Ben Carson insults the mentally ill: If you disagree with me, you must be "schizophrenic"

For a retired neurosurgeon, Carson demonstrated very little understanding of diseases of the human brain

Published October 12, 2015 12:56PM (EDT)

  (Reuters/Steve Marcus)
(Reuters/Steve Marcus)

In a Gainesville, Georgia megachurch on Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson vowed that he would "go to war with the PC police" and return God to the forefront of American life, as "the founding documents" intended -- and that anyone who thought he should do differently is suffering from "schizophrenia," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Daniel Mallow reported.

Carson told the assembled faithful that "the pledge of allegiance to our flag says we are 'one nation, under God'; many courtrooms in the land on the wall it says ‘In God We Trust’; every coin in our pocket, every bill in our wallet says ‘In God We Trust.’" He neglected, conveniently, to note that the motto "In God We Trust" was adopted in 1956 as part of an anti-communist campaign to differentiate the United States from the ideologically secular Soviet Union.

"So if it’s in our founding documents, it’s in our pledges, in our courts and it’s on our money, but we’re not supposed to talk about it -- what in the world is that?" he asked. "In medicine it’s called schizophrenia -- and I, for one, am simply not willing to kick God to the curb."

For a retried neurosurgeon, Carson demonstrated a shocking unawareness of what schizophrenia is, unless he's claiming that "not talking about" the issues he considers important a serious mental disorder, as the symptoms of schizophrenia do not include refusing to cater to Ben Carson's ideological predilections.

His tenuous grasp on all things factual notwithstanding, Carson insisted that the America "is worth saving," which is why despite being so "blessed financially [he] could just sit back and relax," he chose to enter the partisan political fray. He explained that "America is worth saving, [and] if that means getting into a war with the PC police, I'm ready for that war."


By Scott Eric Kaufman

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