The Oppression That Is Sanism and A Call To Question Our Own Views
In my college English course our final project is to make a Web page. For whatever reason I chose the difficult topic for my Web page of the discrimination of mentalism or sanism. It typically wouldn't have been my choice, my choice would typically have been something less controversial. But I didn't want to waste am opportunity to challenge myself to look deeply into an issue that plagues so many people. What I learned was shocking and all should pay attention to the startling inequality created by this form of discrimination. What I learned and concluded follows.
You ask 100 different people about this issue and you'll get 100 different answers, many would simply say they hadn't heard of it. Sanism is so rarely heard of because it's been largely overlooked by advocates and advocacy is too often faked with money the main interest. If people had never heard of it how could they be allies in this cause? Others might even justify sanism as a justified form of oppression and inequality, that is necessary for any number of reasons, many of which are likely to be symptoms of that same oppression.
Society has told us and tells us to ostracized those that are different, to keep them apart and deny them many of the same privileges most people are considered entitled to. This ostracization can further symptoms that make those effected by "madness" to only further be ostracized in a hurtful circular pattern. These hurt individuals are often reduced gradually or suddenly by hurtful rhetoric while under coercive and abusive care that tells them they are now some label and nothing else and will only decompensate into a relative vegetable which seems to have the aim of forcing these individuals to accept their oppression, and further ostracized them.
This oppression is systemic, ingrained in almost every individual to enact on the ill with the help of nearly all media outlets, focusing on falsities now proven by research to be false such as that the mentally ill are to be considered violent and should be reported to authorities if symptomatic. This includes oppression by the legal system who deny such people fair trials and often the right to council or to know their rights. Though even if they were given the usual aspects of a fair trial the fact that they would likely need to face a judge, jury, prosecution, and even their own defense who likely will be have oppressive attitudes toward them would ultimately render the entire trial a mere show with the intent of faking judicial prudence.
If all out there were to question their own views, to look more deeply into the issues primarily from the perspective of the oppressed, and try and see more clearly their own acts of oppression against the "mad" then first off there will be positive change emerging and second we all would learn and gain what we loose when discriminating at face value which is having our eyes opened and seeing the world more clearly. There is perspective to be gained, and it lies in the experiences of these oppressed individuals who often go without being noticed.
What I found and have come to believe is that the true danger in all this is not the "mad" but it's all of us continuing to live in this darkness of hate and discrimination toward those it's easier to simply pass off as insane. I found evidence the treatments, if one can call them that, by providers, if one can call them that, are often more of a danger to the individual then they would be to themselves, so the conclusion I reached is the only safe option for anyone involved is in acceptance of the marginalized, and to speak out against the oppression that is sanism.