Stormy Daniels
Gold Member
- Mar 19, 2018
- 7,295
- 2,574
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Red flag laws are based on a key, false, evil premise: Mental illness makes you a bad and defective person.
Negative stigma against admitting and addressing mental health needs has driven too many discussions for too long in our country. Access to mental healthcare remains limited in our country, and fear of judgement deters many people from seeking care.
Red flag laws serve only one purpose: To scapegoat the cultural deficiencies that lead to violent crime on a vulnerable, marginalized, minority group in society who lack the political clout to defend themselves through the public discussion.
About one quarter of the population experience diagnosable mental illness. Due to ongoing stigma and lack of public awareness, many will be unwilling or unable to identify with their healthcare needs, meaning that the effective proportion of the population is even less for political purposes.
Red flag laws are a back door to circumvent standard legal protections and violate constitutional rights.
The government has a right to intervene in certain things for the sake of protecting you--even from yourself. So the government does have a certain degree of authority to intervene in a suicide attempt, order evacuations of areas due to natural disasters, etc. But that ability is very limited, and often is more theoretical than literal. Red flag laws greatly extend the government's power to deprive an individual of their constitutional rights with no real cause. A person's rights do not evaporate upon being sick. But red flag laws mean the government can suspend or perpetually deprive the individual of rights even though they have committed no crime.
Negative stigma against admitting and addressing mental health needs has driven too many discussions for too long in our country. Access to mental healthcare remains limited in our country, and fear of judgement deters many people from seeking care.
Red flag laws serve only one purpose: To scapegoat the cultural deficiencies that lead to violent crime on a vulnerable, marginalized, minority group in society who lack the political clout to defend themselves through the public discussion.
About one quarter of the population experience diagnosable mental illness. Due to ongoing stigma and lack of public awareness, many will be unwilling or unable to identify with their healthcare needs, meaning that the effective proportion of the population is even less for political purposes.
Red flag laws are a back door to circumvent standard legal protections and violate constitutional rights.
The government has a right to intervene in certain things for the sake of protecting you--even from yourself. So the government does have a certain degree of authority to intervene in a suicide attempt, order evacuations of areas due to natural disasters, etc. But that ability is very limited, and often is more theoretical than literal. Red flag laws greatly extend the government's power to deprive an individual of their constitutional rights with no real cause. A person's rights do not evaporate upon being sick. But red flag laws mean the government can suspend or perpetually deprive the individual of rights even though they have committed no crime.