• Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Wild that we let a person cover their vehicle with signs that essentially say “I have severe untreated mental illness and no grip on reality”, and society at large says “sure, keep operating that heavy machinery in public”.

    • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 months ago

      “I have severe untreated mental illness and no grip on reality”

      (Emphasis mine)

      That is a vast oversimplification of how people work. It is absolutely plausible to me that someone might believe obvious lies but is otherwise qualified to drive heavy machinery. Analyzing the society you live in is a totally different skill than driving.

      For example, if I found out my bus driver literally believes that reptilians run the world, I would still trust them to drive my bus because driving a bus has nothing to do with lizard people. Conversely, I wouldn’t trust a bus driver who agrees with everything I believe in but is currently having a panic attack.

      This is important to me because I am mentally ill (treated, but mentally ill nonetheless) and autistic (which is treated like a mental illness), and this is the kind of logic that tyrants use to manufacture popular consent to further marginalize mentally ill people.

      • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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        2 months ago

        The guy driving this van is probably about as functional as someone in the middle of a panic attack. Very likely erratic and on meth I would not trust to drive.

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        There’s a big difference between a danger that is tangible and immediate, such as a collision with another vehicle, and something that cannot be seen or interacted with, like electricity or a virus.

        There’s nothing about this that tells me this person can’t drive safely.