Oh hell no, not this ableist bs. Though it’s little surprise coming from this rag.
Asylums were really bad, and the narratives surrounding their closures are fraught with lies. Worse, it isn’t all in the past: the Judge Rotenburg Center has been condemned by the UN for torture, yet continues to operate in Massachussetts, for example.
The only way this idea makes any sense is if you can’t imagine addressing the root issues of this problem. Namely, poverty, access to housing, lack of medical care. You know, the problems that never get fixed under Capitalism because they are the direct result of it. The logic of the asylum is to round people up and lock them away from the rest of society, “for their own good”, regardless of their feelings on the matter. To those currently in power, this is preferrable to any attempt at systemic change because it does not require the end of their most profitable investments.
I’m just gonna come right out and say “no”? We can’t handle individual care well at all. If we had UBI, actual Medicare for all, and sane safety nets this would be largely mitigated. Shoving people in institutions always results in negative outcomes. It shows a lack of care for those affected to placate those who are inconvenienced.
We can’t do anything about gun violence but the “scourge of mentally ill violence” is the real thing to address? Fuck that.