Please stop asking me to feel sorry for stupid people.

I know that DU if filled with very compassionate people. It is one of the reasons I come here. People on DU are kind and thoughtful and believe in helping others. That being said, you should not let your let your compassion make you into a damn door mat. What Ashley Todd did was despicable and stupid. There is no proof she is mentally ill. None. That is just an opinion. There is proof that she lied about being attacked by a black man for political reasons. That was racist and downright disgusting. I don't really know what her exact motivations were (other than to foment racism and attack Obama supporters) but I don't need to ponder on the methods of the stupid. I don't hate her, but I certainly don't feel the need to coddle this stupid woman either. So please stop asking me and others to forgive stupid people just because you can't stop your heart from bleeding.

...by inciting anger at his supporters and/or inciting anger at black people (including Obama).

There is compelling proof that she is indeed mentally ill...she was working for the McCain campaign.

and line her jail cell with Obama stickers

My desire for her to get mental health care is sarcasm, I don't feel the need to coddle her either. She should be charged, fined, made to do community service. Instigating violence against people because of their skin color is wrong.

There's no evidence of mental illness yet, however, I've worked very closely with mentally ill patients and even they need to be held accountable for their actions.

:applause:

You're absolutely right none of us need to be door mats.

And we don't need to not be angry either.

We can still feel pity for whatever combination of personal and environmental factors would lead someone to do something this ridiculous. Not in a way where we start treating her like some innocent victim with no responsibility for her behavior - but simply in a way where with think about the bigger picture of the tragedy of duped people, ignorance, and/OR mental illness and its effects.

It IS sad. That doesn't make it any less stupid and fucked up.

Having mental and emotional responses to things like this that are a little less binary (i.e. EITHER you are feeling compassionate and completely forgiving and treating the person like they are innocent OR you hate or gets and want to see her humiliated and punished) is healthy.

much less be in a position to "coddle" her either literally or figuratively. So you should be in good shape as far as that goes.

It is true that I will likely never meet this person - as a member of society I don't feel any need to treat her with excessive indulgence by forgiving her actions. So thanks for the attempted vocabulary lesson - if thats what you were going for.

was real, then I'd bet the house against much concern from anyone about his mental health. The terms for mentally ill among minorities are generally "criminal" or "deadbeat".

Fuck Ashley The Plant. It is exactly people like her that get every benefit in life and every benefit of the doubt when they do horrible things.

That does not excuse her behavior(imo) and she has been charged with making a false statement to the police. Other charges are being discussed and are pending.

:shrug:

PPD is the source of the "history of mental illness", not MSNBC.

In the sense that y=tehre is a medical reason for why she did it. It's all according to what her mental state is now.

I do believe people should be circumspect and not use language defamatory of women

she's 20 years old

she's not bright

she's probably a sociopath

she has NO IDEA of the extremely horrific harm she's done, even having failed... or could've done if she'd been successful

idiot yes... miscreant yes...

the resurrection of typhoid mary or matahari?

um, no?

I'm tired of making the mental illness excuse for people like this.