drblackbarn
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2018
Furry Valley on Trump/mental illness.
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Furry Valley on Twitter
“I woke up to see @realDonaldTrump blaming mass murder on the "mentally ill". In FV we represent, protect and help thousands of people suffering from mental illness and the negative bias they have to endure. Please do not reinforce that by careless remarks. #furry #mentalhealth”twitter.com
First, I want to highlight that I think that FV is well-intentioned in this tweet. My critique is of the exchange and not necessarily of FV, but draw whatever conclusions you'd like in that regard. That being said, there are some pretty serious issues with this exchange. Let's break this down, shall we?
"In FV, we represent, protect and help thousands of people suffering from mental illness and the negative bias they have to endure."
How many members are there of FV exactly, and on what basis does whoever is posting this know about the mental health status of FV's members? It's not unreasonable to suggest that there are thousands of people affiliated with FV, but even if we make that concession, that would minimally imply that the majority if not all of FV's members are suffering from some kind of mental illness. This seems unlikely and in the process actually misrepresents everyone in the community rather than representing them.
Moreover, how precisely are these people being represented, protected, and helped? Is FV donating funds to an organization that assists those with mental illness and who need help as a result? Are they providing counseling services? Are they doing anything besides tweeting about how much they're doing? If (as I suspect) the answer to my previous questions is "They're doing nothing," then the juxtaposition of this phrase and the one preceding it about Donald Trump seems to allow FV to make mass shootings about how great FV is. Am I wrong about this?
In the exchange between Jay and FV, I agree that correlation does not imply causation and that many people conflate the two, and I find myself disagreeing with Jay. The notion that people with mental illnesses are more likely to be mass shooters does not translate to the notion that people with mental illnesses are consequently, invariably mass shooters. Moreover, "mental illness" is an incredibly broad brush to stroke. My issue with this exchange rather is that the author of this post speaks seemingly with an air of authority and eventually arrogance. This exchange squanders the opportunity to educate people on the issue of mental health in favor of promoting FV and attacking dissenters. This probably doesn't protect or support people with mental illness.
I'm unable to view the full image that was posted alongside the original tweet, but from what I can see of it, it seems to make light of a serious issue. Simply linking to this press release from the American Psychological Association would have been more effective in making the point than arguing with someone on Twitter with random claims:
Statement of APA President in Response to Mass Shootings in Texas, Ohio
APA President Rosie Phillips Davis, PhD, ABPP, says in a statement about the mass shootings in El Pase, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, that hate + guns = public health crisis.
www.apa.org
Seriously, if I'm wrong about any of this, I'm open to being corrected.
