Let's Talk About Mental Health!!

'Cuz it's clearly responsible for all these mass shootings, don'tchaknow??

If there’s one thing Republicans want you to know, it’s that they KNOW why so many mass shootings have been occurring. They’re not going to do anything about it, mind you, but they know what the problem is. And they’re here to tell you that while they know what leads to mass shootings, that doesn’t mean they feel bound to take action.

Because that’s not what Republicans do. What Republicans do is blame the Woke Left. And anything else they think their base will accept- in this case, “mental illness.”

This one has become a surprisingly popular go-to for people who don't believe in publicly funded universal health care of any kind.

Indeed, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, denying that gun control could have done anything to prevent the shooting, explained during a press conference that "Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge" and said that "We as a state, we as a society, need to do a better job with mental health."

Clearly this was not at the top of his mind when he cut $211 million from mental health programs.

Also, as Lori Post, director of the Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics at the Northwestern University School of Medicine told NBC News, most of these shooters don't actually have a diagnosable mental health issue.

“There is no evidence the shooter is mentally ill, just angry and hateful,” she explained. “While it is understandable that most people cannot fathom slaughtering small children and want to attribute it to mental health, it is very rare for a mass shooter to have a diagnosed mental health condition.”

Of course, “mental illness” can mean just about anything from a long-term diagnosable mental health issue to someone being drunk and stupid. It depends on who’s doing the defining- a mental health professional or a Republican Governor looking for a reason to not address the armed elephant in the room.

For Governor Abbott to sit before the press at his dog-and-pony show and with no hint of irony saying, "Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge” only proves how little he understands. First, he’s a trained attorney, not a mental health professional. Second, his arrogance is exceeded only by his hubris and ignorance. And third, he knows not of which he speaks. Mental health is a pretty complex issue, not one that can be boiled down to pithy bromides.

It’s entirely possible that the shooter in Uvalde was dealing with unresolved anger and not a mental health issue. Could he have chosen a healthier way to address and resolve that anger? Well, duh….

Conservatives tend to want to boil a mass shooting down to an easily understandable reason, something that Joe and Ethel Sixpack watching Fox News Channel can easily understand. Once they’ve done that, they can avoid the inconvenient truth of having to endure any discussion of common-sense gun control. Because those damned Liberals are always trying to politicize mass shootings, don’tchaknow? Always with the “Can we have common-sense gun control now?” Don’t they know they need to wait until passions have cooled (and people have forgotten and moved on)?

"Everybody is always in search of a 'root cause' after an unspeakable tragedy takes place when the root cause is all around us. Our society is sick." [Candace Owens] tweeted, "Refuse to acknowledge mental illness when it so evidently surrounds you? Congrats. You are a part of the root cause."

First of all, you can't just go around saying things you don't like are "mental illness." Even if we were talking about actual mental health issues here, it is entirely unclear how that would be helpful. Like does she want us all to go around and yell at people for having depression or anxiety? Should we bully people out of having schizophrenia? Is that how dealing with mental health works for Candace Owens?

Unfortunately, finding a “root cause” for mass shootings isn’t nearly as simple nor as easy as Candace Owens makes it out to be. Nor is identifying mental illness, which she evidently defines as not being Christian, heterosexual, and Conservative.

Man, if that was the case, I think I’d be better off mentally ill.

Given that Owens is clearly doubling down on this theory, it seems worthwhile to note that we have had mass shootings for far longer than we have had trans acceptance or body acceptance. Hell, we had many mass shootings during the years when it was considered rude for a woman over a size 2 to sing at a chili cook-off, during the years of celebrated thigh gaps and skeletal Olsen twins. And the fact is, unlike being trans or not displaying what Candace Owens determines to be the appropriate amount of shame over what one's body looks like, anorexia and bulimia are, in fact, mental health issues.

Also, while we can't be sure how many school shootings have been prevented by bullying people for not fitting in or living up to one's personal standards, we can probably safely assume it is "zero."

Owen’s own personal intolerance for diversity (ironic, since she’s Black) notwithstanding, she sees America’s biggest problem as being that the definition of what’s deemed “acceptable” has widened precipitously over the years. To Owens, this is badbadbad, because it means America is falling away from “normal,” whatever that might mean.

Oh, and the photos of the shooter “cross-dressing?” Those weren’t even the shooter. They were pictures of a transgender woman that some creep on a Right-wing message board got ahold of and, instead of doing a bit of basic due diligence, posted them on the Internet. Classy move, eh? Nothing like holding up an innocent person for all manner of hatred and abuse when she had nothing to do with anything.

And to think that ALL of this energy and effort is expended so Conservatives don’t have to go to the one place they don’t want to go- having to discuss common-sense gun control.

So, if they can deflect attention from where it should go, so much the better for them. Because they know that if nothing changes, then nothing changes.

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