This needs to be appended to @xeni’s post.
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Also amazing, the city declared 200 blocks to be blighted, used eminent domain to clear out miles for a rec path (and possibly this new cement factory), and then got into bed with a shady contractor who was also tasked to be the fox watching the henhouse.
All point to some super shady dealings going on in town.
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Exemplary work, TailOfTruth! I have to admit I was inclined to jump to the conclusion that Ms.Pope-Gonzalez was delusional in some sense, but it appears as though she may be having a justifiable reaction to a very real injustice and by the looks of it possibly some intentional gaslighting. In any event, holding her up as an object of ridicule is inhumane.
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Having worked at a concrete plant, the noise and dust they throw up is no joke. Cement dust is nasty stuff on car paint and even worse stuff in the lungs. Add to that the constant din of large diesel trucks idling while being filled or as they work out the proper water ratio in the load, and the likelihood of soon-to-harden concrete being splashed around the local streets (if not on vehicles in the area). Beyond that, between the massive amounts of groundwater they use and then the environmental waste they generate…concrete plants are not pleasant places to be.
EDIT: @TailOfTruth, well done on that research!
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Reminds me of how the Story of Killdozer started…
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Yes, this can be a predictable outcome of having a concrete plant next door. Search “particulate matter and mental health.”
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/11164/
Conclusions:
Working in 9/11 recovery operations is associated with chronic impairment of mental health and social functioning. Psychological distress and psychopathology in WTC workers greatly exceed population norms. Surveillance and treatment programs continue to be needed.
http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h1111
Conclusions
Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was associated with high symptoms of anxiety, with more recent exposures potentially more relevant than more distant exposures. Research evaluating whether reductions in exposure to ambient PM2.5 would reduce the population level burden of clinically relevant symptoms of anxiety is warranted.
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There appears to be an untarped pile (dark arrow) nearly 4x the size of her house about as close to her house as they could put it. Zoom in and it looks like some spillage has gone onto her property. Also, let’s put a concrete plant next to a waterway that feeds the Platte River.
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Making fun of people with some kind of issue that looks like mental illness is really not what I expect from Boing Boing. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
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Oh dear Girard forgive me
It’s true I’m afraid, the faster I try to scale the stairs to erudition the more the masses can see me cough and wheeze. I sometime fear I am trying to run up the down escalator.
However I would please beg your indulgence.
If I were to say that it is naughty to wear a dicky bow without first concealing your nudity with a fine silk shirt, and you then caught me gadding 'bout the town, my nipples reddening in the stiffening breeze, with nought but a bow-knot to warm my person, would you suppose that I had forgotten myself and had hastened to the pursuit of wicked and perverse ways, or would you, quite rightly, surmise that I was perambulating in my minimal garb in order to show the absurdity of such attire?
Hi PatrickD
I’m not quite sure how you extrapolated this
“Sorry I interrupted your ridicule of the mentally ill. Please don’t let it ruin your day. Maybe you’ll run into someone with a speech impediment you can laugh at later. You can always hope, right?”
from this
“I think I’ll make a snap judgement of PatrickD based on a snippet of him
I’ve seen on the internet. He lacks compassion, he has no sense of
empathy. He displays an inability to comprehend the possibility of a
wider context, he also believes in the infallibility of the state”
However you seem to be doing again what I cautioned against with my first comment.
Let me set your mind at rest - I was suggesting that diagnosing mental illness on the basis of a 4 minutes video clip was perhaps a little naughty - therefore by extension the second part of my comment cannot be taken at face value - if I think diagnosis of mental state is naughty when applied to a short video clip, then I cannot logically feel it is justified when applied to an even shorter internet based comment. In short? I do not think these things of you. I was attempting to illustrate by absurdity, I think I failed.
Now, I had watched the video and had come to the conclusion that the lady was very angry, whether justifiably or not I could not tell. I know that when people, myself included, are very angry they can sometimes become a little less composed. Did I find any of this funny; not in the slightest. Did I wonder what history this lady had with the city council and the concrete plant; most certainly. Did I feel that if I had some more context I might better understand her; yes I did. Did I at any point think, this woman is clearly mentally ill; not at any stage. Would I feel justified in giving such a diagnosis based on such a short snippet of someone’s life; Never.
The above are just some of the thoughts I had had before I read the research by other members of this board. I now see that the lady may well have a case for being very angry. She may well have a case for being so inflamed with anger that she became a little less lucid. It may well be the case that the members of the council, given that they had background knowledge of the situation, understood very well what this lady was saying.
But please don’t let that stop you from making your useful and legitimate assessments as to the mental state of people in internet videos.
I think it’s interesting that when people are upset about civil rights violations, they are quick to point out that people and acts aren’t “criminal” unless ruled as such by a judge. Yet, somehow people here are qualified to diagnose the subject of this video as being “mentally ill” all by themselves.
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Identifying symptoms of illness isn’t diagnosing. She has very clear symptoms which I was pointing out, because laughing at sick people is pretty crappy. If Xeni were to post a picture of a bald kid implying that the baldness was hilarious, I’d be justified in pointing out that baldness is a common side effect of therapies for cancer. That’s not diagnosing cancer, just as pointing out word salad isn’t diagnosing schizophrenia.
But where did Xeni say that it was hilarious, or that she was mocking the lady?
People can also choose to identify with the lady and laugh/rage with her. I find the intersection of politics and personal communication quite interesting, and I have never needed to be judgemental to do so. I think the video of this lady was interesting in both her content and delivery.
“Crazy-ass”
Interesting, and sad. The more she’s affected by it, the more people will dismiss her complaints as crazy ranting. And any eccentricity she may have exhibited at any time will just be held against her. Depressing.
“…of Supreme Excellence”
References of “crazy” do not always connote mental illness. And even when they might, how does this suggest ridicule? It sounds like you associate solemnity with respect. I agree that it can be, but I do not automatically associate levity and/or humor with disrespect, mockery, or ridicule. I evaluate the context on a case-by-case basis. In this case, I assumed that Xeni, and the discussion here generally, are sympathetic.
I advocate cognitive diversity, and have no reason to assume that this lady is dysfunctional or maladaptive in any way. It might not be what you, I, or that city council are accustomed to, but that doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with it. People should be more willing to question and challenge such implicit norms.
Well, looking at the map of where she lives there is absolutely something wrong–a giant pile of particulate matter right next to her house.
After seeing that, I question if I would have been even less articulate.
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Something positive can be said here: most crazy rants from nutballs are lifed clean from Fox News these days. This rant is totally original.
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Your comment is empathetic to this woman’s problems, sensitive to those who have mental illnesses, and contributes positively to this discussion. I approve.
######/s
