HATE SPEECH AND THE MENTALLY ILL

Because of the attempted assassination of a congressperson, there is discussion about the level of hate speech in our political discourse.

Those who use gun sights on congressional districts say that they did not mean to incite people to violence.

The mentally ill are almost always isolated. Everyone, even a mentally ill person, wants to have their actions be approved by others.

Unfortunately, the mentally ill may think that they will get approval by actually carrying out an action that the speaker meant as call to political action, not a call to violent action.

We all decry suicide bombers, most of whom are probably also mentally ill. The difference between a suicide bomber and an attack by a person who is mentally ill is that the suicide bomber is usually given the bomb and gets personal encouragement to act as a suicide bomber.

Here in the US, we have mentally ill people who have access to guns and who may be inspired by the hate speech on radio and TV. Each of us who discuss politics need to examine whether we are encouraging violence by the way we present our ideas.

And PLEASE REMEMBER, it was not so very long ago that it was the left who was using the hate speech. BOTH SIDES need to remember that we VOTE so that we do not have to use violence.

I do not like hate speech. Occasionally, I will lose my temper, or speak from irritation. I always regret being rude to another person. (Using a swear word does not usually count as irritation. I sometimes use swear words as I joke with friends.)

We all need to remember that it is not necessary to wish the other person to be dead. It is only necessary to wish the other person to be out of office.