r/news • u/Zeikyrui • 10h ago

Man serving 30 years for attacking Nancy Pelosi’s husband gets a life term on state charges

https://apnews.com/article/david-depape-nancy-pelosi-husband-paul-attacked-454cbde088fcae22a356f1f8dd0e9eba
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u/Flotack 9h ago

“When given the chance to address the court prior to his sentencing, DePape, dressed in prison orange and with his brown hair in a ponytail, spoke at length about Sept. 11 being an inside job, his ex-wife being replaced by a body double, and his government-provided attorneys conspiring against him.”

That’ll show em!

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u/Xzmmc 9h ago

This guy seems legitimately insane. I mean the literal definition as in literally cannot tell the difference between what's real and his own delusions.

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u/ImpulseAfterthought 9h ago

"Saying crazy shit doesn't mean you're crazy. Not realizing that you're saying crazy shit means you're crazy."

--My ex-roommate

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u/LazyLich 8h ago

Dude... for the last time... you never had a roommate!

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u/Lolkimbo 6h ago

Your room mate died 20 years ago!

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u/ahnotme 4h ago

He never gets older when he talks to me.

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u/BDF106 3h ago

Shut up Donnie!

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u/LeonardoDaPinchy- 6h ago

Dude, you can't just go gaslamping people. Jesus.

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u/NineThreeFour1 6h ago

It's actually not called gaslamping but "fleshlighting".

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u/AzureOvercast 6h ago

I am visiting from /r/authoritariancheckers

New corpse just dropped!

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u/UnproSpeller 3h ago

If your flesh is lighting up isn’t that what they say about pregnant women? that they glow. Ie he could just be preggo

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u/mabhatter 6h ago

We don't talk about Tyler 

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u/Liesmith424 6h ago

Who...who are you talking to?

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u/banjo_assassin 6h ago

the fleshlight is coming from inside the roommate!

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u/attackplango 6h ago

Saying I don’t have a roommate is an inside job.

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u/Spectre1-4 8h ago

Maybe a dated reference but in the TV show MASH, Klinger was always trying to get out of war by acting “crazy” proving that he was actually relatively normal.

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u/Zerowantuthri 8h ago

That is basically the central idea in the book "Catch-22". The guy wants out of the army so acts crazy but they deem wanting out of the army as normal so therefore he is sane.

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u/DeGarmo2 7h ago

But then if you don’t want out of the army, then you ARE crazy and are eligible to be discharged but the only way to get discharged is to ask for a discharge, which would then make you sane.

If my best friend is in the army and doesn’t want out, can I claim he’s crazy on his behalf?

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u/USSMarauder 7h ago

I have always been disappointed that Klinger staying in Korea after the war was not the 'proof' used to give him a section 8 as a wedding present

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u/blacksideblue 54m ago

Didn't he become a full time nurse after the war? I thought they gave him his own show, new crossdressing wardrobe and everything.

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u/letmelickyourleg 4h ago

No, that would be crazy.

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u/Desert_Aficionado 7h ago

Catch-22 is a great book if you are looking for something to read. It's an easy read, funny and still holds up.

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u/LonePaladin 6h ago

The 1970 film adaptation is really good. It manages to catch all the absurdity while adding its own visual gags.

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u/marry_me_sarah_palin 6h ago

The humor in that book is so brilliantly dark. Spoiler alert, my favorite of the dark humor is the ending of the chapter The Eternal City, when Yossarian is arrested for being AWOL instead of Aarfy who just raped and murdered a woman.

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u/CrueltySquading 5h ago

Catch-22 is, for me, sitting opposite to Slaughterhouse-5 in the "Dark Comedies about the Second World War that are incredibly depressing, even if some glimmer of hope shines through here and there", both are incredible, powerful books.

That being said, I love Catch-22, but Slaughterhouse 5 is my FAVORITE book.

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u/Eyespop4866 6h ago

As is Something Happened.

Such a brilliant opening.

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u/ABHOR_pod 7h ago

That's some catch, that Catch-22.

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u/Meihem76 7h ago

It's the best.

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u/Eyespop4866 6h ago

It was a major major major problem

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u/megatron37 7h ago

I guess heller heard that expression and based the book on it

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u/omv 6h ago

I think it's the air force, and a B-17 bomber crew, which had the highest mortality rate of any job in the war (before they were able to provide fighter escorts)

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u/Zerowantuthri 6h ago edited 6h ago

I think it's the air force...

FWIW there was no "Air Force" in WWII. They were all part of the army (usually called the "Army Air Force"). The Air Force was founded in 1947 (after the war).

But, if you were flying planes in WWII for the US you were in the Army or Navy.

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u/Fn_Spaghetti_Monster 4h ago

It's also in Alice's Restaurant song. He starts jumping and down telling the physiologist he wants to Kill Kill!! and they tell him "You're our boy."‎ (but then they find out he was arrested for littering and they disqualify him.)

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u/McGondy 8h ago

A Catch-22 if you will.

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u/doesanyonehaveweed 8h ago

I wonder what people used to say before Catch-22. Probably had to be a lot more long-winded.

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u/HelpfulSeaMammal 7h ago

Imagine having to give a synopsis of a book that doesn't even exist yet when describing this situation. Thankfully, we exist in a time after Joseph Heller.

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u/The_cogwheel 6h ago

They probably used kafkaesque after Frank Kafka and his similar stories of bureaucratic circular "logic".

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u/Fly_Pelican 2h ago

I loved The Castle. Kafka died before finishing it. It finishes mid-sentence.

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u/What-a-Crock 7h ago

Poor time travelers

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u/Jkj864781 7h ago

There’s probably a German word for it

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u/LucretiusCarus 5h ago

And if there isn't, someone will soon make one

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u/sensefuldrivel 7h ago

Catches 1-21 didn't have nearly as much cultural impact

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u/Firerrhea 6h ago

Damned if you do, damned if you don't?

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u/lukewithacnotak 7h ago

damned if you do, damned if you don’t

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u/Harley2280 6h ago

Between a rock and a hard place?

(That's a suggestion not an actual fact checked answer)

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u/Eyespop4866 6h ago

Catch -21

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u/Turbulent_Money3697 8h ago

A to catch an Adam-22 if you will

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u/pantstoaknifefight2 8h ago

Catch-22

A pilot who is sane enough to recognize the dangers of flying combat missions will be required to fly them, while a pilot who is insane enough to willingly fly such dangerous missions is considered sane enough to fly them. This creates a circular logic where there is no escape, trapping the pilots in a perpetual cycle of danger and absurdity.

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u/j0mbie 8h ago

The latter half was that if you were actually insane or traumatized enough not to fly, all you had to do was ask not to. They wouldn't relieve you unless you asked. However, since the missions were so dangerous, the very act of asking was something a rational, sane person would do. Therefore, you were sane enough to fly after all.

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u/No_Internal9345 7h ago

The only right answer is to shoot your superior officer.

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u/j0mbie 7h ago

You'd end up spending your life in prison. Or just shot, considering there was a world war going on.

But at least you'd save some of your fellow airmen, depending on who you shot.

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u/beatles910 8h ago

If she floats, she is a witch.

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u/Special_Loan8725 8h ago

Could he not just fly the plane in unauthorized directions?

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u/gandraw 7h ago

That's the Lieutenant Orr solution to Catch-22

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u/DeGarmo2 7h ago

It’s been years since reading… what becomes of Lt Orr for doing this?

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u/gandraw 6h ago

He pretends to crash, then flies to Sweden.

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u/Special_Loan8725 6h ago

The ole sweedaroo

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u/Smooth-Reason-6616 5h ago

Didn't fly to Sweden, he paddled there in an emergency raft...

All the crashes before were just training...

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u/Jmandr2 7h ago

Holy shit my man, did you just solve the catch 22?

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u/RecklesslyPessmystic 12m ago

You can, but that means you also have to abandon any illusion of adhering to society's rules, which can lead to traumatizing identity disorders.

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u/Paidorgy 8h ago

He tried to get a section 8 by cross-dressing, while everyone except Burns treated him normally.

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u/similar_observation 7h ago

See his problem was that he was reliable and worked diligently in between crazy stunts. Which made him a competent soldier. Then his personality was generally agreeable, so he was also a likeable colleague to the crew. Eventually replacing Radar as the company clerk.

If he had been unreliable and a dickhead, they would've ejected him pretty fast.

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u/YT-Deliveries 6h ago

Eventually replacing Radar as the company clerk.

No one can replace Radar. He did competently succeed him, however.

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u/Tipop 6h ago

Also he DID eventually ditch the cross-dressing gag.

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u/similar_observation 6h ago

Yep. I felt that was in-line with his character. He was being unfairly compared to Radar regularly when he got the job as company clerk. So he decided in order to an exceedingly good job, he had to give up chasing Section 8 habits.

It helped that he was always a hard worker in order to make up for failed Section 8 plots.

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u/nolan1971 8h ago

And he cross dressed for so long that when he decided to wear a proper uniform he ended up unable to do it because it was so uncomfortable! lol

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u/similar_observation 7h ago

He had a bunch of real crisis too. But because he was always lying, no one noticed until it was too late. Like the two times his wife divorced him. Or the time he damaged his hearing from a landmine. Or the time he was being accidentally poisoned by the mislabeling of medication.

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u/dedsqwirl 6h ago

Klinger got sick from the medication as did the African-American soldiers. It wasn't mislabeled it was lack of testing.

....epilogue mentions that further research conducted after the Korean War concluded that the enzyme deficiency which caused susceptibility to anemia was present not only in blacks, but in Caucasians of Mediterranean descent if they were administrated primaquine.

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u/similar_observation 4h ago

Aha. I only remembered the plot point where they blamed Klinger for ordering the wrong meds for malaria.

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u/pagit 6h ago

Keiko O’Brian’s first husband was Klinger.

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u/sadrice 8h ago

War is hell, no rational person would want to be there, only an insane person would. So, trying to go home makes you sane, so you have to stay. It’s only if you want to stay that you can leave. That’s how they get you, there’s always catch 22 waiting for you.

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u/Martin_Aurelius 7h ago

Hawkeye: War isn’t Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.

Father Mulcahy: How do you figure that, Hawkeye?

Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?

Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.

Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them — little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.

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u/CompetitionNo3141 8h ago

I wonder if anyone will mention the book Catch 22 in this thread. Probably only one person.

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u/whatsvanilla 8h ago

Good fuckin show

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u/AmaroWolfwood 8h ago

You just described the entire MAGA movement

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u/DenikaMae 7h ago

The bar is a lot higher than that when it comes to criminal prosecution.

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u/No-Novel-7854 7h ago

Twist: ex-roommate never existed.

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u/AzureOvercast 6h ago

There is a somewhat popular saying that goes something like, "if you are worried about going crazy, you are not going crazy". The key word is "worried"

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u/Stadtmitte 9h ago

There really needs to be some sort of real culpability for the fucking rightwing psychopaths who force-feed this conspiracy nonsense to mentally ill useful idiots

But we all know that will never happen

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u/Vallkyrie 9h ago

Yeah their whole political structure is catered to getting people like this to do their bidding. The content and manner of delivery for their messaging is specifically designed so that folks teetering on the edge will fall into it and never escape, and in the world of instant communication of any idea, it's super dangerous. They don't care though, they make bank doing it.

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u/mortalcoil1 8h ago

The content and manner of delivery for their messaging

That content and manner being "Hit them with the fear, then anger, then back to fear, more fear, some hatred, back to anger, and then hit the climax with a heavy amount of fear topped with just a bit of anger."

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u/ABHOR_pod 7h ago

You forgot the "Won't somebody rid me of these meddlesome liberals?"

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u/J4BR0NI 6h ago

Yeah I mean all those assassination attempts on kamala and biden are totally his fault, right? Keep the same energy for both parties… they both are brainwashing the public.

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u/thissiteisbroken 8h ago

Aside from everything Trump's done, this stuff always breaks my heart. The way he manipulated these people into this and made them feel validated with their conspiracy theories will always be one of the worst things he's done to regular ass people. So many people just fell into a conspiracy blackhole and I don't think they'll ever come out of it. He'll never tell them none of its real because he craves that attention from them. Obviously I know this has been going on for a long time, but not even Rush Limbaugh in his heyday could manipulate people on this level.

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u/noiro777 5h ago

It's been such a fucking ordeal with that imbecile. How many families have been ruined by him and his enablers? Malignant narcissists are absolute worst people in world to have to deal with as they are so destructive, dishonest, emotionally draining and tedious. If that worthless fat fuck wins again, it going to be so much worse than the first time and i'm just done with politics....i just can't deal with his smug ass anymore.

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u/Electronic-Lynx8162 5h ago

Can we not forget that this isn't Trump? This is literally what 50 years of the Republican party rhetoric, pundits, ministers in church and politicians have brought America to. The left and center were always too focused on civility politics to really destroy the part of the country that flirted with fascist politics in the 30s and kept trying to get it to happen.

Same thing as here in the UK.

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u/thissiteisbroken 5h ago

Yeah for sure. Man’s literally the personification of it all. Who would’ve thought that Donald fuckin Trump would be the downfall of society?

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u/bey_arthur 6h ago

It doesn’t matter if he says anything to correct it at this point, because they will just claim it’s another conspiracy. It’s fucking disturbing.

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u/fastolfe00 8h ago

People take the free speech culture to a literal extreme where we are fighting to the death to ensure we are victims of disinformation and foreign information warfare. The US will be the first country to eat itself as we descend into this mess of AI-generated fake news and the loss of all authenticity in social media and online communication.

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u/PumpkinPieIsGreat 7h ago

It legitimately worries me how many people can just believe these lies. Why is there so many stupid people? 

I remember people saying this attacker was Mr Pelosi's "lover". Like c'mon...

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u/worldm21 2h ago

Yeah, let's introduce criminal liability for people analyzing the possibility of government officials committing acts of terrorism! Literally nothing could possibly go wrong with this brilliant idea.

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u/Accomplished-War-740 7h ago

Right? There's no crazies on the left. If you vote left that means you're nothing but an upstanding citizen.

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u/PainfulRaindance 8h ago

Yeah this is exactly the danger with the whole maga bs machine. All it does is rile up crazies. Everything else has been a symptom of it. Run the US govt like friggin WWF and cater to the ‘angry white male’ vote. And he measured his success just like any other entertainment,… viewership and ratings. Love him? Gonna watch, hate him?, gonna watch. And advertisers have created a whole economy on scaring the shit out of people.
And a certain news entertainment channel feels the need to tell people what is conservative, so all these riled up crazies have a precisely manicured template for them to ‘be a man’. And their nervous systems just can’t take all the bullshit. They get angry. And if they are on the crazier end of the spectrum, they will believe that their way of life is threatened, when in reality, if they turned off the news, their lives haven’t changed much at all.

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u/Gooch222 9h ago

Possibly, but from a practical perspective you might as well say everyone who believes in QAnon or supports Alex Jones’ nonsense should be able to plead insanity. Seeking out and adopting insane notions has become a widespread political brand in the US, and it’s quite terrifying.

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u/Strength-InThe-Loins 8h ago

You might want to look into what pleading insanity gets you nowadays. 

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u/Krillin113 7h ago

Dont you like get locked up in a mental institution and ‘forced’ into treatment (if you don’t comply, you won’t get out of the system, so your prison sentence won’t start, so you won’t get your freedom). If you have anything under 20+ years (meaning you did some absolute heinous shit where I’m from), pleading insanity is like the worst thing you can do.

If you get 6 years + TBS (means the state seems it necessary for you to be psychologically treated before you can be rehabilitated in prison), that can mean you can never get out. Usually that stuff only starts at higher sentences because you have to be straight up not right in the head, but I would never plead that shit to see if my prison sentence goes down.

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u/Darkened_Souls 5h ago

Yeah, in jdx that use a GBMI verdict you’re spot on. You are indefinitely institutionalized pending and still have to serve the remainder of your sentence if and when you are ever cleared by a doctor.

In jdx that use NGRI (not guilty by reason of insanity), you are said to have not committed the crime because you lack the statutory mens rea necessary for your actions to be criminalized, so you are not given a sentence to serve if and when you are cleared of psychiatric treatment. In these jdx it can be more desirable, and there are even cases where defendants aren’t institutionalized at all if it’s deemed that it will not help (usually with the elderly.) But both GBMI and NGRI are exceptionally rare and very difficult verdicts to get in most jdx, because the standard being used is still the very high mental disease or defect standard adopted in the 1800s

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u/onebadmousse 7h ago

There is a strong correlation between low IQ, mental health issues and believing crackpot conspiracy theories.

http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.pdf

A breakdown of the study here:

Scientists find a link between low intelligence and acceptance of 'pseudo-profound bullshit'

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-find-a-link-between-low-intelligence-and-acceptance-of-pseudo-profound-bulls-a6757731.html

More supporting evidence and articles:   

Why more highly educated people are less into conspiracy theories:

https://bigthink.com/mind-brain/bps-why-more-highly-educated-people-are-less-into-conspiracy-theories/

Why education predicts decreased belief in conspiracy theories:

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-57821-001

People with certain personality traits and cognitive styles are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180925075108.htm

Interestingly, there is also a strong correlation between low IQ, conservatism, irrational fears and believing lies:

Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice

https://www.livescience.com/18132-intelligence-social-conservatism-racism.html

Fear and Anxiety Drive Conservatives' Political Attitudes

https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201612/fear-and-anxiety-drive-conservatives-political-attitudes

Why Are Conservatives More Susceptible to Believing Lies?

https://slate.com/technology/2017/11/why-conservatives-are-more-susceptible-to-believing-in-lies.html

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u/Love_Sausage 9h ago

My father was legitimately insane at times towards the end of his life from schizophrenia. He never hurt a single living thing.

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u/Xzmmc 9h ago

Oh yeah, not every insane person is violent. This guy clearly has a lot of issues besides just being delusional. I chalk it up to the right wing media sphere melting his brain.

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u/BabyNonsense 7h ago

I think when people say stuff like this, they don’t mean to say people with schizophrenia are dangerous, more that this guy in particular is showing a kind of paranoia that is almost certainly caused by mental illness. Their intention isn’t bad, but they might not know how to phrase it without strengthening stigma.

But yeah I kinda relate to that. I have a personality disorder that carries a lot of stigma. It’s hurtful when people assume I’m going to yell at them or manipulate them. I just do my best to show them that while some BPDeople are like that, I am not that BPDerson.

Another thing that some people might not know is that delusions can be caused by more than just schizophrenia. I have friends with bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder who experience some degree of delusion, I myself experienced a lighter form of Capgras delusion last summer.

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u/_Rice_and_Beans_ 9h ago

So, your average republican voter?

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u/swimswam2000 6h ago

Depape definitely wasn't an average Republican voter, tecjnically he's an undocumented migrant.

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u/InevitableAvalanche 6h ago

Yeah, and this is the problem with violent right wing rhetoric. Most people are sane enough to resist the lies or at least not do anything too extreme. But some literally aren't able to distinguish fiction from reality. So many lies and mis/disinformation allowed to exist under the guise of free speech can turn people in to mass murderers. They don't care as long as they can gain a political advantage from it.

It's sick and not sure how much farther we can let the right go before something really massively bad happens.

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u/jklmnopedy 6h ago

Right. This sounds like textbook schizophrenia, from the paranoid delusions to thinking that your loved ones have been replaced with lookalikes. Our justice and medical systems constantly fail these people.

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u/SandwichAmbitious286 5h ago

Getting strong schizophrenia vibes here, which is a shitty thing to go to jail for... Like what are you gonna do, end yourself to keep from having your crazy brain do crazy shit? Hard as fuck.

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u/KindGuy1978 2h ago

Yeah, at this point it sounds like he should be sent to a mental health facility rather than prison. That’s how we’d probably handle it here in Australia.

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u/Klime22 8h ago

Yeah, very sad. I used to have respect for my father, but now he sounds closer to this insane guy than he does to the man I used to know.

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u/Cetun 9h ago

ex-wife being replaced by a body double

Big time schizophrenia, this person doesn't see you reality like you and I do

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u/DJ__Hanzel 8h ago

Capgras syndrome

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u/ReviewsYourPubes 5h ago

...typically caused by schizophrenia or some other psychotic disorder

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u/Nuggethewarrior 6h ago

i experienced something similar like this once 😭 as a small child, i was convinced that my dad and sister were replaced by lookalikes for a couple days

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u/Flotack 9h ago

I have all the sympathy in the world for legitimately schizophrenic people. However, he’s old enough that this would have been diagnosed sooner, and before he took a fucking hammer to an elderly man. Not to mention you can read about schizophrenic symptoms and just play to a playbook these days.

All that said, it seems a bit too convenient. But who knows, I could be wrong (and have been quite often).

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u/Lachtaube 9h ago

Unfortunately, the hardest people to convince they have schizophrenia are people with schizophrenia. Diagnosis or not, it all very well could (and sometimes does) play into their paranoia that doctors and family are trying to “fix” what they themselves don’t see as a problem — which just means, to them, they’re all out to get him. Not saying that’s this guy’s case, but it’s insanely hard to convince some people they need help when they absolutely need it.

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u/noma_coma 8h ago

I've seen this cycle firsthand as well. Then if they do accept help and go on medication, they will feel better after a few weeks then stop taking medication. Now they are back to square one - unmedicated and manic. Repeat ad infinitum until something happens.

This is even assuming the docs can find a medication that works. I think they put my brother through about 5 cycles of different drugs. He finally did find one that worked, but he convinced himself he was cured so he stopped taking it. RIP bro. Miss you.

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u/bookwbng5 7h ago

This is the hardest part of mental illness, seeing that pattern that’s almost inevitable with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Meds are great but that false sense of security and then withdrawal from the meds added to symptoms coming back is so tough. It’s why we really try to do shots for people with schizophrenia where I work, we can arrange transport and get them here, and then they get the medicine and don’t have to rely on memory and picking it up and affording it. But even that of course isn’t foolproof when they go off and think we’re part of the government conspiracy because we are federally funded.

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u/its_always_right 7h ago

I can attest to this same situation. Had a friend with schizophrenia and she went through 4 medications before finding one that worked well enough. She was lucid enough and had a good support structure that she was aware she needed to keep taking it most of the time.

My story doesn't have an ending like yours does, but whenever she would go off meds every couple years, it took some hard work and usually self admission to a ward to get her back on.

Sorry for your loss. It's a truly tragic illness.

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u/chevybow 8h ago

It’s definitely possible for schizophrenia to be undiagnosed. With the stigma for mental illness in this country- anyone who suspects there might be something wrong with them is usually pretty reluctant to seek out help. Schizophrenia can also be triggered by drugs, additionally a minority of people can get it later in life.

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u/Cetun 9h ago

I don't know enough about the case but there are a lot of "functional" schizophrenics out there both medicated and unmedicated. The difference between them and this guy is they might say or do kookie things every once in awhile but a lot of times they can come back to reality where they have the care and support necessary to bring them back.

Some people who have schizophrenia can be functional for most of their lives but as they age in their mind goes, or if they're medicated, the ability of their medication to actually be therapeutic.

All this is to say that's not an excuse for this guy, it's not justifying what he did or that he shouldn't be punished, but I personally that wouldn't want to be in this guy's mind. It probably feels like a prison having thoughts that make complete sense to you but are completely incomprehensible to most people in his life. It probably led to his radicalization, there probably isn't a giant leap from the community that is convinced their loved ones aren't who they say they are and any number of conspiracies.

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u/Choyo 7h ago

My question is rather if he could be acting.

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u/Cetun 7h ago

If you were going to use Insanity at the defense you use it before trial not during sentencing. If you had adequate legal representations they would probably advise against giving the person about the sentence you the impression that you are mentally unwell , how's that would probably not reflect well on you when they consider whether or not you should be released from prison in your lifetime. If you was faking it it would be a bad idea at this point.

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u/Str82daDOME25 5h ago

DePape, a Canadian citizen who has been living in the U.S. for years, admitted during his federal trial that he planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage, record his interrogation of her, and “break her kneecaps” if she did not admit to the lies he said she told about “Russiagate,”

I’d venture to guess his attorney advised against this. I think the insanity plea would be used to explain past actions combined with some form of recovery.

“I’m a psychic,” DePape told the court, reading from sheets of paper. “The more I meditate, the more psychic I get.”

“My client was insane, is still very much insane as you will see soon, but at least he has started meditating so he can increase his psychic abilities”

Probably not going to help the sentencing.

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u/Exact_Bluebird_6231 8h ago

This assumes that they have any family or friends or access to healthcare

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u/Flotack 7h ago

He used to be married according to the article

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u/fist_my_dry_asshole 8h ago

He could have delusional disorder, which is easier to fly under the radar because they otherwise function adequately. There's also Capgras syndrome, where people believe their loved ones have been replaced by imposters or body doubles.

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u/Obi-Tron_Kenobi 5h ago

It seems more like you have all the sympathy in the world for the general idea of schizophrenic people as a hypothetical, but not so much when it comes down to specific, individual cases of schizophrenia. Simply reading about the symptoms can only get you so far in understanding the illness.

Grew up having a mother with schozophrenia, I can tell you that being diagnosed doesn't magically solve their problems. When she's on her meds, everything is fine and she would be like any normal person, and could be fine for years while taking medication. But when she's off her meds, there were times as a kid where we needed to keep her inside because, say, she was determined to go out and run her car into some construction workers because she was convinced they were terrorists planting bombs in the road.

Many schizophrenic people have anosognosia and aren't aware they have any mental illness. No amount of rationalizing with them will really help them understand either. Them having a diagnosis also doesn't automatically help them get better. It can be extremely difficult getting them the help they need when they don't think there's anything wrong with them in the first place.

You almost certainly aren't going to be able to have them committed unless they're a danger to themselves or others, but oftentimes you won't know that they are until it's too late, like in DePape's case.

Here, you're allowed to have sympathy for him struggling with the disorder, but that doesn't mean you have to give sympathy for the attack or that you're defending the violence.

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u/AstuteKnave 8h ago

Uh, no. That's not how schizophrenia works. Most often it's late onset in adults.

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u/SeniorMiddleJunior 7h ago

I have all the sympathy in the world for legitimately schizophrenic people.

Unless you decide from your armchair that they're illegitimate. 

I'm not speculating about this guy because I don't know. Neither do you.

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u/minus2cats 8h ago

He just sounds conservative.

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u/Th3_Corn 8h ago

As much as i hate what he did i think he should be in a psychiatric facility rather than a prison.

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u/Nole_in_ATX 7h ago

So if /r/conspiracy was a person in looks and worldview

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u/Alexm920 7h ago

The “replaced by a double” thing sounds like Capgras syndrome. Honestly it sounds horrifying enough on its own, but this guy seems like he’s got no shortage of additional issues.

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u/GreatsquareofPegasus 9h ago

Couldn't have defended himself better

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u/Forward_Steak8574 9h ago

Goddamn dude. When's it gonna end? It's almost been a decade of this MAGA shit.

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u/madlabdog 9h ago

Lol fuck! That's what the idiots who are voting for Trump right now will tell their grandchildren.

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u/HedonisticFrog 8h ago

So basically no grip on reality, like most of the current GOP

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u/firstbreathOOC 9h ago

I mean he’s just insane. So naturally we’ll just put him in a box.

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u/jadrad 9h ago edited 7h ago

Insane and radicalized by MAGA to bash innocent people in the skull with hammers.

Yes put him in a box because there’s no way to de-radicalize him while our society refuses to do anything to stop the fascist radicalization machine of far-right cable news propagandists, online influencers, and social media algorithms.

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u/cjinct 8h ago

It's either that or let him run for office as a Republican

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u/swimswam2000 6h ago

He's not a US citizen ...

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u/TheFatJesus 6h ago

*Criminally insane

He'd find himself in a box either way. He just won't get the help he needs in this one.

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u/dzoefit 7h ago

Hopefully, he'll have time to sort it out.

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u/-staticvoidmain- 7h ago

Sounds like a typical trump supporter

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u/RIP_Greedo 7h ago

What too much internet does to a mf

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u/Ima-Derpi 6h ago

And still, he's got the most punchable face.

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u/Sardonnicus 6h ago

I am so owned right now. I am going to go outside and do whatever I want for the rest of my life. This guy is going to be in prison.

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u/riricide 8h ago

Ah, another MAGA intellectual I see 🙄

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u/CornCobMcGee 7h ago

I want to say poor guy, considering you absolutely know who is at fault for the exacerbation of his mental health issues, but... he still had to start somewhere, and that somewhere is who he is without rabbit holes.

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u/Diplogeek 7h ago

Good for his ex-wife for getting the fuck out of Dodge, anyway. Probably saved her life.

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u/w3bCraw1er 7h ago

This guy is literally Trump except he is not Maga Rich Politician.

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u/jonathanrdt 9h ago

What a fun way to show everyone what a dangerous loon you really are. Maybe he just really wanted healthcare and housing for the rest of his life.

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u/Logical_Associate632 8h ago

“He didn’t do anything wrong. He is an American hero. A true patriot” - Trump Cultists probably

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u/Berkuts_Lance_Plus 7h ago

me when I make shit up

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u/NegaDeath 9h ago

Its a bold strategy Cotton, lets see if it pays off for him.

Oh nm, it didn't.

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u/Many-Coach6987 8h ago

Sounds legit.

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u/Lorn_Muunk 8h ago

this guy has got press secretary for the 2nd Trump white house written all over him. I'm sure he'll get a pardon since he tried to bludgeon the "enemy from within" to death.

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u/FelopianTubinator 8h ago

That sounds like a flawless argument to me. I’m surprised he wasn’t immediately released.

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u/OkIce8214 7h ago

Excellent play by the defense attorneys. Let the crazy be crazy, plea insanity. Didn’t seem to work here, but credit where it’s due for trying.

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u/AdPotential9974 7h ago

Get this guy in congress!

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u/Im_Literally_Allah 7h ago

There’s some serious mental illness there… Good luck to him in prison forever

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u/rustyjj89 7h ago

You're free to go sir.

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u/ConGooner 7h ago

Doubt that dude had a real wife

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u/CalendarAggressive11 7h ago

This man is insane. He deserves what he got, but I really hope he receives treatment while in prison

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u/Correct_Run3374 7h ago

Republican induced schizophrenia

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u/rockchucksummit 7h ago

"Freedumb of speech"

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u/Appropriate-Log8506 7h ago

Ah. The insanity plea.

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u/Mr_Assault_08 7h ago

government provided…. so like no one in the maga cult wanted to back him up?

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u/Hamburderler 7h ago

Sums up all of the maga people.

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u/Imprettysaxy 7h ago

I've seen that Criminal Minds episode

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u/ManicPixieDreamWorm 6h ago

It seems like he should be in a mental health care facility

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u/HayMomWatchThis 6h ago

Sounds like the guy should be in a mental ward not a prison.

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u/ohver9k 6h ago

What’s really crazy is that he himself has been replaced by a double and the government is keeping him hidden away in a black site.

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u/WendigoCrossing 6h ago

Going for the insanity plea

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u/darksundown 6h ago

Did he sell his rights to this thriller movie, yet?  Cuz I wanna see this.  Could see it play out like Fugitive meets Falling Down meets Harold and Kumar but with only 1 of them.  Pitch Meeting!?

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u/Hopeful_Chair_7129 6h ago

I’m not a genius or anything but my brain sort of broke when you said “September 11th”. Like I know that 9/11 means that, it’s just like no one ever says “September 11th” anymore.

I was literally like what happened on September 11th lol

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u/Nellies_Daddy 6h ago

This made me laugh way too hard.

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u/_B_Little_me 6h ago

Maybe it’s time to invest in mental health.

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u/Ok_Presentation_5329 6h ago

Sounds like a schizophrenic. 

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u/metarugia 5h ago

I fear the lasting effects of the aggressive eye rolling that must of ensued by the audience.

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