Coming to a Dissident Near You .... How Psychiatry Will Be Used To Silence

[Blackhatjack]

The Washington Post details Russia's use of "forced psychiatric evaluations" to silent critics of government officials here

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901592.html

Just a short hop, skip and a jump away from what dissidents in the US can expect with the roll back of constitutional rights, including the right challenge their detention by habeas corpus.

A milder version of this approach has been used to "purge" cia/nsa agents who do not toe the Administration's preference for intelligence that matches their pre-conceived conclusions.

There is no effective way to challenge these methods if the government has the power to make you "disappear" --and do you think for a minute that they will not use this in their "war on terror" since everyone who is not with them is giving aid and comfort to the enemy?

[brentspeak]

1. That's a terrifying story. Russia is a nightmare.

The collapse of the Soviet Union didn't improve things. If anything, the final 30 years of the Soviet Union were more "pleasant" than what's going on there now.

[Blackhatjack]

3. When Bush Looked Deep Inside Putin And Found A Good Man...

...what he meant was he discovered a man who implements techniques he wanted to copy here.

There is no other explanation how the President of the United STates could admire a man that stifles dissent, closes newspapers, purges government officials, and as a former head of the KGB implements iron fisted discipline in a supposed "democracy."

[Union Thug]

5. You are right. My wife grew up in the soviet union...

her sister is still in Russia.

Aside from 'elections', coke and cell phones, things have gotten worse for the common person. My wife preferred the SU over rule by capitalist oligarchs.

[pooja]

2. Do you have your survival plans ready?

[Union Thug]

4. Too Late....

Yes, I know it is not quite the same, but until it happens to you, you cannot understand the impact our current policies (at least in the state where I live) has on citizens.

So I have an ex-wife. We had an ugly, nasty divorce. One day, I challenged her on plans for the house. I wanted to sell and split. She wanted the house - no compromise. After the ensuing screaming match on the issue, she called the police, accused me of domestic violence, and bye bye... off I went to enjoy the back seat of a police car. Now, it didn't end there, because my scheming ex decided she would further fillet and vilify me by telling the cops that I was suicidal. Of course, I was anything but suicidal, but the cops were very generous and offered me a choice: I could either go to the cuckoo's nest or the jail cell. Like an idiot, and not remembering the lessons of the quiet native american and jack nicholson, I chose the hospital thinking it would be a kinder, gentler visit.

Bad choice.

I would much rather be sitting in a jail cell than having to deal with a room of sanctimonious, judgemental psychs. Apparently, they had the power to lock me up for 72 hours for a pychiatric eval. I didn't end up there for 72 hours, but I was there for 10 hours while one asshole psych asked very leading questions and after seeing results of my drug test, warned me that smoking pot could turn me into a fire breathing dragon hell bent on destroying the American way of life. These interrogations were rather short, and in between sessions, I sat alone in a room, with a single window on the door for an hour at a time - occassional the nurse would check in. She was actually very nice and at one point acknowledged that I shouldn't be there. But aside from that very brief moment of sanity, I learned quickly that talking to the doctors was worse than talking to the police, so I shut up, stopped trying to explain the situation and let the almighty pyschs take their best guesses as to which human box I should be crammed into to suit their need for a clean diagnoses of this drug-using, abusive, monster that ironically had never hurt anyone (outside of the years that I was boxing at the boys club when I was a teenager and got in a couple of lucky punches).

Good idea. Telling the truth, I was interpreted as being paranoid, lying or god knows what. Shutting up seemed to derail their attempts to box me up and finally, I was released that evening. My ex and her boyfriend, I found out were in the lobby, trying to plant more propaganda (a nurse later told me they were telling more horror stories about me in hopes of getting me locked up for the 3 day eval). Instead, I received more lectures about the evils of marijuana. Reefer Madness scenes ran through my head as I walked out the front doors, trying to figure out how I was going to get home.

The point - Russia is an extreme, but with the direction our country is headed, we are not far away. The foundation is already in place. Tweak the laws ever so slightly and that 72 hour eval becomes a 72 year lockdown.

[Blackhatjack]

6. Yep, your story is foreshadowing of what true patriots may face shortly...

...while your story involved lying to cause an involuntary commitment, imagine what could take place if you were charged with a crime and the competency evaluation ruled you incompetent and in need of treatment for a mental disorder. Your stay could be indefinite.

[Union Thug]

7. That's what is scary. With the new...

..American view on habeus corpus, it will take only a little tweaking of the existing laws to turn our prisons and mental health facilities into Stalin-era detention centers. We really are not that far away.