fact that most with PTSD do have it from sexual abuse and possibly inpatient experiences - suicide rates skyrocket after involuntary commitment, but why do any form of investigation into something that might hurt profits?)

If you’re afraid of wasps, you aren’t expected to go ask a wasp how to deal with it. If, however, you experience severe abuse at the hands of mental health professionals and you live in an area where mental health care = the police, getting any form of help is pretty difficult.

Especially when they consider your gender identity and sexuality as manifestations of mental illness/further evidence that they don’t need to look into the tech beating the shit out of you.

[–] melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

I have met and hung out with a staggering variety of monsters. so much so I might be doxxing myself if I really described the breadth. If you can think of a kind of monster that exists, I have probably met them. I might even have known one well.

I have never met anyone who can reach quite the degree of sadist or control freak as a psychiatrist. Psychopaths aren't as willing to lie spontaneously and throw people away. future cult leaders aren't as quick on the self justification trigger. I genuinely believe sydney gottlieb was one of the less malignant assholes that profession has ever produced.

which is a shame, because the pharmacology of the mind is something I'm deeply interested in. there's cool fucking science there, and we will never see it done.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 13 minutes ago

This reads like low-key Scientology propaganda.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 3 points 29 minutes ago

The power dynamic is the scary part. PTSD isn’t just trauma - it’s trauma with powerlessness and an invalidated narrative.

Saying “hey I need help, I’m struggling with not wanting to leave the house or be alive” - and then losing your rights. Being forced into a room which isn’t clean. The threat that they can medicate you if you annoy them to much (asking to speak to an advocate, asking to file a grievance).

It’s strange that suicidal ideation is considered enough to make you “crazy.” I don’t understand why the response to someone cogently explaining the reasons they want to die (and most of those reasons being fairly rational responses) = “this person is crazy and should be a ward of the state for the next couple days.”

They also get to present this as the only option - “oh, you want 988 to let people just die over the phone?” Well, the research indicates that suicide rates spike not just immediately after institutionalization - but the effects continues for YEARS LATER.

The charge nurse joked that even with the 72-hour hold, weekends didn’t count and they would be happy to keep me for five days if I didn’t shut up.

They also didn’t properly discharge me/provide paperwork. I lost my job because of this. I was already reluctant to seek out help (my mother was a serious Munchausen by proxy - she sent me to institutions as a child telling them I was violent/on drugs/etc - I was a straight edge teen that didn’t even look at porn because I was scared of what she would do.)

Instead of help, I got another set of memories to crush me at 4 in the morning. I got mistreated for being trans, which further contributes to the atmosphere of fear I live in. I lost my job, which is already a struggle because I need to save up to get out of here.

I’m sick of people suggesting therapy as the first response to anyone describing mental health struggles. I’ve met so few capable of anything more than providing the CBT worksheets that seem to be all they’re trained to do nowadays.

Psychiatry and psychology as fields ultimately seem more about the enforcement of social norms than about benefiting the patient.

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Objection@lemmy.ml 13 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Donald Ewen Cameron's operation was running from what is today known as the Allen Memorial Institute (AMI), part of the Royal Victoria Hospital, and not to be confused with the non-governmental organization based in Montreal, AMI-Québec Agir contre la maladie mentale.

Love how Donald Ewen Cameron gets exactly one sentence that doesn't even describe anything he did, and is listed under the Canada section with zero mention of being funded by the CIA as part of MKULTRA (which also gets zero mention in the article).

For those who don't know, Donald Ewen Cameron posed as a normal doctor in Canada and took patients who came in with minor symptoms like headaches or anxiety disorders and put them into months-long comas without their consent to run CIA mind control and drug experiments on, including LSD and electroshock treatments at 30-40 times normal levels. The full extent of his abuse will never be known due to the destruction of records (more details on this page), but many people were severely traumatized with long term effects including, "incontinence, amnesia, forgetting how to talk, forgetting their parents, and thinking their interrogators were their parents." "Victims often suffered from retrograde amnesia for the rest of their lives and had to relearn most skills they had. Many were in a childlike state and even had to be potty-trained."

After conducting these horrific, abusive "experiments" (torture) on innocent Canadians seeking medical help, with US government's full knowledge and support, Cameron would go on to become president of several different organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association, the Canadian Psychiatric Association, and even the World Psychiatric Association.

This is literally USA level stuff.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 12 minutes ago* (last edited 11 minutes ago)

Holy shit, what? Good god

I know all about MKULTRA, but I've never been aware of this or anything else that involved Canada.

Man this country is rotten to the core. The shit that the CIA did with LSD alone constitutes crimes against humanity.

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 4 points 6 hours ago

And here I thought it was Roadkill F. Kennedy that was gonna send me to a concentration camp for taking antidepressants. Welp I guess it's the nuthouse for me instead. At least until being mentally ill at all gets you sent to the "rehabilitation farms."

[–] WrenFeathers@lemmy.world 20 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

My first thought when reading this is….

We’re mere weeks away from martial law.

My second thoughts was, if this is the distraction- what is the other hand doing?

[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 6 points 7 hours ago

A fair ask.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 12 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

I guess I'll see some of you in the loony bin with me. We should play bingo or something.

[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 2 points 7 hours ago

They probably wouldn’t allow RISK, too “violent”.

[–] pzzzt@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

I like Mancala, personally.

[–] Mossheart@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

What's the bill number? Is there a link to the text for a full read?

[–] LemmyFeed@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 8 hours ago

It's a Minnesota bill and the link takes you to the full text.

[–] Frenchys_prospecting@aussie.zone 39 points 16 hours ago (5 children)

If you guys haven't started rioting by now then I lack any empathy for you with what comes next.

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 12 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Who wrote this fucked up bill? And isn't Minnesota a blue state?

[–] Retropunk64@lemm.ee 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Like one of the bluest.

False. It's almost a swing state.screenshot of wikipedia's "2024 United States presidential election in Minnesota" infobox, showing most of the counties in red and vote totals of 50.92% for Harris and 46.68% for Trump screenshot of Minnesota Senate infobox showing 67 seats, 34 Democratic–Farmer–Labor and 33 Republican

In fact, if you sort the table here you can see that of the states Harris/Walz won there was only one (New Hampshire) where they got a lower percentage of the vote than in Minnesota.

However with the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party having a majority (by a single seat) in the Senate, this bill will obviously not pass, and if it did, obviously the governor (Tim Walz) would not sign it.

This is just trolling by some deeply unserious politicians.

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[–] xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

but, the bill doesn’t even make sense and uses “psychic” instead of “psychiatric”… so not even proof read….
it’s basically a troll bill, more important things to get upset about (unless you’re in minnesota, then you should petition to remove them)

[–] tischbier@feddit.org 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I noticed the “Psychic.” At first I thought that it was alluding to people like me who are lawyers but have a strategic mind and fairly accurately predict outcome with good data and information.

But then I immediately realized they’re just extremely dumb and dangerous. Might also have been trying to say psychotic/psychosis.

If it stays as written, then I would like them try to prove the existence of psychics.

It’s a troll as you say. But having watched the law for a long time and being in the law, it is highly likely that a group that is more competent will get a hold of this idea, draft a real version, and pump that legislation out to every state legislature.

We have that being homosexual is a crime still on the books in most places. We are only 40 years old from homosexuality being considered a mental illness. This sort of thing is absolutely on the table.

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[–] LesserAbe@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago (5 children)

Lot of people here need to get informed and get a grip. Just because a bill is introduced doesn't mean it will be passed. The overwhelming majority of bills that are introduced don't pass. And this is in one state, not federal. And if the legislature passed it the governor may veto it, and it would certainly face legal challenge.

I get that everything sucks right now and it feels like we're getting attacked on every front. I get the administration is doing illegal stuff. We're in for a rough time. Still: don't give them power by acting like every idea they bring up is likely, or possible. This bill is just trolling, it's so some nobody state level legislators will have a bullet point in their newsletter and a social media post.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 minutes ago

You're missing the point. This shit drags the Overton window to the right every time.

They are testing the limits and normalizing this shit at the same time.

It doesn't pass... Until it does. Then what.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Lot of people here need to get informed and get a grip. Just because a bill is introduced doesn’t mean it will be passed.

But it absolutely means that republicans want to do it and will keep working at it until they accomplish it or something similar. And democrats will probably fucking go along with it because of course they will.

[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 5 points 7 hours ago

You are, of course, correct. That said, the level of enforcement happening on illegal acts and judicial orders says it may not matter.

It’s a mess right now. So keeping an eye is good.

[–] LucidiaDiamond@lemm.ee 9 points 7 hours ago

It can’t happen here…until it does

[–] WrenFeathers@lemmy.world 14 points 9 hours ago

While this may be true, most floods start with a single drop of rain.

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