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I've a mental illness...PTSD....and I'm Asian....Half Asian...derive from my mother....I'm Asian American...since the US Military removed African American from forms and documents and left "Black" I can go with "Caucasian" instead of White.
Let's be a little PC here since this is getting touchy

I agree it's wrong to characterise all mentally ill people as being open to the sway of demagogues. Nearly anyone could be swayed by a demagogue and the social pressure they can generate.

The process in this case is:

This guy has a racist mentality (for whatever reasons, I think they are complex.)
He becomes mentally ill.
He listens to Trump and takes notice of the widespread social approval of Trump's racist message.
The combination of these factors lowers his normal inhibition of violence to the point where he flies off the handle.

Which is what I was saying. ^ Its a combination of factors, not one factor overriding another factor.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
This ridiculous "violent rhetoric vs mental illness" debate is a false dichotomy, whether its BLM, White Supremacists or Islam.

They aren't mutually exclusive. Both of them are or can be factors at the same time. Both are problems that must be addressed, instead of simply dismissing one problem by citing the other. After all, mentally ill people are vulnerable and easily influenced by rhetoric. The mental illness is what makes them dangerous and prone to lashing it out, but its the violent rhetoric that pushes them to a particular course of action. Somebody who's mentally ill might lash out and punch someone when under stress, but if they're exposed to and manipulated by extremist rhetoric like the extreme wings of BLM and Islam, or White Supremacy, then that person becomes more likely to act with intent to kill.

Mental illness does not negate extremist views.

If mental illness is such a serious issue in relation to violent crimes that it needs to be dealt with at the same priority as dangerous ideologies, can you explain why people with mental disorders are orders of magnitude more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators of it?

Personally I find some people's eagerness to dismiss violent outcomes of violent ideologies as being largely down to people with mental health problems extremely worrying(and in this case not a little ironic, given many strands of White Supremacism consider the disabled and mentally ill just as worthy of their hatred as non-whites and Jewish folk). Not only does it fuel harmful attitudes towards people with mental disorders among the general populace, who frankly have a bad enough attitude in that regard already, but it also allows too many people a nice, lazy way to avoid having to confront the ideological aspect of the violence.

I mean, I understand why people like that line of thinking; everybody holds strong opinions, but nobody wants to believe they'd ever be pushed to violent action because of them, or could be manipulated using their beliefs into doing so, so "othering" violent ideologues by branding them as mentally ill allows folk to put such people in a separate category to themselves. Of course, by refusing to confront that possibility, they actually make it more likely, but hey ho at least nobody has to do any uncomfortable thinking.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
Just to make sure I'm clear, when a guy shot up a bunch of people in Dallas after a BLM rally, that meant that BLM wass inextricably tied to that shooting (rather than being a fringe element) - as such, then Donald Trump is responsible here as well, right? I just want to make sure I'm being consistent.

Ouze, I believe it's already been explained to you that this is a non-story. Like usual, when a white guy does something like this it's because he's "crazy" or "mentally ill," unlike when a black person does it, which is then because of the violent rhetoric of BLM (who, of course, is way more violent than say, the KKK). Just like I'm sure that person in here suburban Northern Virginia that rolled his window down to yell, "Go back to your own country!" at my Nebraskan-born Hawaiian friend and her two elementary aged children was just "mentally ill."

That's how this works, obviously.

In any event, I'm glad the victims will be OK here.

Indeed.

Incorrect. I have no problem blaming all racist redneck trash white guys for the act of this racist redneck white trash.