Kansas State Rep arrested for...

Stacyhs said:
No, he said what happened was insane, not that Samsel is insane. Clearly, Samsel is not literally insane.
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I wrote it before I saw the video clip, but I meant that he was literally insane.

Maybe insane is not the right word, just mentally ill.

I think he's bipolar, but I am not a shrink.

I did subsequently watch a couple of small video clips, and it is conceivable that something very, very weird was going on, in which students participated, but was not driven by mental illness. However, if I were a betting man, I would go with some mental illness being present. Literally.

ETA: But, what you and dudalb said. Whether he is mentally ill or not, he doesn't belong in a legislature or a classroom. I saw one clip of him on youtube talking calmly, but it still struck me as totally nuts. It was like a complete disassociation from what had happened, and some really delusional speech. I think he's nuts.
 
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Meadmaker said:
ETA: But, what you and dudalb said. Whether he is mentally ill or not, he doesn't belong in a legislature or a classroom. I saw one clip of him on youtube talking calmly, but it still struck me as totally nuts. It was like a complete disassociation from what had happened, and some really delusional speech. I think he's nuts.
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OK. So what makes him appears nuts to you? List them, and then forget about whether they make him insane or not. Take the list and then ask yourself if people in his district would agree with him or not. Note that this guy was just re-elected to a second term just six months ago. He won that election by more than 3 to 1 and he won his primary by 3 to 2.
 
I’m amazed that I’m apparently the only person here to have gone to school in a Republican controlled school district.
Nothing except the knee to the nuts was even remotely remarkable. In my elementary school there was a Florida Teacher of the Year finalist who regularly paddled fifth grade students. In my middle school the Dean has a fraternity-style paddle that he would use. A parent had to sign a form to opt out of paddling.

In high school you could count on one or two teachers giving sermons in lieu of lessons a few times a year. Yes, they did mention sex/masturbation more than was comfortable.

30 years ago, but not different from the behavior being called a mental health crisis.
 
RecoveringYuppy said:
OK. So what makes him appears nuts to you? List them, and then forget about whether they make him insane or not. Take the list and then ask yourself if people in his district would agree with him or not. Note that this guy was just re-elected to a second term just six months ago. He won that election by more than 3 to 1 and he won his primary by 3 to 2.
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The ideological content of what he said was not insane.
 
autumn1971 said:
I’m amazed that I’m apparently the only person here to have gone to school in a Republican controlled school district.
Nothing except the knee to the nuts was even remotely remarkable. In my elementary school there was a Florida Teacher of the Year finalist who regularly paddled fifth grade students. In my middle school the Dean has a fraternity-style paddle that he would use. A parent had to sign a form to opt out of paddling.

In high school you could count on one or two teachers giving sermons in lieu of lessons a few times a year. Yes, they did mention sex/masturbation more than was comfortable.

30 years ago, but not different from the behavior being called a mental health crisis.
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The essence of mental illness is an inability to distinguish appropriate from inappropriate behavior, and part of that is the setting. What he said wasn't crazy. Saying it that way in that setting, was.

Paddling was pretty normal then, so I wouldn't call anyone who did it mentally ill. Now, schools have policies against that sort of thing, and if someone decided that the problem with kids these days was that corporal punishment had been outlawed and he, personally, was going to fix that problem, and he paddled a student against school policy, I would say he's nuts.

And probably perverted, too.
 
Meadmaker said:
The ideological content of what he said was not insane.
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Meadmaker said:
The essence of mental illness is an inability to distinguish appropriate from inappropriate behavior, and part of that is the setting. What he said wasn't crazy. Saying it that way in that setting, was.
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OK. So then it would have been appropriate in some other setting? A church? A lot of his people in Kansas want schools to be churches or more like them.
 
'Is it mental illness or are GOP actions just indistinguishable from mental illness?' should not be a weekly gameshow.

But...sounds like a good SNL skit.
 
Meadmaker said:
I wrote it before I saw the video clip, but I meant that he was literally insane.

Maybe insane is not the right word, just mentally ill.

I think he's bipolar, but I am not a shrink.

I did subsequently watch a couple of small video clips, and it is conceivable that something very, very weird was going on, in which students participated, but was not driven by mental illness. However, if I were a betting man, I would go with some mental illness being present. Literally.

ETA: But, what you and dudalb said. Whether he is mentally ill or not, he doesn't belong in a legislature or a classroom. I saw one clip of him on youtube talking calmly, but it still struck me as totally nuts. It was like a complete disassociation from what had happened, and some really delusional speech. I think he's nuts.
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Something "weird" is definitely going on but it's not that Samsel is insane because that requires Samsel having "mental illness of such a severe nature that (he) cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior" which is the medical definition of insanity. His claim that this was all "planned" and the kids were "in on it" sounds more like a cover, an excuse, for his behavior along the lines of Trump's "it was a joke" whenever one of his stupid, impulsive statements was mocked. But it, along with his FB posts, was still incoherent and rambling, albeit indicative of showing he knew he'd been caught doing something wrong.

Yes, I think he's "nuts", too. I think most of Trump's supporters are "nut". I think MTG is "nuts", too. But we're using that in its popular, everyday slang usage. We're not making a medical diagnosis... at least I'm certainly not. And if push comes to shove, on what exact evidence are you claiming he has "bipolar disorder"? I think you'd be hard pressed to deliver that evidence. On the other hand, giving detailed and numerous examples as evidence of Trump's Narcissistic Personality Disorder and sociopathic behavior...well...the cup runneth over for those.
 
Most of the local news I found is in the Kansas Star newspaper which is tightly paywalled. I was curious how this is playing in Kansas among Kansans. I especially wanted to quote the Speaker of the Kansas Senate, conservative Republican Ty Masterson. I finally found an article on a website called Good Word News. First what Samsel apparently told the students about Masterson.
“He called Senate Speaker Ty Masterson of Andover, Kansas. He is the devil in costume and smiling. And Christians follow him because they don’t realize he’s the devil, ”Samsel says in a video. “Is that funny? Yeah, excuse my tongue, f-king our state of Kansas right now and it causes kids to commit suicide and I have to attend their funeral knowing what’s going on. It’s no fun.“ Link to Good Word News
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Here's the response by Masterson (who says he can't remember ever engaging in conversation with Samsel).
“I have no response to what is clearly the deranged ranting of a troubled man,” Masterson said in a statement. “It’s obvious from the shocking videos that he shouldn’t be in a classroom or with kids.”
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Thankfully some people have no problem labeling Samsel just plain cuckoo. ;)
 
I don't think there's any doubt that Samsel needs professional mental health help. As with most elections, he was likely elected because people don't do due diligence and know that he is mentally unstable. Maybe this incident will expose this and he will be re-called or forced to resign. Then again, maybe not. Witness Trump supporters.
 
Stacyhs said:
Something "weird" is definitely going on but it's not that Samsel is insane because that requires Samsel having "mental illness of such a severe nature that (he) cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior" which is the medical definition of insanity. His claim that this was all "planned" and the kids were "in on it" sounds more like a cover, an excuse, for his behavior along the lines of Trump's "it was a joke" whenever one of his stupid, impulsive statements was mocked. But it, along with his FB posts, was still incoherent and rambling, albeit indicative of showing he knew he'd been caught doing something wrong.

Yes, I think he's "nuts", too. I think most of Trump's supporters are "nut". I think MTG is "nuts", too. But we're using that in its popular, everyday slang usage. We're not making a medical diagnosis... at least I'm certainly not. And if push comes to shove, on what exact evidence are you claiming he has "bipolar disorder"? I think you'd be hard pressed to deliver that evidence. On the other hand, giving detailed and numerous examples as evidence of Trump's Narcissistic Personality Disorder and sociopathic behavior...well...the cup runneth over for those.
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Well, I'm not a shrink, so my ability to diagnose is not to be taken as reliable. However, the exact thing that leads me to the diagnosis is apparent ranting and raving in one video, while being totally calm, cool, and collected in a different one while discussing the incident, but seeming totally disassociated from it. (He said that the big thing he did wrong during the incident was use the "f bomb".)

I think the kind of bizarre display from that classroom shows more than a little eccentricity.
 
tyr_13 said:
'Is it mental illness or are GOP actions just indistinguishable from mental illness?' should not be a weekly gameshow.

But...sounds like a good SNL skit.
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Having read the article a second time, I'm pretty well convinced that this guy is unwell and needs help. I'm initial thoughts were uncharitable. However, the fact that I expect this behavior from a Republican Evangelical says more about them than it does about me. Yes, on balance, this person was more irrational than what I hear from Trump loving Republicans, but not by much.
 
His statements in the classroom, on Facebook, and in the interview seem rather disconnected. He jumps from one thing to another.

He says it looked like a scary altercation because that was they way they made it look. He says the student's were in on this and that it went as planned.

My guess is that the class told him that this student was always disrupting the class and he told the class that if the student was disruptive while he was there he would give him a good scare to straighten him out. That would explain why the kids were laughing and nobody ran to get the principal and why he thinks he did nothing wrong.

It doesn't really explain why he was ranting about suicide and asking the class if they masturbate. Unless the plan was to act like a stark raving mad lunatic.

It certainly doesn't justify his actions. What really is scary is that he doesn't understand that what he did was wrong.
 
I think they were probably laughing because it was confusing and insane, and saying it went as planned makes him look even more delusional.
 
dirtywick said:
I think they were probably laughing because it was confusing and insane, and saying it went as planned makes him look even more delusional.
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It looks like that is at least what he is claiming. I just found this quote reported here:

https://lawandcrime.com/crazy/repub...religious-rant-check-his-nuts-for-him-please/

The GOP representative, first elected in 2019, claims the whole day was a performance art spectacle gone awry.

“Every little bit of it,” he said in a Snapchat post. “That’s right. The kids and I planned ALL this to SEND A MESSAGE about art, mental health, teenage suicide, how we treat our educators and one another. To who? Parents. And grandparents. And all of Wellsville.”
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I don't think he is lying. I think he probably told the class he was going to do something like this and maybe even told them it would be performance art.

I'm not sure what message he was sending, and I have a degree in art and have written in-depth analysis of really weird art. Unless his message is that he can convincingly portray a creepy, disturbing, bullying, child abusing psychopath. In that case, he relies to heavily on method acting by living the life of a creepy, disturbing, bullying, child abusing psychopath.
 
DevilsAdvocate said:
It looks like that is at least what he is claiming. I just found this quote reported here:

https://lawandcrime.com/crazy/repub...religious-rant-check-his-nuts-for-him-please/



I don't think he is lying. I think he probably told the class he was going to do something like this and maybe even told them it would be performance art.

I'm not sure what message he was sending, and I have a degree in art and have written in-depth analysis of really weird art. Unless his message is that he can convincingly portray a creepy, disturbing, bullying, child abusing psychopath. In that case, he relies to heavily on method acting by living the life of a creepy, disturbing, bullying, child abusing psychopath.
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He certainly sent a message about mental health. I'm not sure it was the one he intended to send.

And, if it turns out to be some sort of weird performance art thing......uhmm....ok.

I was puzzled by the student reaction. They mostly did not seem stressed, and they were laughing, so, who knows? I'm sure he can explain it to his lawyer as part of the prosecution proceedings, and if it's true, we can all have a good laugh at how well he fooled us into thinking he was mentally ill.
 
DevilsAdvocate said:
It looks like that is at least what he is claiming. I just found this quote reported here:

https://lawandcrime.com/crazy/repub...religious-rant-check-his-nuts-for-him-please/



I don't think he is lying. I think he probably told the class he was going to do something like this and maybe even told them it would be performance art.

I'm not sure what message he was sending, and I have a degree in art and have written in-depth analysis of really weird art. Unless his message is that he can convincingly portray a creepy, disturbing, bullying, child abusing psychopath. In that case, he relies to heavily on method acting by living the life of a creepy, disturbing, bullying, child abusing psychopath.
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Even if I thought this were true, and I don't, it shows extreme poor judgment.
 
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