#editorial article

Twomad was open about having schizophrenia. Toward the end he was talking to himself in other people's DMs, and this is the clearest symptom of psychosis, at a time in life it peaks (early 20's), and I can't emphasize it enough. Psychosis requires us to give benefit of the doubt and not take what they say, or even do, seriously. The brain processes real life as if it is in a dream or nightmare. It can occur from too high a dose of psychedelics. It used to be called early-onset dementia and has similar effects. I've seen progressives treat those conditions with patience and care. But that being given is so conditional; on how it occurs, and on how it presents.

Clearly the leftism of many of you is severely lacking. You don't really believe in rehabilitative justice, and you'd hate what criminal defense lawyers do, though everyone has a right to one.

I could unpack and give benefit of the doubt for almost everything Twomad did. Like a defense lawyer, I guess. I'd hurt myself psychologically doing that right now. But I at least want to address the Brianna Ghey incident and go from there.

As if I'd want him to die for being transphobic anyway. Speaking for us as a group so extremely like that makes us look bad. Please shut the Hell up.

Referencing something relevant to current events is not necessarily mocking in the context of psychosis. Now we have no idea how it was seen by him in that state. You need an example. When I was in psychosis, I typed "I met [fictional character] and he was BLACK. LAUGH NOW." This was my disorganized speech and thought flying purely off of word association. I had just met a doctor who I felt vaguely matched the occupation of the fictional character, and one thing I kept doing was calling people by the names of characters I associated them with. And in my mind, I was thinking, "if I phrase it this way, it's like the 'I met God, she was black' meme. Now it's in a meme format, how silly." I was chastised by chat and apologized, but lacked any ability to explain myself. It seems possible, and to me perhaps even likely, that this was only a relevant reference and not intended as mockery. He also apologized and deleted the tweet. I recovered, now I'm explaining myself. This is what you'll never get from Twomad now.

Possible starters toward understanding schizophrenia:

Vampire's Kiss (1988)

Yes, I'm serious. And this was meant to be a serious film. I think if Nic Cage hadn't put on that ridiculous accent, that would've been much more effective. It was triggering for me to watch for multiple reasons. Mainly, I felt exactly what it was like to feel compelled and forced to do horrible things harassing the public due to delusion, which was then misunderstood. Because, how CAN you make people understand? When they're in the real world and you're not? Content warning for sexual assault.

Andre Thomas, sentenced to death in Texas

People keep asking, "What's the point of pleading insanity, if not for cases like this?" The kicker is, it's solely defined as whether or not the person knows what they did is wrong, but it doesn't account for so much about what delusions are and how they work. What happens in delusions is, we get an idea about how to solve a problem, even in cases where we know collateral damage will occur, then it doesn't work, we feel sorry we had to do that, and then a different idea pops up in its place. Repeat indefinitely until treated. The system as it is has practically nothing in place to give grace to those struggling with what's called "consensus reality." And it is especially cruel and unforgiving to black people, but I 'm not going to deconstruct that here.

And no, don't come at me with "I have schizophrenia and I didn't do this-or-that." Oh good for you. But I have no cookie to give. Please know that type of statement is a logical fallacy.

A personality disorder is called a disorder because it causes disorder intrapersonally and/or interpersonally. And yes, that does include abuse. Behaving like a shitty person is part of what it means to be disordered. I'm sorry, that's just what it is. Some of you are just (understandably) predisposed (possibly due to this very same disorder) to taking these sorts of things personally and being defensive.

Similarly, there are mental illnesses which CAN cause people to commit crimes, and it can cause them to commit crimes in such a context where they CANNOT be held accountable. The solution there is not to have people with similar disorders and illnesses, who have claimed it to be a central part of their identity, to condemn the offender and distance themselves. Like, you don't HAVE to do that. You don't HAVE to either make excuses for someone, or distance yourself. You don't HAVE to throw anyone under the bus. You have no moral obligation to throw anyone under the bus. You can just... NOT MAKE THINGS ABOUT YOU PERSONALLY.

You can recognize the spectrum of symptoms (some of which, destructive and cause trauma to other people) without capitulating to a wider societal tendency to hold you personally accountable for the actions of literally everyone else within your group. That is buying into the exact same oppressive system. Never follow the logic of your oppressors.

I think we've just been stuck on repeating dogmatic truisms that aren't based on anything factual, empirical, or aligned with the current academic understanding of psychology and criminology.

It seems like people's compassion, patience, empathy and understanding entirely runs out the moment that a disorder or illness causes bad behavior, in much the same way that people have this petulant immature expectation of the perfect victim of things such as violence, structural violence, and other types of abuse.

I hate to have to be the one to say it but, "bad" people also deserve unconditional compassion, whatever that might actually look like in practice. It's the only way to make things better. Like, I'm sorry, but the science has shown over and over again that negative reinforcement does not work in the long term. Only positive reinforcement.

The obvious answer to the question is a resounding YES; However, the difficulty is in articulating, how it should be done, given the plethora of platforms originating in different forms, continuously. Concerns about the regulation of social media or rather lack of it,  first originated, after news of such platforms being fraudulently misused by adversaries to influence the outcome of elections and referendums, around the world, emerged in 2015 - 16.

Governments around the world woke up to the danger and risks posed by platforms at the hands of fraudsters,  extremists, miscreants and criminals. Subsequent events include the US presidential elections, the Brexit referendum in the UK, Facebook data leakage in India, a Chinese government crackdown on dissent, Fake news propaganda on Rohingyas by Pakistan, Interference of Russian / Chinese governments in elections of other countries, bought to the fore, ills affecting social media and showed the platforms in the worst possible light. There was a chorus around the world for effective regulations and governance of all social media platforms to prevent their criminal misuse.

Social media platforms are business models that create an electronic marketplace to match different parties with complementary interests. The platforms connect consumers with digital content creators and typically monetize their interactions through advertising revenue. The platforms do not create their content and contend that they are not responsible for what users produce and are thus not libellous and subject to the regulations and laws that usually govern traditional media like newspapers, television etc. The claim though correct is that they do not create their content. It is however incorrect to claim that they do not exercise any editorial control over the content. The platforms can identify who the user is from the profile and then target pointedly relevant content,  as per user preference, based upon browsing behaviour etc.

It is not even the case that social media cannot be regulated.   Remembering, the early days of YouTube, when they allowed users to post anything they desired; only after legal threats relating to copyright infringement arose, the platform immediately introduced restrictions and a policy framework to regulate uploads.

The problem lies in the platform’s preference to choose content that maximises user time on their respective site. For this purpose, they resort to carrying sensationalist, violent and scandalous content which provokes more user emotions and provides more eyeballs and viewership.

A greater concern about social media is that by collecting so much demographic and behavioural data of users, they can create a precise and accurate image of who we are. They can then sell this information and data about users without explicit consent or knowledge of the user. This is completely unacceptable and illegitimate and should be prohibited with the introduction is suitable personal data protection laws and regulations.

To illustrate the point, Just like a chemical company is subjected to law of the land to prevent loss of lives and compliance with social norms, the social cost associated with social media platforms should be controlled to prevent worse effects.

NC sent Dr. Abdullah to Parliament for its survival

Ravinder Jalali The former Chief Minister and President NC Dr. Farooq Abdullah in his address in Srinagar crossed all the limit of decency, secularism and democracy of which he often seems to be talking about. This time Abdullah has crossed all the limits and his statement is not an ordinary statement and is an open challenge to the sovereignty and integrity of India. He justified the stone…

Spend more, regulate better

J. Rattanani and R.K Pattnaik To involve private sector in healthcare, what is really required is a heavy increase in public sector investment to reach out to more people. The nation has a new health policy after 14 years. The long gap itself indicates the priority, or the lack thereof, accorded to a sector that is in need of some urgent attention and has deep linkages with the nation’s aspiration…

‘Disappearance’ of Lt Col Muhammad Habib Zahir

Nilesh Kunwar At a time when people go missing all over, reports in Pakistani media of Lt Col Muhammad Habib Zahir, a retired Pakistan army officer going missing in Nepal where he had ostensibly gone for a job interview may not be much of news. But this seemingly routine incident has all the ingredients of a potboiler. What has been reported goes like this: Lt Col Zahir retired from service in…

Sustanable development goals and Indian agriculture

Dr. Parveen Kumar The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were the world’s time bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions. There were eight MDGs. The first MDG was to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty, second to achieve universal primary education, third to promote gender equality and empower women, fourth to reduce child mortality, fifth to improve…

Experiencing peace from within

Ankush Sharma Barefoot, bare body, dark face, overgrown hairs, long hard wooden sticks in hand, few stone tools, living into the wild out of any Politico- Socio – Economical bindings and divisions, the irregular and uncivilised life of early human could be seen writ large through these gaunt features. The stone tools later replaced by metallic weapons along with hunting set aside by agriculture,…