Hey, remember that Reed College student who somehow got national attention for being booted from a class discussion section because he wouldn’t shut up about rape? The guy that right-wing news outlets — including The National Review and the New York Post — heralded as a martyr to free speech, even though it was clear to anyone who looked into the story even a little bit that the guy in question was a bit … off?
Well, Katie Baker at Buzzfeed now reports that Mr. True, now an ex-Reed College student, “was arrested on Thursday by the Portland, Oregon police for alleged sex abuse, harassment, and disorderly conduct” after, er, behaving inappropriately at a girls’ rugby game.
As Baker explains,
According to an employee at Rugby Oregon, a youth rugby organization based in Portland, True was arrested for disrupting a high school girls’ rugby practice. He was restrained by a coach who called the police, the employee said.
I wonder if the New York Post will be writing an editorial this time, like they did last time, demanding Congressional hearings and declaring that, well, whatever it was he was doing at the rugby game was a bold act of self-expression.
Or he’ll claim that since women want to breastfeed in public, he should be able to jerk it!
(This argument always baffles me, because it sounds like these guys are mad they can’t feed their semen to babies, and I just…*gag*)
@policy of madness
While I agree with the sentiment that mentally ill people face a ton of unfair discrimination and I understand that, statistically, mentally ill people, as a whole, are just as likely to commit a crime as someone without any kind of condition recognized by the psychiatric community, I believe that to dismiss the possibility that delusion resulting from a disorder could result in perception problems leading to entitlement or to claim that mental illness doesn’t play a huge role in specific violent crimes can actually do harm to the mentally ill, as well.
Not allowing for that idea creates an environment in which the concept of mental illness as a mitigating circumstance in criminal proceedings, an idea which has spared the lives of many in the US justice system, has no basis.
Again, I am sympathetic to what you are trying to do, and I love that this comments section polices ablest language especially in regards to the mentally ill. My first love was a woman whose severe mental breakdown resulted in the end of our relationship and eventually her indefinite need for institutional care (if her parents weren’t wealthy, she’d probably have ended up homeless). It makes my blood boil when people throw around “bipolar” to refer to moderate mood-swings or say that they are “OCD” because they wash their hands a little. I hate when people refer to those they have political differences with as “crazy.”
But, I think, in cases like this, we should see what kind of person he is after he hopefully gets the help he needs.
Please, please, please correct me if I’m fundamentally misunderstanding anything.
@portlantonio
You can’t diagnose people with disorders over the internet if you never met them. You especially can’t tell over just a handful of articles that you’ve read about them; not even professional psychologist can do that.
Sure, technically, you can’t rule out he has some sort of disorder, but you can’t rule out that he doesn’t have problems either. And it doesn’t matter either way, what he did was wrong, and trying to tack it on to some sort of “mental issue” isn’t going to help or rationalize or whatever you think it will do over the internet. It is not up to you or anyone here to dictate what is up with a man we’ve all probably have never met.
FYI – if you have to begin your statement like this, you might want to rethink what you’re saying.
The Internet is not a court of law. The rules of courts of law don’t apply here, and this blog’s commenting policy has zero influence on what courts of law are going to do in the future.
So, no dice on this one.
But you’re still going to do what you’re doing?
But you’re still going to do what you’re doing?
If your only reason for pointing at terrible people and declaring that they MUST be mad, and thereby lumping all mad people in with the terrible people and perpetuating the myth that mad people are terrible, and thereby making it harder for mad people to live their lives and obtain fair medical treatment, and not face the choice of hiding their illness versus facing open discrimination, is BUT THE INSANITY DEFENSE, rest assured that nothing I am doing right now endangers the insanity defense. The insanity defense will still be there is you stop deliberately making my life more of a hell than it already has to be.
@Portlantonio
Yes, that was what I was saying as well. Can someone be entitled and an asshole as well as incredibly unwell? God yes, many people are. Mental illness doesn’t exclude someone from being an utter prick.
Mr. True possibly masturbated at a public event, something he’d built up to after earlier episodes of shitty behavior were encouraged. He presents a pattern of behavior which screams to me some form of conduct disorder or possible organic brain disorder. It’s something I’ve seen a lot of, though this story has played out in a bizarrely public and cheered on way.
As I said earlier, I feel sorry for this young man. Something went wrong with him and I hope that rather than throwing him away so he can reemerge angry, vengeful, and a martyr to the men’s rights movement, he gets the help he needs to fix whatever is going on and maybe put a dent in that sexually oriented rage.
… I have to admit, though? “But the insanity defense!” make a hell of a non-sequitor.
Oh, the picture! I wish I could unsee the picture!
I loved that lorikeet exhibit at the Metro Zoo but it’s moved on (to Florida, IIRC) and now my last sighting of the little birds is hanging on this guy?
Ugh.
@Annie Squidface
He is excoriated for being an utter prick, not for being (possibly, speculatively) mentally ill. Those two are not the same thing, and yet you’re conflating the two by internet-diagnosing him as needing help instead of someone who has misogynistic beliefs that are widespread in society.
Can we PLEASE stop with the internet diagnoses and conflating criminality with illness? Others have already explained how harmful this is. The vast majority of the mentally ill do not act like entitled pricks, and the vast majority of people who act like entitled pricks are not mentally ill. By pathologizing his behavior you are perpetuating a terrible conception of mental illness and dismissing misogyny as a cultural phenomenon that affects the sane and mad alike.
I’m just going to sit here and burn a hole through the laptop using the sheer power of my death glare until the ableism and keyboard diagnoses stop.
@M.
Hope you have enough food and water to survive. You may want to stop every once in a while for a shower, though.
@M:
Sleep is good too. Helps keep the death-glare generation aparatus in peak condition.
(But yeah, folks? Ableism and keyboard diagnosing has been against the community standards practically forever, and when David gets around to updating his comment policy they’ll likely be against that as well. Just stop. Don’t try to find some loophole wording, don’t try to double-down with the “oh I’m not saying he’s NECESSARIlY mentally ill, I’m just saying blah blah blah.” You aren’t fooling anyone. Find a different topic.)
Can I mention how glad I am that I’m not the only one who cares about this?
@Crip Dyke
Here’s some lorikeets sans that guy.
http://www.rainbows.com.au/new12.10.03%20Lorikeets%20and%20chicks%20%282%29%20009.jpg
@Kirby
I’d imagine M. would soon master the ability to sleep with their* eyes open soon enough.
*…I don’t know your pronouns. I am really bad at remembering them because I know everyone has said them at one point. >>;
I agree, let’s can the keyboard diagnosing, it’s offensive, stigmatising and unhelpful.
@Jackie:
Oof, sleeping with your eyes open and death-vision. Wake up one morning and there’s a channel dug across your ceiling and down your walls.
@Policy of Madness
I am frankly trembling and in tears that people on THIS BOARD are calling misogyny-fueled behavior mental illness. I have friends who have to contend with this bullshit social attitude saying their illness puts them on par with mass murderers and sex offenders, as though it’s not enough that they have to deal with their own condition and a crappy mental health system. What’s next, a diagnosis for the entire Manosphere? For sex offenders and creeps?
I don’t dispute that mental illness can affect how these beliefs and behaviors manifest, and maybe Mr. True’s particularly loud and disruptive actions remind people of diagnoses for some behavioral disorders. However, what he believed to act this way has nothing to do with any illness he might or might not have. Enough perfectly sane people have these ideas about entitlement and rape denialism that the very thought of mental illness making people misogynistic should have been kicked into the stratosphere a long time ago.
Everyone, just please think about what you’re doing when you’re cavalierly diagnosing people like True. If he has a condition he will be diagnosed by professionals who have the opportunity to examine him and the results will be considered in his defense. If he is ill, though, his illness didn’t cause him to have misogynistic beliefs. By conflating evil beliefs and actions with mental illness you are both harming the majority of good mad people and minimizing sexism into an individual diagnosis instead of a widespread social problem.
*Goes to rage-cry some more*
I agree with PPT on this one.
Conflating this kind of behavior with mental illness via keyboard diagnosing is gross and uncalled for. Leave it to the professionals, and stop making people with seriously delusional ideas about rape and sexism out to be mentally ill.
Hugs will be here for you when you get back, PPT. I’m sorry you had to put up with this.
Thanks, I feel much calmer after watching Cabaret videos. (Maybe not the best choice?) *gratefully accepts hugs*
@kirbywarp
Sounds like a superhero origin story. The Disabler puts a stop to ableism and keyboard diagnosis with the power of death-ray vision!
The dude is clearly extremely hungry for attention of any kind and utterly unconcerned about who he might harm, frighten, or make uncomfortable with his innappropriate actions.
That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s not neurotypical. I assure you, I know a fair number of neurotypical folks who demonstrate the same kind of flippant disregard for others in their search for attention. Especially if they’re privileged and (unknowingly or willfully) ignorant of how other people’s live experiences and comfort levels may differ from their own. It’s not fucking cool in the least, but it is a logical side effect of our kyriarchical culture.
Leave the diagnosing to actual professionals who can talk to the guy in person, mmkay?
So now this guy will probably get to add “registered sex offender” alongside “college fuckup” on his CV. That’s a hell of a thing to overcome. I hope he comes to his senses before he ruins his life.
“I hope he comes to his senses before he ruins his life.”
I hope he comes to his senses before he ruins someone else’s life.
It’s almost like people who insist on saying sexist, disturbing things are pretty darn likely to also be people who insist on doing sexist, disturbing things—and therefore their words, free speech though they are, are worth addressing.
I’m hoping against all hope that a handful of the right-wingers who defended him will pick up on that clue. I’m guessing not, but I can dream.
Chiming in with PoM. Let’s not do that thing.
My RE6 stats say I’ve played 48 hours now. Completion: 18%. Halp.