Jewish space lasers, Part II

Mental health screenings should be mandatory to hold public office

When I wrote Jewish space lasers, Part I, a reader correctly pointed out that Marjorie Taylor Greene didn’t explicitly blame literal Jewish space lasers for the California wildfires in 2018. Here is some clarifying information.

What's True

In a now-deleted Facebook post, Greene suggested laser beams from space may have started the 2018 California wildfires, and that among the entities behind this conspiracy were former California Gov. Jerry Brown, Pacific Gas & Electric, and Rothschild Inc., an investment firm frequently targeted by anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.

What's False

Greene did not explicitly state that “Jewish space lasers” caused the fires.

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Greene and space lasers are interesting and make for a catchy headline. That isn’t the point of this essay series. The point of writing this series is to advocate for mental health screenings as a requirement for public office.

All three government branches must implement mandatory mental health screening for political candidates by a professional psychologist panel.

Mental health evaluations are required to serve in law enforcement. They are required to serve in all branches of the military. These screenings are a requirement because both professions exercise power over the public. Politicians exercise power over the public too — nearly unlimited power.

“The Legislative Branch encompasses both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Together, they hold the power to declare war, pass bills into law, change existing laws, and collect taxes to provide for the nation’s budget. Also, each possesses extensive powers to conduct investigations on any matter they deem necessary.”

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It makes little sense to require screenings for those individuals who have some power over the course of the lives of others while not requiring the same screenings for those who have massive power over the entire population of a nation.

The legislative branch passes laws that directly impact the lives of everyone in the United States of America. Those laws also affect the rest of the world’s population since the United States has the most powerful military, a huge economic footprint, and is the wealthiest nation.

The judicial and executive branches likewise wield power over the fate of the future of not only the residents of the USA but, less directly, the rest of the species. Why is there no mental health screening process before beginning a political position?

Psychiatric screening isn’t a way for one person in authority to reject or accept someone who wants power. It is a diagnostic tool. That tool is designed to assess certain traits, including impulse control, intelligence, judgment, honesty, integrity, biases, stress tolerance, and dependability. The list goes on, but you get the general idea. With some degree of accuracy, psychiatric screening determines how a person is likely to react to being embued with power over others. Psychiatric screening by law enforcement and military agencies eliminates 15-20% of candidates from the selection process. Imagine how the world would be a better place if the Donald Trumps of the world were rejected for holding political power at the beginning of the process.

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters."

Donald J. Trump 23/1/16

“The mental health of politicians has received some scrutiny, albeit usually limited to historical case studies or analyses ‘at a distance’ (see Freeman, 1991). Some of this is due to their own reticence to disclose such matters, but where empirical research with politicians has been possible, it has shown they are just as likely as other occupations to report symptoms of stress and to react negatively to events beyond their own control by showing increased psychological strain (Weinberg, 2015).”

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Eliminating the bad apples before they ever appear on the ballot would vastly improve our culture and the social apparatus that makes up a huge chunk of how we experience our lives.

In the next part of this essay series, I will be addressing the psychology of what makes a person want to hold office and how holding office tends to affect people.

Thank you to all who read and support my work.

1. Did Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Say' Jewish Space Lasers' Caused California Wildfires? | Snopes.com

2. Military and Police Require Mental Health Screening, So Why Not Politicians?

3. The mental health of politicians