Nathan Newby set to receive George Medal for stopping a potential atrocity with an act of kindness

Nathan Newby set to receive George Medal for stopping a potential atrocity with an act of kindness

A hospital patient who managed to talk a man out of detonating a bomb in a maternity wing said the would-be attacker “asked for a cuddle” before standing down.

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    32·
    5 days ago

    Well, I’ve talked two mentally ill neighbors out of stabbing each other before, had to physically get between the both of them, when they both had knives… but that takes the cake as far as conflct de-escalation goes.

    This is the guy you want training the police.

    Not ex-IDF mercs, as is shockingly common.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      5 days ago

      He needs what psych wards should be, not necessarily what they are. At the moment he would’ve benefited from one though. Psych wards are currently often a traumatic experience designed to keep you alive and not hurting anyone and to ideally set you up with resources at the end.

      As they currently stand, a person who is isolated, struggling, and feeling suicidal or homicidal in that mental space going to a psych ward is likely to go in, spend a few days calming down in an isolating and uncomfortable experience, and be returned to the life that led them there. Situations like these are ultimately different from mental health crises that can be solved or have their start pharmaceutically or with medical intervention, which is where modern psych wards excel. This needs to be seen as much more similar to a suicide attempt in nature in order to stop situations like it before they happen

      • quick_snail@feddit.nlEnglish
        1·
        5 days ago

        How? Seems like a great employment opportunity for incels and cops and ice after we lay them all off.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.worldEnglish
          10·
          5 days ago

          Not having sex doesn’t make incels believe what they believe, believing/acting like that makes them not have sex. A lot of them don’t just feel they’re owed sex, they feel they’re owed devotion. The fact that the prostitute doesn’t actually like them and will only spend time with them the amount they’re being paid will become a problem in their eyes.

          And beyond that, the reason the hug helped this man is that it was genuine human connection. It was an act of free sharing in a way that Graeber would describe as an interaction of communism rather than exchange. Giving from one who has to one who needs simply because it’s needed and easy to give. A prostitute is sex as an exchange, which includes both parties able to walk away as though nothing happened (indeed, the old saying goes that you pay the prostitute to walk away just as much as for the sex). Hell, many incels scoff at therapy because of its nature as an exchange. What they seem to lack is genuine constructive community, and often also the ability to actually partake in one appropriately.

          Also I feel like it might result in a prostitute doing a mass shooting, but I can’t defend that suspicion

      • quick_snail@feddit.nlEnglish
        1·
        4 days ago

        No no no. You misunderstand. I’m saying we fill the brothels with comfort men – make it a requirement that they must have a history of being a cop or have other fascist illness.

        Give free brothel stamps to all the other poor white fascists as customers.

        This is the solution to the US fascism problem.