The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous

Posted on | November 22, 2013 | 28 Comments

He was once described as “happy-go-lucky,” but then his father lost an election and his parents divorced and Gus Deeds went nuts:

“Eventually it got to the point where everyone… you couldn’t ignore it. It was obvious he was going through a difficult time,” Tony Walters, who has been friends with Gus since they were children in Bath County, Va., told ABC News on Wednesday. “I don’t know where they ended up taking him but he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and did get treatment for a while and I know he was on medication. . . .
“He seemed very sort of scattered, very different. He had strange paranoias,” Walters said. “And he was imagining different schemes against him; suspicions of people around him…it really seemed like he was going through a very difficult time.”
At one point, Gus said that God told him to drive to the Pacific and he did.
“He would say it was a spiritual thing that he felt a calling that just needed to go and drive west, see the ocean and when he came back that’s when he really, he was a different Gus than he was,” said Adam Michaels, a friend who worked at Nature Camp with Gus for several summers. “His personality had changed a lot, he was pretty manic for a while.”

Was this really bipolar disorder? The symptoms actually sound more like schizophrenia, but ultimately the bottom line is the same: Gus Deeds was crazy, and crazy people are dangerous. See my Wednesday column, “Madness Takes Its Toll.” And speaking of crazy . . .

The problem is really spiritual and moral. Unable to cope with failure, the damaged personality seeks to externalize responsibility by fixing blame on demonized scapegoats. This is how disappointments, which the healthy mind can cope with rationally, become psychic wounds that develop into paranoia: “RACISTS! EVERYWHERE!”

Some people unfortunately resort to violence and self-destruction. Charles Johnson committed reputational suicide.

 

Category: Charles Johnson, Crime, Health Care

Comments

28 Responses to “Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous”

  1. MrEvilMatt
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:38 pm

    Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous: He was once described as “happy-go-lucky,” but then his father lost an … http://t.co/g8yv2YhJJc

  2. CHideout
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:38 pm

    Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous: He was once described as “happy-go-lucky,” but then his father lost an … http://t.co/04LigOiMET

  3. Lockestep1776
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:38 pm

    Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous: He was once described as “happy-go-lucky,” but then his father lost an … http://t.co/Wd2AmTiLBU

  4. Resista38176897
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:38 pm

    Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous: He was once described as “happy-go-lucky,” but then his father lost an … http://t.co/byAP1Gs4of

  5. Citzcom
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:38 pm

    Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous: He was once described as “happy-go-lucky,” but then his father lost an … http://t.co/GT7xLFqUev

  6. jwbrown1969
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:38 pm

    Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous: He was once described as “happy-go-lucky,” but then his father lost an … http://t.co/yZ9B75pYem

  7. Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous | Dead Citizen's Rights Society
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:39 pm

    […] Read the rest … […]

  8. MattRoss
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:43 pm

    Stacy, check your email.

  9. AmPowerBlog
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:44 pm

    .@BobBelvedere Confirmed: Crazy People [@Green_Footballs] Are Dangerous http://t.co/ZMnOOcaULp via @RSMcCain @Smitty_One_Each @Instapundit

  10. rsmccain
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:48 pm

    Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous http://t.co/ggKBIUB0Oi cc @Matthops82 @instapundit @vermontaigne @ImAndrewMarcus

  11. Matthops82
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:48 pm

    RT @rsmccain: Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous http://t.co/ggKBIUB0Oi cc @Matthops82 @instapundit @vermontaigne @ImAndrewMarcus

  12. jabenjoh
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:51 pm

    Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous. … Gus Deeds. http://t.co/hSDzgGHTrI

  13. cheshirecat0025
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:52 pm

    RT @rsmccain: Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous http://t.co/ggKBIUB0Oi cc @Matthops82 @instapundit @vermontaigne @ImAndrewMarcus

  14. vermontaigne
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:53 pm

    Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous : The Other McCain http://t.co/Uf4up8UXEA

  15. Finrod Felagund
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 3:54 pm

    Time to drag out a favorite Hunter S. Thompson quote:

    “Crazy” is a term of art: “Insane” is a term of Law. Remember that, and you will save yourself a lot of trouble.

    http://espn.go.com/page2/s/thompson/031209.html

  16. Virginia State Democrat Senator Creigh Deeds stabbed by mentally ill son, who then committed suicide… | Batshit Crazy News
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 4:00 pm

    […] TOM: It’s confirmed, crazy people are dangerous… […]

  17. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 4:01 pm

    What ever happened to crazy?

  18. JAMed171
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 4:17 pm

    I dunno. My guess is more sane people are dangerous, and in bigger ways *cough* Obama *cough* than any crazy person could be. And it is the supposedly sane who vote for him. Then again, Republicans don’t seem to be all that stable these days either.

  19. instapundit
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 4:22 pm

    RT @rsmccain: Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous http://t.co/ggKBIUB0Oi cc @Matthops82 @instapundit @vermontaigne @ImAndrewMarcus

  20. jody
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 4:34 pm

    being crazy used to mean something, now everyone’s crazy — charlie manson

  21. Adjoran
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 5:15 pm

    Ah, Memory Lane, that misty walk into the dreamy world of Days Passed, when CJ was thought relevant, even essential. But in retrospect, the signs were there all along, just like with the Deeds kid, and the Tuscon, Aurora, and Newtown shooters (using their names gives them more fame when they should be forgotten).

    I remember thinking at one point, back in the day: “Okay, man, we get it: you ride your bike on scenic highways and let the wind blow your ponytail back. What makes you think we need a pictorial souvenier of every single ride?”

    Ol’ Charles Johnson melted down
    Just like the youngster Barrett Brown,
    Each made and jumped to their own disaster,
    The difference was, Barrett was faster.

  22. MadMaxLaxTex
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 5:35 pm

    RT @rsmccain: Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous http://t.co/ggKBIUB0Oi cc @Matthops82 @instapundit @vermontaigne @ImAndrewMarcus

  23. Joe Dokes
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 6:07 pm

    O/T (well, sort of…it’s quite crazy):

    http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/11/22/lars-von-trier-nymphomaniac-trailer/

    The latest in a continuing and accelerating series of ‘ahems’ before the Left openly forces the conversation re: legalized pedophilia.

  24. Joe Dokes
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 6:08 pm

    “And in the distance, freighters. Fading further into the distance, all pretense of my professed objectivity. Long since over the horizon, rationality.”

    /banned from LGF rather early on

  25. Conor Friedersdorf, Irrational Nutcase Journalist | Batshit Crazy News
    November 22nd, 2013 @ 6:51 pm

    […] Conor Friedersdorf:  Does to his country and the truth what Gus Deeds did to his father. […]

  26. Professor_Why
    November 23rd, 2013 @ 12:25 am

    Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous http://t.co/HlOLUA8dLB

  27. Escher's House
    November 23rd, 2013 @ 11:04 am

    From what I’ve read, habitual marijuana use presents a very real danger to the schizophrenic or potentially schizophrenic mind. I don’t believe, however, that this problem has ever been thoroughly, systematically researched.

  28. Saturday Boredom Linkfest | Dead Republican Party (DeRP)
    November 23rd, 2013 @ 4:13 pm

    […] Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous […]