Don’t forget the war on drugs

  • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    14 days ago

    The deinstitutionalization and movement to prison was something that began long before Reagan. Really goes back to the end of ww2 and Kennedy. though reagan definitely accelerated it by a great deal by decreasing budgets substantially and increasing incarceration rates significantly

    Reagan was a monster though. What a great day it was when he died

    • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      TBH, some of that deinstitutionalization could be written off to being gay no longer being a mental health issue, etc.

      • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        14 days ago

        That’s actually inverse to this. Homosexuality formally entered the dsm in 1952 which made institutionalization for it more common, not less, although institutionalization certainly existed beforehand (eg ww2 draft would decline for homosexuality and basically refer to conversion therapy)

        This is the “lavender scare”. Much of the anti lgbt rhetoric today roots back to this era - that homosexuality is something to be pathologized, it can be cured, it is deviancy, a threat to national safety (lavender scare and red scare being analogous, thought process being all the men turning queer would make us a nation of sissies ripe for being taken over by the commies, basically. Lesbian erasure from this narrative was totally a thing (although they still got the abusive treatment)

        As a result they got shock treatment, aversion therapy, and even lobotomies. This was through the early 60s and it wasn’t until 1973 that the diagnosis was formally removed. Obviously conversion therapy still happens today but the state sanctioned institutionalization form was mostly over by the mid to late 60s, though it took some time to die out in certain regions

        A blight on our country and on the history of our mental health system. Disgusting

        • Fluffy Kitty Cat@slrpnk.net
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          14 days ago

          The shock treatment thing never fully went away it’s just used on gay teenagers at concentration camps their parents send them to now as opposed to being a state ran thing

      • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        14 days ago

        Yes, the massive fall of deinstitutionalization began in the 60s as indicated on my graph? And as I said it began long before him? I don’t understand what you are disagreeing with

        Even the incarceration rise started before him in the early 70s. He just is the one that turned this to a million with the war on drugs