This gets harder when the truth comes out. Harder especially when what so many people think is the truth is so severely unfair, so full of vitriol, and so patently false. When so many people embrace this error, intolerance and prejudice take hold and an open, honest life becomes a liability. A stumble into the secret thoughts of others reveals the breadth of the counterfactual and the hate that undergirds it.
It makes people feel safe to believe the danger is in the "crazy" person, when in fact the danger is in an average (typically male) person who is exposed to too much propaganda, too much social media, and has too easy access to guns. (I get really angry when people say that a particular politician/business owner is mentally ill. He's not. He's corrupt, power hungry and cruel and dangerous. That is not the equivalent to mental illness.)
Now this idea of killing people on site for having mental illness, or for being an immigrant, etc -- is something new, and being promulgated by the current politicians. Very scary stuff. I'm so sorry it's affecting your daughter this way.... as you say, you write for a niche group. I'm so sorry that in 2023, it's still being taught that mental illness is more a threat to the public than it is to the actual sufferer.
I ,too, recently edged away from a man in a grocery store that told me it's "them" and "us," and the ones shooting people are "crazy" vs there being a gun problem. As I'm getting older, i feel more vulnerable physically, and certainly so, in the current world we live in. You, having a young daughter absolutely changes the risks you should take in engaging with hotheads. This does not make you a coward; it makes you a father. Just keep trying to find a balance, as you do, between keeping totally quiet, and speaking out. I know you're not capable of *totally* shutting up -- it's not in you.
It makes people feel safe to believe the danger is in the "crazy" person, when in fact the danger is in an average (typically male) person who is exposed to too much propaganda, too much social media, and has too easy access to guns. (I get really angry when people say that a particular politician/business owner is mentally ill. He's not. He's corrupt, power hungry and cruel and dangerous. That is not the equivalent to mental illness.)
Now this idea of killing people on site for having mental illness, or for being an immigrant, etc -- is something new, and being promulgated by the current politicians. Very scary stuff. I'm so sorry it's affecting your daughter this way.... as you say, you write for a niche group. I'm so sorry that in 2023, it's still being taught that mental illness is more a threat to the public than it is to the actual sufferer.
I ,too, recently edged away from a man in a grocery store that told me it's "them" and "us," and the ones shooting people are "crazy" vs there being a gun problem. As I'm getting older, i feel more vulnerable physically, and certainly so, in the current world we live in. You, having a young daughter absolutely changes the risks you should take in engaging with hotheads. This does not make you a coward; it makes you a father. Just keep trying to find a balance, as you do, between keeping totally quiet, and speaking out. I know you're not capable of *totally* shutting up -- it's not in you.
Thank you very much Barbara. That means a lot.