5 ms·

Have you read about Typhoid Mary? She went from rich house to rich house killing the inhabitants over and over, even after being shown it was her doing it, wit

Have you read about Typhoid Mary? She went from rich house to rich house killing the inhabitants over and over, even after being shown it was her doing it, with government threats. She didn't keep doing it because she was mentally ill, she kept doing it because her livelihood has cooking for rich people. She would have to give up her lifestyle if she admitted she was killing people. Her motives were largely economic, not mental illness. There are MANY reasons people do dumb crap.

elif 4y ago
USD acquisition hyper-primacy is just another form of mental illness.. it is just a socially accepted and ubiquitous one.
- ranger_danger 4y ago
  what?
crazygringo 4y ago
There are historians who disagree with you. The idea of an asymtopmatic carrier was not well understood at the time, and she had tests done that came back negative for typhoid. There's a good argument to be made that she genuinely believed she'd been singled out as some kind of anti-Irish conspiracy, that the authorities pinning the infections on her were scapegoating her based on totally hypothetical science. (That today we know the science was sound, but at the time her distrust of it may not have been unreasonable.) So the idea that Typhoid Mary knew exactly what she was doing and did it anyways, makes for a great movie villain, but not necessarily real life. For more details: [1] https://allthatsinteresting.com/typhoid-mary https://allthatsinteresting.com/typhoid-mary
- dTal 4y ago
  Both things can be true. Mary's receptiveness to the idea that she could possibly be an asymptomatic carrier could hardly have been separated from the fact that this would be deeply inconvenient to her. Given the choice between two unlikely explanations (asymptomatic carrier of typhoid, grand "anti-Irish" conspiracy targeting her and her alone for unknown reasons), she chose to believe the one that disrupted her life less. "It is difficult to get a man [sic] to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" --Upton Sinclair
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - olliej 4y ago
    “Inconvenient to her” is an interesting way of describing “destitute and homeless”. Her only source of income was cooking and house care. The state said “you cannot do this”, but also did not provide her with any alternative. Noting of course that putting a contagious typhoid carrier into the homeless community would like exacerbate any spread of disease, the only “safe” option given all of that is suicide, which doesn’t seem particularly just. I want to be clear: knowing she was causing death means she was clearly not in the right, but saying she kept on working because it was inconvenient is a gross misrepresentation.
    - dTal 4y ago
      Hey now, I said "deeply inconvenient"! (There's really no need to nitpick my choice of words here. Your observations are quite valid and strengthen the point I was making. "Inconvenient" does not imply "trivial".)
      - olliej 4y ago
        ah fair enough - I guess my interpretation was biased from other comments making her out to be the villain. So apologies for that.
- jquery 4y ago
  On the contrary, this makes her an even more interesting villain. Even villains don’t usually think of *themselves* as villains.
- Sakos 4y ago
  > There's a good argument to be made that she genuinely believed she'd been singled out as some kind of anti-Irish conspiracy Why is this in any way acceptable?
hgsgm 4y ago
Is it dumb to preserve one's own life? Those rich people could have paid her to quarantine, but they preferred to be rich rather than alive. Mary preferred being alive over starving. Who was doing dumb stuff? Not Mary.
olliej 4y ago
“Give up her livelihood” is a fairly gentle way to put “become homeless and destitute”. There’s a huge chasm between “self isolate with government support so you don’t become homeless while being treated” and “you are no longer permitted to do any of the jobs you are allowed or able to do, you must isolate from everyone, I hope you’re independently wealthy”

elif 4y ago

USD acquisition hyper-primacy is just another form of mental illness.. it is just a socially accepted and ubiquitous one.

ranger_danger 4y ago
what?

crazygringo 4y ago

There are historians who disagree with you. The idea of an asymtopmatic carrier was not well understood at the time, and she had tests done that came back negative for typhoid. There's a good argument to be made that she genuinely believed she'd been singled out as some kind of anti-Irish conspiracy, that the authorities pinning the infections on her were scapegoating her based on totally hypothetical science. (That today we know the science was sound, but at the time her distrust of it may not have been unreasonable.) So the idea that Typhoid Mary knew exactly what she was doing and did it anyways, makes for a great movie villain, but not necessarily real life. For more details: [1] https://allthatsinteresting.com/typhoid-mary https://allthatsinteresting.com/typhoid-mary

dTal 4y ago
Both things can be true. Mary's receptiveness to the idea that she could possibly be an asymptomatic carrier could hardly have been separated from the fact that this would be deeply inconvenient to her. Given the choice between two unlikely explanations (asymptomatic carrier of typhoid, grand "anti-Irish" conspiracy targeting her and her alone for unknown reasons), she chose to believe the one that disrupted her life less. "It is difficult to get a man [sic] to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" --Upton Sinclair
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- olliej 4y ago
  “Inconvenient to her” is an interesting way of describing “destitute and homeless”. Her only source of income was cooking and house care. The state said “you cannot do this”, but also did not provide her with any alternative. Noting of course that putting a contagious typhoid carrier into the homeless community would like exacerbate any spread of disease, the only “safe” option given all of that is suicide, which doesn’t seem particularly just. I want to be clear: knowing she was causing death means she was clearly not in the right, but saying she kept on working because it was inconvenient is a gross misrepresentation.
  - dTal 4y ago
    Hey now, I said "deeply inconvenient"! (There's really no need to nitpick my choice of words here. Your observations are quite valid and strengthen the point I was making. "Inconvenient" does not imply "trivial".)
    - olliej 4y ago
      ah fair enough - I guess my interpretation was biased from other comments making her out to be the villain. So apologies for that.
jquery 4y ago
On the contrary, this makes her an even more interesting villain. Even villains don’t usually think of *themselves* as villains.
Sakos 4y ago
> There's a good argument to be made that she genuinely believed she'd been singled out as some kind of anti-Irish conspiracy Why is this in any way acceptable?

hgsgm 4y ago

Is it dumb to preserve one's own life? Those rich people could have paid her to quarantine, but they preferred to be rich rather than alive. Mary preferred being alive over starving. Who was doing dumb stuff? Not Mary.

olliej 4y ago

“Give up her livelihood” is a fairly gentle way to put “become homeless and destitute”. There’s a huge chasm between “self isolate with government support so you don’t become homeless while being treated” and “you are no longer permitted to do any of the jobs you are allowed or able to do, you must isolate from everyone, I hope you’re independently wealthy”