Just to nitpick, someone who is “psychotic” is just someone with psychosis, a mental illness, and they aren’t dangerous for that. The common use of the word to mean “sick, twisted and dangerous” isn’t really fair to people who are suffering and not dangerous at all. It’s like the word “schizo” or similar, using mental illness and “craziness” as a synonym for “dangerous and violent.”
This is a good point. I’ve been careful to scare quote the word when I’ve used it because I think it’s problematic. However I do think the author has a point. There’s something uniquely brutal about American culture.
Just to nitpick, someone who is “psychotic” is just someone with psychosis, a mental illness, and they aren’t dangerous for that. The common use of the word to mean “sick, twisted and dangerous” isn’t really fair to people who are suffering and not dangerous at all. It’s like the word “schizo” or similar, using mental illness and “craziness” as a synonym for “dangerous and violent.”
This is a good point. I’ve been careful to scare quote the word when I’ve used it because I think it’s problematic. However I do think the author has a point. There’s something uniquely brutal about American culture.