by Travis Mateer
There was a choice America made recently and the result of that choice has some people very upset. Apparently they thought the world worked one way, then they found out that something else might be happening, something radically altering their world view (emphasis mine):
The article notes “Mental health professionals say even people who don’t see themselves as directly affected by administration actions are feeling frazzled by the dizzying pace and Trump’s enduring ability to command attention.”
…
The piece further states that Andrea Bonior, a Georgetown University psychology professor “said she’s seen an uptick in patients, particularly Democrats, expressing a sense of burnout, guilt and despair at losing an old way of life.”
It adds that “Bonior pointed to federal workers who aren’t sure if they’ll be let go as well as others concerned about their immigration status or worried about loved ones whose refugee flights were canceled.”
“It feels, no matter which way you go, you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m being ruled by a very different system that I thought I was living in,’” New York-based neuropsychologist Sanam Hafeez told Axios.
While I’d like to by sympathetic to this point of view, since I’ve gone through something similar, the reality is, I’m not sympathetic. I’ve been literally SCREAMING for years now that there is indeed a VERY DIFFERENT SYSTEM running the show, and it has nothing to do with laws, order, or justice, and EVERYTHING to do with control.
There was a story in the news recently where a woman expressed her concern that a scary man wasn’t being as harshly dealt with by the system as she wanted him to be. This woman runs a small clinic in Montana and had to stop treating this man after he tried unsuccessfully to get a date with one of her staff. The email he sent was awful and actionable, action was taken, and now he is going to be a convicted felon for the rest of his life.
But that’s not good enough.
After about eight months in jail awaiting trial on a charge of felony intimidation, Kovats was released on a dozen conditions to live with his brother near Stevensville. Last December, a jury found him guilty, and he is in jail awaiting sentencing. Before the trial, White Deeble worried about Kovats coming back to the clinic, despite his ankle monitor. White Deeble told Montana Free Press the stress and “constant vigilance” had worn on her.
“I can’t imagine doing any other work, and I always thought that I would sort of die in the saddle,” she said. “This has absolutely shortened my career, like this is that level of burnout. As much as I don’t want to give him this much power, at some point, something just gets broken.
If you’re curious about the kind of work Deeble was doing at her clinic, here is a screenshot from the website:
The man who is now a felon had been getting treatment at this clinic for 13 years, so it might be safe to assume whatever kind of treatment he was getting, it wasn’t effective. What WAS effective was the involvement of law enforcement, at least for the few years that this allegedly dangerous patient is going to be incarcerated at TAXPAYER expense.
But hey, at least Christine Deeble will be able to continue providing her questionable services to others if they have the money to pay (emphasis mine):
… It’s better now that he’s been convicted of a felony. It will feel better if we can get him sentenced to be not my problem for three or four years.”
Kovats’ sentencing is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 27. While the crime carries a maximum of 10 years in prison, White Deeble believes Kovats is unlikely to get that sentence, in part because he is a first-time offender. She hopes he gets enough time to “truly work a program.”
This “truly work a program” is where I suspect the fog of delusion is creeping in, and I say that having worked at the type of homeless shelter a man like Kovats will almost definitely be discharged to after his period of incarceration. When that happens, he will have VERY limited options for mental health support AND limited options for housing, since being a convicted felon is STILL one of the quickest ways to become and remain homeless.
The article continues with the clinician and her staff continuing to complain about how the world isn’t immediately bending to their collective aid now that they’ve acquired the divine status of VICTIM.
White Deeble, along with current and former Natura employees, raised concerns that a light sentence for Kovats won’t provide the necessary consequences. The burden of being protected from a potentially violent offender, she said, shouldn’t fall on the victims alone.
Um, if we’re talking FINANCIAL burden, then, as I’ve pointed out, the taxpayer is DEFINITELY sharing that burden. But there’s more:
“I get that going to prison may have some detrimental effects on his [Kovats’] mental health,” White Deeble said. “It is not my job to figure this out. I might be a naturopathic doctor. I might be all about finding the root cause. I might be all about holistic care and treating the whole person. … In the end, I am the victim, and I cannot overly sympathize with his particular situation because he’s threatened, brutally threatened, 20-plus people. At some point I have to care about something else more. I don’t think prison will fix everything. But man, I want a reprieve.”
If I may offer a suggestion, the entire effort being put forth with this article is ONLY going to make things worse. Especially when you keep reading to find out that patient/client constraints don’t apparently apply to a shit-talking victim terrified that 3 years in prison isn’t going to be enough of a reprieve for her (emphasis mine):
White Deeble was Kovats’ doctor for about 13 years. She said it was “clear he was not a hugely social person” but was typically pleasant. In early 2020, Kovats began romantically pursuing a staff member and didn’t listen when she told him she wasn’t interested, White Deeble said. The clinic administration decided to ban Kovats, but White Deeble told him she would continue to provide him care, just not at the clinic.
Kovats sent White Deeble six emails between March 2021 and December 2021, oscillating between criticizing her decision and asking for help, she said. White Deeble said she stopped responding when his emails grew angry but documented them with other clinic management.
In April 2023, White Deeble received an email from Kovats that didn’t directly threaten action but concerned her enough to report it to the Missoula police.
“You’ve probably blocked me already so (expletive) you for that,” Kovats wrote. “And (expletive) you for treating me like a sexual predator. I didn’t deserve that. I guess I have to accept that my brother is still a patron of your establishment. Maybe he’ll learn his lesson someday when you mistake his behavior for something it’s not and ruin his life.”
Again, none of this is going to lead to a less angry dude. If I’ve learned anything from the Fidler on my roof, it’s the fact that public call-out culture leads to MORE strong emotions, not less.
Oh well.
Maybe, if we’re lucky, that asteroid coming is just a spaceship of benevolent extraterrestrials sent to remind us that the end of the world is really just an opportunity to make a new on. Yeah, that sounds like a nice delusion.
Until then, donate here if you can, and thanks for reading.
