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Comment by phpnode | Hacker News Reader

A sufferer of schizophrenia is not guilty of the way their condition manifests. They are the victim of an illness.

You can't just blame it all on the sickness. He's apparently an extreme racist, crazy or not. The way you put it sounds like he doesn't even exist and is all just the sickness.

Having read a lot of what he's said, he uses words and phrases in an idiosyncratic way that isn't the same as they would be used by, say, a politician. He may or may not be racist, but he's schizophrenic so we should probably chill out on him and go police someone who isn't schizophrenic instead.

I suggest the book angelhead to give you some perspective on this. If you come to understand this condition you will regret this comment.

https://www.amazon.com/Angelhead-Brothers-Descent-into-Madne...

You make it sound like he's braindead and has no own will. He posts racial slurs even in his most sane comments.

Your comments have all the empathy of someone who has zero understanding of schizophrenia.

Good job of convincing or educating me with that strong argument. How about you tell me how it works instead? Right now you're making it sound like a schizophrenic can do whatever they want, whenever they want because they are victims. Even if it's outside an episode.

I'm not someone who takes the mental illness excuse lightly, but I have from time to time had the privilege of catching Terry in a more lucid state and let me assure you the man you understand him to be is not who he is.

Would you accuse a person with tourette's syndrome of racism due to their outbursts? This disease is far more pervasive and systemic than that.

Vincent van Gogh was similarly mentally ill as a society we look past the things he could not control and instead focus on what he has created. I suggest the same course of action here as I believe the situations are uncannily similar. This is all I will say on the matter.

Thank you. If that's the case and he's completely normal without any racism and hatred between his episodes I was wrong and I apologize.

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