'Stranger Things' star David Harbour: Blaming shootings on mental illness is 'cowardly'
"Stranger Things" star David Harbour is denouncing the scapegoating of people with mental illness.
President Donald Trump declared that "mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger – not the gun" Monday following mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
In response, Harbour shared his own experience with mental illness during a lengthy Twitter thread Thursday, saying, "I am a card carrying member."
"The 'mentally ill' (this arbitrary societally agreed upon cattle brand to differentiate 'us' from 'them' re: pain) are overwhelmingly SUBJECT to violence, not perpetrators," he began. "Those I’ve met in asylums are some of the kindest, lost people I’ve known."
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The ‘mentally ill’ (this arbitrary societally agreed upon cattle brand to differentiate ‘us’ from ‘them’ re: pain) are overwhelmingly SUBJECT to violence, not perpetrators. I am a card carrying member and those I’ve met in asylums are some of the kindest, lost people I’ve known.
— David Harbour (@DavidKHarbour) August 8, 2019
Harbour revealed in June 2018 that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 25 after being committed to a psychiatric hospital by his parents following a manic episode. He now takes medication, adding, "I've been medicated bipolar for a long time."
He added, "More often it is the societally sanctioned sane that are violent. Being lost and confused and cracking up amidst the overwhelming hypocrisy and apathy of a society who’s very earth crumbles and decays by their own indifference seems to me a very considered response to daily life."
Harbour slammed the damaging stigma of people with mental illness that is being promoted by the president and others, adding, "I tire of this archaic branding of a subset of the species altogether."
"In times of cultural strife to focus rage, hatred and deep uncertainty on a weak, already ashamed and outcast group seems, at best cowardly, and at worst calculated evil," he tweeted.
He continued: "When you brand us the cause of societal ills, I bristle. And I think of where the ‘sane’ have gotten us. And where the ‘sane’ continue to lead us."
It is an ‘ism’ like all others. ‘Sanism.’ And most days I deal with it with a certain duck-back-like-grace. But when you brand us the cause of societal ills, I bristle. And I think of where the ‘sane’ have gotten us. And where the ‘sane’ continue to lead us.
— David Harbour (@DavidKHarbour) August 8, 2019
Harbour is best known for his role as Jim Hopper in Netflix's "Stranger Things."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Stranger Things' star David Harbour: Blaming mental illness cowardly
