In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Sending mentally ill people to Siberia

Jill

“He’s really really old and has therefore earned the right to say what he thinks” doesn’t really apply when the old person in question suggests sending mentally ill people to Siberia so that they can die of exposure, and when he says that Hitler did something right. Especially when the person in question is a New Hampshire Republican state senator, whose views actually determine what programs — and what kind of people — receive state funding.

55 thoughts on Sending mentally ill people to Siberia

  3. …I can’t even form words because that makes me so sick to my stomach.

    Hey Senator Asshat! I have bipolar II disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. On top of PTSD. I guess I should go buy a fucking parka.

  4. Kind of like with the Bieber situation, it’s not right to let someone off the hook based on their age alone. You don’t ‘earn’ the right to be a bigoted arsehole by virtue of managing not to die for a real long time. He needs to be called out.

    Unless he’s suffering from some severe senile dementia (in which case, he would believe HE should be shipped off too) then there’s no excuse for this kind of rhetoric.

  5. The right to say what he thinks? Sure.

    A free pass to say ableist shit — let alone in the context of saying it as someone with public policy power — without expecting to deal with the consequences of such contempt and hatred? Fuck no.

  7. It seems like there ought to be some kind of rules of conduct for those paid by taxpayer funds. And suggesting citizens freeze to death if they are ‘defective’ would be on that list.

  8. I tried looking for more information on his policy views, and the only thing I could find was this
    http://www.votesmart.org/npat.php?can_id=110090
    which says he’s pro-life and thinks “abortionists should be on death row.” But he also complains about how “now we’re saving everyone who gets born.” So apparently he’s favor of birthing people just to kill them off…

    Favorite quotes from the vote smart page:
    “I think this country is dumbing down. Encourage vasectomies on the welfare people and put more______Jewish sperm in the sperm banks..let the welfare ladies have artificial insemination”

    “the age of consent is way too high in this country a 13 year old girl well into puberty is more mature that most 19 year old boys. Victim, Hell. Ask any young girl to tell you what they honestly want in life Nature dictates the answer”

    People voted for him?????

  9. Yeah, I’ll be up there with ya Emeryn. Want to split the rent on a… whatever sort of shelter they build in Siberia? I’ll cook if you’ll keep the fire going.

  10. libdevil: Yeah, I’ll be up there with ya Emeryn. Want to split the rent on a… whatever sort of shelter they build in Siberia? I’ll cook if you’ll keep the fire going.

    Works for me. Especially because you don’t want to touch anything I’ve cooked. I can ruin a PB&J sandwich.

  11. Orgostrich, I went to look him up on VoteSmart… he also was in favor of eliminating funding for K-12 education.

    He also put down that he would not support hate crime legislation and called it “trumped up stuff”.

    When asked if he would support punishments for people who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, his reply was insulting: “how are we going to get the apples picked?”

    Those, in addition to what you listed, make me totally horrified about not only the fact that he holds public office, but that people actually voted for him.

  12. That was the sound of my jaw hitting the floor.

    If the senator can’t even achieve a minimum standard of decency, let alone any kind of higher standard, then it’s long past time that he retired. Not to mention that if the Speaker thinks the senator is allowed to speak his mind at that age, and that’s what’s on hthe senator’s mind, maybe he never should have been elected in the first place.

  14. Omand says Harty then stated, “I wish we had a Siberia so we could ship them all off to freeze to death and die and clean up the population.”

    There are plenty of cold places in the United States where people can (and do) freeze to death. Why does this guy hate America?

  15. Wait. He wants the “unfit” to be left to die of exposure, and it’s okay for him to say this because he’s… at an age where, back in the bad old days in many parts of the world, he would have been left to die of exposure.

    Um, yeah, I guess he’s got a right to say that, on account of their being no law against being a hypocrite.

  17. After an extremely stressful week full of beaten,burned and abused children, the universe offered me this.

    Anyone who is interested in forming a commune somewhere really, really remote, drop me a line. I have had enough of this.

  18. Pingback: ridding ourselves of “defective” people « hahayourefunny

  20. Anyone who is interested in forming a commune somewhere really, really remote, drop me a line.

    Here, here~!

    Send this senator to Siberia! It’s what he wants!

  21. Don’t lepers get islands? Why do we have to go to Siberia?

    Lepers have all the luck.
    [/snark]

  22. @orgostritch:
    That VS profile is COMEDY GOLD!

    Obs, he’s a total douche who has no business holding public office. But some other highlights:

    When asked if he supports a moment of silence in public schools, he responded, “For what?”

    He also doesn’t support ab-only education, supports increased funding for environmental efforts, and thinks that “every sane Tom Dick and Harry” should have guns and lots of ammo. (Sorry, ladies. And if you’re not “sane,” well, you’re going to Siberia.) He wants to legalize ALL recreational drugs, sell them in state stores, and then send all the drug addicts to Siberia.

    I’ve been looking for his campaign ads, as well as the name of his campaign manager. Because his manager (if he had one) should be simultaneously awarded and shamed for successfully selling this guy to the public. Oh, the shame.

  23. Oh, and in a letter to the editor, he confessed that he didn’t actually know what he was voting for or against; he just looked around and went along with what other people were doing.

  24. It’s frightening that anyone in public office would allow themselves to say such a thing publicly.

    I hate to bring it up, but the Nazis learned their eugenics from Americans. And the Tea Party certainly looks like a eugenics-positive organization.

    As someone with bipolar disorder, I hate myself enough already and battle every day, with varying degrees of success. I feel I’ve been thrust upon the bed of Procrustes and my legs never fit, waiting for the sword to fall or the rack to stretch them.

    The attitude is everywhere. Yesterday, people at work were laughing about some friend being “nuts” and “crazy”. I objected. They laughed some more. My supervisor joined them. Just before I gave notice today, I had gone downstairs to watch some television (there’s a big one in the caf) to take my mind off things. Bad idea. The first film I tried to watch presented the word “psycho” within two minutes. The second film introduced the very same word within 15 minutes. So I switched to the CBC, usually a better bet that way. No such luck. Ten minutes into the show I was watching, the star talked about “whack jobs”.

    At this point, I shut off the TV.

    The whole world hates people like us.

  25. This is pretty much proof to my theory that by in large people don’t pay attention to who they are voting for

  28. He is likely in the later stages of senility. I knew a doctor who treated some Senators and he claimed that there were quite a few who were legally incompetent for taking any kind of decision.

  30. The only reasons a person will speak like that if he has no fucking idea what is like to have mentally ill close relative, friend or associate.
    Worse, he doesn’t even understand that his definition is extremely narrow.
    If we follow his own words, he could be sent to Siberia as well.
    I don’t understand people who support ideas who harm everyone and benefit nobody.

  31. Well, I did add a ‘likely’ there for the possibility that I may be wrong. Its not that I am excusing him though, his view is not that uncommon in his peers. What is uncommon is just saying it out aloud like that.

    1. Agreed with Chally — speculating about medical conditions here is pointless. Also, words like “likely” mean things, and you have little reason to believe he has a certain condition, let alone that it’s “likely.”

  34. Here in France a proposed law (likely to pass) will enable judges to make psychiatric treatment (including medication) and tracking devices mandatory for people found guilty of a crime. French mentally disabled adults are terrified – ten times more people are institutionalised than a few years ago, and now this. We’re going to have to lay very low.

    This could be a systematic rise in ableism. (On the other hand, the French government is trying to scapegoat every group it can, and this senator said “Hitler did something right”, which isn’t exactly popular. Might be a fluke.) At least there is an organised disabled community in the US.

  35. Hah. They can send me to Siberia if they like; I’ve gone through three-foot snowbanks on crutches.

    Seriously, us PWD are a lot harder to kill than that.

  36. This man’s political platform confuses the fuck out of me. Against anything that helps the environment, funding for K-12, gay marriage…but FOR the legalization of ALL recreational drugs, not just marijuana, but all of them?!? And totally for comprehensive sex education? Wtf.

  37. L: but FOR the legalization of ALL recreational drugs, not just marijuana, but all of them?!?

    To be honest, it surprises me that more Republicans and conservatives aren’t on board with this. First – there’s the obvious hypocrisy in wanting a small government – but also one that regulates the shit out of what you do in your spare time. Second – there’s so much fucking money to be made here, especially in taxes – and especially when you support a health care system that’ll likely dick you over if you become dependent.

  38. Besides being an asshole, Martin Harty just doesn’t have a clue, does he? Oh, the stories I could tell about my rich friends from Tyumen…and Novosibirsk is a nice town – perhaps Harty will be disappointed should he find out that he could potentially be sending “the crazies” to a historic place with a bunch of nice shopping malls and lucrative money-laundering deals they could take advantage of.

    Many Siberian workers today get exploited by Moscow-based businesses, and there is a growing trend of identifying as a Sibiryak (as opposed to, say, ethnically Russian – it came up during the last census). People in bigger and bigger numbers are proud to be Siberians and Siberia itself can be a startlingly beautiful, if harsh, place. I’ll speak for Siberia and guess that Martin Harty’s stupid ass is totally not welcome though.

  39. orgostrich: I tried looking for more information on his policy views, and the only thing I could find was thishttp://www.votesmart.org/npat.php?can_id=110090which says he’s pro-life and thinks “abortionists should be on death row.” But he also complains about how “now we’re saving everyone who gets born.” So apparently he’s favor of birthing people just to kill them off…Favorite quotes from the vote smart page:“I think this country is dumbing down. Encourage vasectomies on the welfare people and put more______Jewish sperm in the sperm banks..let the welfare ladies have artificial insemination”“the age of consent is way too high in this country a 13 year old girl well into puberty is more mature that most 19 year old boys. Victim, Hell. Ask any young girl to tell you what they honestly want in life Nature dictates the answer”People voted for him?????

    So he’s a classist, ableist, illogical hypocrit? Wait, whoa whoa whoa I almost forgot a possible pedaphile. The age of consent is too high? Is he serious?

  41. Véronique: An update from HuffPo..Harty apparently sits in the state house of representatives, not the senate. He’s in his first and hopefully last term, regardless of apology and claims that he was just joking.

    I just read through that.

    “It was a girl that wanted money for the crazy people”

    That was his excuse?! SERIOUSLY?

  42. To paraphrase Martin Niemöller…
    When the Nazis Republicans came for the communists women’s rights,
    I remained silent;
    I was not a communists women.

    When they locked up the social democrats,
    I remained silent;
    I was not a social democrat.

    When they came for the trade unionists,
    I did not speak out;
    I was not a trade unionist.

    When they came for the Jews Muslims,
    I remained silent;
    I wasn’t a Jews Muslims.

    When they came for me,
    there was no one left to speak out.

  43. Don’t lepers get islands? Why do we have to go to Siberia?

    Lepers have all the luck.
    [/snark]

    Exclusionary space is exclusionary space. Siberia or an island are the same thing to someone looking to define the boundaries of the social sphere in order to excise their fears about what madness might be lurking in their own heads. Us mad folk are the New Lepers, asked* to contain the fears that our modern society have about mental degeneration in the same way lepers were asked* to contain fears substance farmers had about physical degeneration.

    The thing about these statement isn’t that they’re shocking but that they were public. Harty’s opinion isn’t new, it isn’t special, it isn’t even unusual, he just happens to be foolish/arrogant/careless enough to say it out loud in front of a reporter. We scare people, we make them worry about what it would be like to be us. That makes people want mad folk…away. Thats why I work in a building with 200 or so abandoned human beings who are treated like burdens for wanting hot meals and not having to live five to a room, people who have to fight tooth and nail to earn a “pass” to walk outside because the folks with half-million dollar lakefront condos across the street are desperately trying to use their political clout to make them homeless and if they’re caught being Mad In Public an Alderman gets called and the police show up and licenses get threatened. People don’t want to see the mad, they want them banished, they wouldn’t mind seeing us dead.

    *read: forced

  44. How this man got elected is bewildering to me…..

    He speaks for the common man. He wants to get fucked up on drugs, wants the government out of his business, wants to have sex with 13 year old girls, and wants to abuse whomever is weaker than him to distract from the fact that he’s getting older and will die soon. Thats what voting gets you: the asshole who most closely resembles the assholes in a position to decide who the Grand Asshole will be.

    To quote an old comic:

    Imagine you’re locked in a huge underground nightclub filled with sinners, whores, freaks and unnameable things that rape pit bulls for fun. And you ain’t allowed out until you all vote on what you’re going to do tonight. You like to put your feet up and watch “Republican Party Reservation”. They like to have sex with normal people using knives, guns and brand-new sexual organs that you did not know existed. So you vote for television, and everyone else, as far as the eye can see, votes to fuck you with switchblades. That’s voting.

  45. I’m with Tori – people seem to conflate the right to free speech with freedom from consequences for that speech. I’m a huge fan of the First Amendment, and I hate it when people try to imply that I should never criticize anyone or protest or boycott their business or exercise my own free speech because of it. I don’t care if he’s senile, ignorant, or just plain mean – I have my rights, too.

    (Also, Diet Bipolar in the house! I’ll bring the cocoa.)

  46. It’s not just mentally ill people he said deserved to die in Siberia (though of course that would be bad enough.) Here’s the complete info:

    Martin Harty told Sharon Omand, a Strafford resident who manages a community mental health program, that “the world is too populated” and there are “too many defective people,” according to an e-mail account of the conversation by Omand. Asked what he meant, she said Harty clarified, “You know the mentally ill, the retarded, people with physical disabilities and drug addictions – the defective people society would be better off without.”

    Harty confirmed to the Monitor that he made the comments to Omand. Harty told the Monitor the world population has increased dramatically, and “it’s a very dangerous situation if it doubles again.” Asked about people who are mentally ill, he asked, apparently referring to a lack of financial resources, “Can we afford to bring them through?”

    Harty said nature has a way of “getting rid of stupid people,” and “now we’re saving everyone who gets born.”

    Omand says Harty then stated, “I wish we had a Siberia so we could ship them all off to freeze to death and die and clean up the population.”

    Read more at; http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/245163/lawmaker-advocates-eugenics

  48. PrettyAmiable: To be honest, it surprises me that more Republicans and conservatives aren’t on board with this. First – there’s the obvious hypocrisy in wanting a small government – but also one that regulates the shit out of what you do in your spare time. Second – there’s so much fucking money to be made here, especially in taxes – and especially when you support a health care system that’ll likely dick you over if you become dependent.

    Yeah that’s a good point actually. So much hypocrisy!!

    If he’s so concerned with the world being overpopulated, why exactly is he anti-choice in every circumstance? And thinks we should kill of LIVING people instead? More hypocrisy.

  51. I would be there along with almost everyone I know (good and bad), and a number of people I used to know, including a couple folks I would really hate to see again. It does sound lovely (Natalia’s comment was awesome), but I hate winter, so.

  52. RD: Art is rarely perfect and theres some context but yeah, its not unproblematic. Still, I’ve yet to find a better description of voting from the point of view of persons not in power than that.

  53. @L – that’s the sentiment at the very heart of the foetus-fetishist movement. You can’t punish someone for existing if they’re never born, can you? Who would they oppress if marginalised groups and minorities reduced in numbers? That’s why they insist on taking away the right to reproductive choice, because it’s in their best interests to create an underclass they can fully exploit and use as cannon fodder, while they grow fat on profits.

Comments are currently closed.