 Look at AMA 40 here. So why are we glorifying the mentally ill and the criminally inclined like after the LA riots? We we changed the verbiage in the news media. These were somehow heroic figures fighting oppression So with black lives matter, right? We've got a terrorist organization that you know, we've reframed as fighting for fighting for equal rights and I Mean that the the whole America hostage. All right, they disrupted lies for millions and millions of people They made millions of people feel unsafe. They they burned down entire neighborhoods and we're calling these mentally ill Criminally inclined people, you know, they're our new moral superiors and There's just trend in the media where they keep glorifying the mentally ill So I'm looking at a Washington Post story right now Respiratory therapists fought on COVID's front lines the last wave break him broke him. No last wave didn't break it break him this guy is mentally ill all right and Your your mental health is basically measured by how much stress you can handle Before you lash out just at yourself or others like if you Commit suicide because you're a doctor or a respiratory therapist and a lot of people are dying of COVID your mentally ill It's not covered right Reality is you can either have a positive relationship with reality or you can just Fight reality. So here's a story in the Washington Post and it just symbolizes How we're just glorifying the mentally ill like people who complain a lot, right? They get op-eds about You know, white people are touching their hair or you know, they're being oppressed by systemic racism Right and so we are rewarding the mentally ill the complainers the winters the winers The criminally inclined the no-hopers the unproductive the anti-social the borderline personalities Here's the Washington Post story Respiratory therapist Alva Daniels fought in covert hotspots throughout the pandemic, but it was only in recent months The strain began to show He started calling his wife from the hotel bathroom crying when he lost a patient We can't save them all or we do his bag him and tag him. He told a friend He wasn't crying because he lost a patient. He was crying because he was mentally unstable Right, you have a job to do you chose to become a respiratory therapist When you choose to do that sort of work Some patients die whether we have covered or not covered then as coronavirus cases Fueled by the Delta variant rose over the summaries told his wife things are getting bad again We don't have enough people to fight it. Something happens to me if I die I want to be buried next to my mom. Look, we don't have enough resources to fight everything completely and perfectly Right if you want to fight climate change or fight, you know sexual discrimination or fight littering or fight traffic congestion or fight dirty air or dirty water Every social problem. We don't have enough resources to perfectly completely fully tackle it And that goes for coronavirus or diabetes or AIDS or testicular cancer Whatever it is, we're never gonna have the perfect amount of resources that you want to like fully tackle a problem Alicia McAllister Daniels a nurse thought her husband was talking about a breakthrough case of COVID-19 Said Daniels 38 died by suicide just five days later Now normally journalists don't write about suicides because by giving this guy publicity you're encouraging suicides So I remember my journalism instructor Robert Burge at Placer High School He was gonna go into journalism But he went out on a story for the Orban Journal and it turned out to be a suicide and some guys You know brains and blood and gore were just splattered all over the wall and he decided, you know I want to be a teacher a journalism teacher. I don't want to be a professional journalist So normally the norm in journalism is you don't publicize suicides because you're just encouraging that sort of Behavior, but here's the Washington Post glorifying the suicide story There's this mentally ill man who takes his own life because there are a lot of COVID cases You chose to become a respiratory therapist. All right, you chose a profession where people die right people die and This is what the life you chose and you can't handle it you kill yourself So your mental illness is now being glorified. It's somehow something heroic So he died by suicide five days later his body found in a wooded area near the apartment of Fredericksburg where he was living while on a travel assignment There's the Omicron variant threatens to bring a punishing fifth wave this winter Look tens of thousands of health professionals are working with Omicron and Delta and other diseases and they're not offering themselves Right you off yourself because you have a job to do and it seems like a tough job And you chose to Work a job where people die and then you off yourself. That's on you. That's not because of COVID right, so we have all these whiners and complainers that were glorifying whether it's They're oppressed by systemic racism or systemic sexism or you know people aren't taking their vaccines And so they're getting sick and look you choose to off yourself. That's on you That's not on anyone else you get offended by my live stream and you go kill yourself. That's on you That's not my responsibility Right you read a book that I mentioned on a live stream and that takes you off in a radical new direction where you destroy your life That's on you, right? You can't handle some book I recommend you can't handle some video that I share you can't handle some piece of information that you gleaned from this live stream That's on you like a healthy Responsible adult is able to deal with turbulence without lashing out at himself or at other people Right the country faces an unprecedented mental health crisis brought on by the nearly two-year pandemic. Do we really? How do you know? Like what what constitutes a mental health crisis? Did suicides go up dramatically during COVID like what's what's the empirical evidence? Hospitals and you can't handle the truth hospitals and healthcare facilities are woefully understaffed What profession doesn't think it's woefully understaffed Work is generally speaking want to do as little as possible right now I'm being paid to work at a garden center and what am I doing? I'm live-streaming. All right I'm a typical worker. I try to get away with as much as possible Or exacting as much money as possible from an employer Typical employer wants to exact as much work as possible from an employee while paying them as little as possible These are the dynamics so winters and whine is our we're understaffed where we're overworked People want to do as little work as possible. That's the typical worker You know way weak glorifying these people when they then go off themselves and Work is emotionally battered burned out and suffering from post traumatic Stress disorder are leaving the fjord in droves emotionally battered And burned out and suffering from PTSD is not even real I mean, it's not in the way. It's talked about. Yeah I'm sure after certain traumas people have certain bad effects But almost everyone recovers in time if you don't recover from your trauma Then there's something else going on and you need to get help But just because you're working in health care under COVID and you're feeling emotionally battered and burned out suffering from PTSD That's about you right there are tens of thousands of health care workers who are just doing their jobs, right? They're just battling Aussies little Aussie battlers They're doing their jobs. All right. What's wrong with just doing your job? Why do you have to go commit suicide and get all dramatic about it? It's like oh, I'm emotionally battered because I've got a job to do and my job right now is really busy All right Efforts to help them have taken on a new urgency Look, why did you get into the health care field? Right? If you can't handle it doing your job There's something wrong with you Efforts to help them taken on a new urgency with Congress expected to pass landmark legislation in coming weeks aimed at reducing and preventing suicide and burnout look where you prevent suicide and Burnout is that you get emotionally and spiritually healthy. You get centered. You have friends, right? The best way to handle burnout is you have friends The best way to handle inflation is you have friends The best way to handle an earthquake is you have friends and community Right? The best way to deal with COVID is you have friends and community The best way to handle losing a job is you have friends and community The best way to handle a bad case of food poisoning is you have friends and community right We need other people and when we have other people that we can be honest with and share what's going on in our life Then we don't get burned out nearly as easily. We don't feel emotionally battered By the responsibilities that come with doing the job that we signed up for right? This is the life these people chose and Congress is not going to reduce and prevent right this idea that Congress is going to prevent suicide and burnout if you're burning out That's on you. That's the choices you're making. There's something wrong. You don't have an adequate support system You don't have friends. You don't have community. You don't have discipline You're not able to say no right people will impose on you people will take everything they can from you if you can't say No, you can't set limits All right If you can't take care of yourself, that's on you. You need a new way of approaching life Con you can't expect Congress to come in and bail you out because you can't say no because you can't set limits because you Don't have friends because you don't have community because you are not mentally health healthy Alpha was an easygoing guy who liked nothing better than strumming his guitar by a campfire. This is crazy way we glorifying Some dude who committed suicide because he had a job to do and it was a difficult job He was used to working under pressure Before the pandemic he'd worked on a transport team. Let's make a reality show where I move out to LA and you help me fix my life Maybe you'll have to move out to Sydney So I did have a strong reaction to the booster shot I was under the weather for two days not so under the weather that I couldn't work But I didn't didn't leave the house. So I was just Mildly ill for a couple of days and then boom it just left and after the second vaccine shot I felt mildly ill for an evening. I got the shakes All right, but either was too too bad His death shocked his large community of friends wondering if they could have done more if there were warning signs that they They missed look We can help other people we can have an influence on them But if people insist on going on a self-destructive path, that's on them. That's not on us I should be a newlywed at least you said now. I'm a widow Right. Well You chose someone who's mentally ill right you pay a price when you bring mentally ill people Into your life and this idea that congressional legislation can prevent suicide Can prevent people from feeling emotionally stepped upon emotionally battered Burned out from doing their jobs. That's absurd government. It's not gonna save you from feeling burned out or emotionally battered Or suicidal, right? You have to get together. You have to get it together Right if you're feeling battered and burned out and suicidal and PTSD is something wrong with the way you're approaching life You don't have a positive relationship with reality That's my attitude to suicide. I despise suicide in most cases, but I despise suicide I despise the people who off themselves. I generally speaking. I don't have sympathy for them I don't believe in glorifying them I don't believe in making Netflix shows about them. I don't believe on putting them up on pedestals I don't believe the the attitude that oh, they're just more emotionally sensitive to life And you know, therefore they have a hard time with reality and and this just shows what a great great sore They have in most cases. I'm opposed to suicide in some cases I'm less opposed All right, so in New South Wales, they they recently passed right to die legislation So I'm I'm not a fan of right to die legislation. On the other hand, I don't don't stay awake at night. You know worrying about it So this wife she managed to starve 180 nurses, right? That was her job One of our most fundamental rights. I don't know. I'm not a big, you know, rights guy Like I like having rights. I like that liberal democracy Has rights, but it's not the primary lens through which I view the world So the classical liberal lens is that we were born into the world with certain fundamental rights such as, you know freedom of association or freedom of speech or freedom to own property or As you're saying, you know freedom to take your own life That's not how I view the world. I view the world as we are born into a tribe All right, and whatever rights that we can be afforded by our tribe are going to depend on circumstances And with the rights come obligations so Rights are nice. I like living in a liberal democracy, but But I think much more in terms of nation nation tried we have reciprocal obligations with other people and whatever rights that we can we can we can be afforded will depend upon circumstances so in very difficult circumstances in life and death circumstances with our fewer rights and Then under prosperous safe circumstances grief yoga So his wife was into grief yoga, and I'm sure grief yoga helps some people So part of her therapy plan is to get some tattoos All right, this is insane Part of my therapy plan is to get some tattoos and have somebody inflict physical pain on me So I'm not in emotional pain. So these are two very troubled souls Right this idea that you're gonna get tattoos now someone inflict physical pain on you and this is going to be It's gonna help you heal from emotional pain. I think that's quite dysfunctional All right, so now it makes more and more sense Why this person was so troubled Right troubled people tend to find each other like whoever you are. It's reflected by the people you hang out with So Yes, she met this guy over a decade ago when she was an intensive care nurse He was a newly minted pediatric respiratory therapist that lead to join the high-flying transport team Yeah, sounds good, but when the when the chips are down You couldn't handle it. She was divorced. All right another sign of instability six years older Okay, this is a guy married woman six years older than him All right, this is quite weird So why are we venerating and putting on a pedestal these these troubled souls? All right, if we're gonna have Washington Post articles now venerating people who they're driven crazy by traffic so that they lash out and start shooting people All right, your maturity level your sense of adulthood is measured by your ability to handle turbulence Without lashing out at yourself and others And so we just have this slew of op-eds and glorification of these You know troubled sick criminally inclined batty People who just love the notion that they're victims just racing towards and embracing you know this this argument they're victims and I think we should be venerating that certainly not part of the Australian ethic It's not part of the stoical ethic. It's not part of the really the part of the Christian or the Jewish ethic. I Mean there are victims and certain people deserve compassion But by definition compassion has to be doled out selectively if you're equally compassionate to everyone you're not really compassionate So I think we should stop venerating the ill the criminally inclined and the antisocial