Not every mental illness affects your grasp of logic or perspective on reality. Obsessive compulsive disorder can be absolutely debilitating even though the person might completely understand the reality of their situation, know that they don’t actually benefit from and in fact are harmed by, for example, checking the windows and doors every night in the exact same way many times, but still be unable to stop themselves. They aren’t delusional, just prisoner to compulsions they can’t resist. I’m not suggesting that OCD is always severe enough to make someone consider euthanasia or is always resistant to treatment, but it certainly could be.

I could also see someone with substance abuse disorder that they’ve tried and failed to treat for decades making that decision (while sober after detoxing and withdrawal). I would want them to keep trying, because I know how great sobriety and how valuable a life built post addiction can be, but I wouldn’t consider them to be of unsound mind in that scenario.

I’m just listing examples in my family, but I’m sure there are others.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…

Colonialism is problematic because it robs people of resources and self-determination, and creates a underclass. Slavery is remarkably good at doing all of those things.

It turns out colonialism has consequences

Anti-aboriginal sentiment is very weird to me as a non-Australian: sometimes it feels subtle (like calling a war dance aggressive and unpleasant- that’s kind of the goal and shouldn’t be a wild thing to say) and sometimes they just call aboriginal people King Kong.

It’s always a great object lesson on not playing devil’s advocate (because I could see myself defending someone calling a war dance aggressive, but I would 100% regret that choice with the additional context).

As always, Trump can go fuck himself in his cunt box.

I can’t tell if this is redundant or not (mostly intended as a joke, but I am curious now). Is “cunt” here an adjective? Does “box” mean vagina for Australians?

It’s weird that you’re shitty to people for their beliefs. If those beliefs bring them comfort and help them treat others well, you benefit from them. You can value true beliefs in your own life and while choosing your immediate circle, and if you really want to spread it to the wider public, you could advocate for it instead of intentionally offending people for being different from you.

Yeah, what a rube! They have beliefs that bring them comfort and that compel them to treat others well. So stupid.

damn, just imagine if instead of doing that, they’d exhibited some solidarity(I’m assuming it’s about manufacturing jobs related to cars)?

I bet if Americans had held strikes in response to layoffs OR chosen not to buy foreign cars back then, today their unions would be stronger and their cars wouldn’t be so… wasteful (in many ways). Sure does suck to suck.

Should I take the private jet, or is that a little on the nose?

We’re already working double shifts without leisure time, so there’s no slack to cut. That’s the problem. People who really want kids know that kids require sacrifice, that’s the one thing everyone talks about with kids. If you don’t have any more holes in the belt, trying to tighten it won’t help.

Do those people with kids make it work, or are they doing their children a disservice by being emotionally and literally unavailable to them because they’re trying to make sure they don’t starve? I hope most of them make it work, but I know it’s not all of them. Unfortunately, crossing your fingers and hoping you’ll make it work doesn’t seem like a responsible choice to many of us when failure would so greatly impact an innocent person.

That’s the thing: if you really want kids, you’ll regret not having them. If you really want kids and have them without being able to afford feeding and clothing them, you’ll regret that even more.

I’m firmly in the millennial camp in my mid thirties and I have two pairs of couple friends who’ve had kids. It could absolutely be my friends circle, but most of us are in the trades or have advanced degrees (most of the people who went the college route also have more than a bachelor’s, because that alone wasn’t enough to get a job) and we just can’t make it work. Many of them want kids, but they want to be able to provide for them first, so they’re just waiting

Yes, and humans with rabies will refuse to drink, even though they need water to survive. Decisions made under literal medical delusions aren’t stupid or nonsensical, they’re misinformed and inherently alogical.

He was facing the possibility of life in prison. I could see pleading guilty in spite of his innocence because of that (and there are many cases of people who pled guilty to avoid the possibility of a maximum sentence and were later exonerated).

As for the specific admission of stalking, shooting, and causing the death of Brian Thompson, I don’t extend the benefit of the doubt to the government anymore, to the point that the description of his flat affect makes me wonder if he was tortured. He was kept in solitary confinement for a long time (which I guess is technically already torture, but I’m sure the US government doesn’t legally consider its “correct” application such)- a couple of missed visits outside in a row can really fuck with a person’s psyche.

I don’t think it’s likely that they specifically and actively tortured him to force this exact confession out of him, but I do think he has likely been both intentionally and negligently psychologically harmed during his imprisonment, beyond what is unavoidable when holding someone against their will.

I try to think of it from the perspective of a Luigi who didn’t do it. He had gone a little nuts in the months before the arrest and had been living rough for a while after having cut contact with most of his family and friends and quitting his job. Suddenly he’s arrested because of his eyebrows, and they plant a bunch of convenient for prosecutors but nonsensical for the specifics of this case evidence. They probably rough him up during the arrest, then he’s reunited with his family who have enough money from a gofundme to hire great attorneys, and he’s getting fan mail and nude Polaroids for some reason. He’s still not exactly mentally stable and then he’s kept in solitary confinement for months, interspersed with incredibly high profile court appearances and a huge demand from the general public for his commentary on all of this.

Would it astound me if someone who had been through all that reacted by confessing to the crime? No, honestly. I could see that person reacting in all sorts of ways.

Maybe during sentencing or if there is ever a state trial, enough evidence will be put forth to tip it for me, or we’ll get to see enough of him speaking and reacting to things to get a better handle on what his mental state is, but until then, I’ve got evidence based reasons to doubt that he did it (the chain of custody on the backpack, the eyebrows not being convincing for me, and the utter pointlessness of getting a ghost gun and not disposing of it), so it’s not beyond a reasonable doubt. If I were on a jury deciding this, I would obviously receive more evidence, but I do need that before I can say it’s beyond a reasonable doubt.

It’s easy to remember “weird’s weird,” though.

Yeah, Denmark should do that. I’m not trying to be contrary, I just don’t see what prevents Denmark from making a plan with Greenland to have security forces nearby (ideally with some other NATO members as a show of force) to arrest any unlawful drillers without paramilitary escorts, and to force a confrontation with any armed groups not explicitly authorized to be there.

You mean they couldn’t physically or legally? Because they probably won’t be able to physically prevent the first shovel from breaking ground due to the relative locations of NATO members, Greenland, and the US (though maybe Canada), but they could come to Greenland and legally force the drilling company to leave before there’s much of an impact (assuming the oil company didn’t come with mercenaries).

An out of power politician could still share intelligence in general, but I’m not sure how useful that would be in this case with a separate government in power.

I would probably also prefer to be executed by firing squad at age 60, than to spend 15-30 years rotting in prison.

That is to say, currently I think would prefer that, but I might feel differently when I’m 60 or if I were actually standing in front of a firing squad.

I paid $450 for a single room in a house share ten years ago. Now it’s $850 for rooms on the same street