Interestingly, the idea that a sane person who criticizes government officials should be put in a mental hospital has been expressed in a book called "The Soviet Art of Brainwashing" in the 1950's. Admittedly, the book is fake and was not written by actual communists, but it contains some chilling ideas about institutionalizing people who criticize what are called "psychopolitical operatives" ie communist insiders:
Should anyone attempt to expose psychotherapy as a psychopolitical activity, the best defense is calling into question the sanity of the attacker... The next best defense is the actual removal of the attacker by giving him treatment sufficient to bring about a period of insanity for the duration of the trial.What is scary is that officials can force a sane person in a psyche ward to take drugs that make him crazy, in an attempt to justify the initial detainment therein. Hopefully the FBI didn't hurt Raub by means of electro shock therapy and like while he was in there.
If a person is legitimately crazy to begin with, and is doing obscene things in public or actually threatening people, then committing him seems like the right thing to do for his protection and that of others. For example, if a deranged homeless man is defecating in public or harassing people and has a history of doing so, then a mental hospital seems like a necessary remedy.
But if someone merely has bad taste in politics or music and isn't crazy, he should not be institutionalized. Although many of us may bemoan his bad taste, people need to be free to make mistakes. Sometimes a person's involvement in politics can eventually lead to the acquisition of better, more sophisticated beliefs. Today's conspiracy theorist may evolve into tomorrow's political theorist.
Also, sometimes conspiracy theorists, because of their intense scrutiny of those in power, actually have better overall political inclinations than many non-conspiracy people and are less likely to be bamboozled by politicians. This is because they tend to apply a higher standard of honesty to politicians and others in power. Thus, sometimes mistaken beliefs or those based on conjecture can have good side-effects.
People like Cass Sunstein, Obama's Regulatory Czar, advocate government intervention to stop people from believing what he calls "false conspiracy theories". This makes one wonder whether the FBI targeted Brandon Raub according to such reasoning, since many people randomly quote violent rap lyrics but only a conspiracy theorist was arrested for doing so. Was the detainment of Raub an attempt to associate craziness with conspiracy beliefs? In any case, people should only be committed for legitimate craziness and not aberrant political beliefs or conspiracies.
