>But that's fine. And OF COURSE we don't know an official
>diagnosis unless he or his family tell us but do you need to
>be in the room when Rape Kelly pees on a girl or do you follow
>alllll the breadcrumbs laid out over the years to know he's a
>predator?

OK - but wait ... couldn't someone like yourself step in and say, "hey, come on, show some empathy, R Kelly clearly has mental issues that need to be dealt with, look at all the evidence over the years" ?! Just because HE never had a full on nervous breakdown or face his demons like Kanye did two years ago doesn't mean that *his* behavior can't be the result of mental issues, too. Right ?


>AND... him being ____ has been a part of the narrative for a
>long while now... particularly since he had that breakdown 2
>years ago.

Huh ? I thought you were saying the narrative HAS changed on him ? In which case you're kind of arguing against yourself here.


>IT WAS GENERALLY ACCEPTED/TALKED ABOUT/UNDERSTOOD that he has
>mental health issues because the clues were there. The
>cognitive dissonance on this is weird. Actually it's not. I
>take that back. I get how hard it is to make this type of
>behavior make sense. But what I'd like to have happen is for
>people to see past their anger and outrage over his despicable
>behavior and show some compassion for what I -- and I'd wager
>a gang of folks in this very post (though most won't admit it
>for their pearl clutching) -- believe is a pretty sick man.
>
>My only motivation is to advocate for better understanding of,
>and empathy for people with, mental illness.

I'm with you on that mission. Again, my wife suffers from mental illness and has since she was a child. So I've seen it firsthand, attended therapy, read about it endlessly. I'll still never understand it fully. Don't think any of us will. I share that mission and motivation with you.

But I'm *not* willing to use that mission to excuse inexcusable behavior that has massive negative implications for others, even if I find it sad that it's happening and that people have enabled folks like Kanye. It is sad. But like ... Trump is mentally ill too, isn't he ? Not diagnosed that we know of, but similar to Kanye he's shown PLENTY of evidence over the years, so should we show *him* endless compassion too ? Or can we be outraged and call him an asshole, because he is an asshole, with or without mental illness ? How much weight do you put on mental illness before you can be outraged ? Where do we draw the line ?

In the case of Kanye I agree that he’s exhibited poor behavior previously and showed signs of some kind of illness. He was simultaneously being an asshole and I think that was well established at the time. The perfect example being the Taylor Swift situation. Clearly his illness would make him think that behavior is OK. It was also kind of an asshole thing to do. But the collateral damage was minimal so most of us were able to kinda look past it like “oh that’s just Kanye”. Now, as you said, his behavior may effect others. Why can’t people be outraged ? When *can* we be ? Like at what point in the Kanye to Trump chasm are we allowed to trade our compassion for outrage ??