Quote Originally Posted by bulldogtragic View Post
It's actually pretty poor for all those who do and will suffer from a degree of mental illness. Psychiatrists often use many situational and exposure therapies/techniques. Some people need to stay home, some maybe need to escape for a while surfing, having coffee out of the house or going back to work. What this comment does is cast doubt on sick folks and their treating doctors. So when Joe Bloggs is off on stress leave and a colleague sees Joe going to the footy on the weekend, the colleague can go back to work and say 'Joe isn't mentally unwell because I saw him at the footy' and 'Mentally unwell people are only legit if they stay home and hide in their cupboard'. Robbo legitimises this shit that many of us face day to day, and fuels the ignorant masses who have this bias.

I'm lucky (in a perverse sense) that I was retired with serious physical injury as well as PTSD. People understand physical injuries and have an immediate sense of support, while depression/PTSD etc is usually met with some level of ignorance and sometimes open scepticism about whether mental illness is real. It's a part of why blokes/coppers I once knew have killed themselves, and why coppers, emergency services and armed services personnel are killing themselves at an abhorrent rate. Robbo thinks he's having a dig at a bloke who re-tweeted him a while back, but with his microphone and reach he's strengthening poor cultures and poor values that treat mental illness suffers with such distain that they may not get the help they need, or feel the stigma even more. It doesn't do any good to think about the flow on consequences of what that means in human terms. An apology does nothing, the horse has bolted, ask Kathy Griffin being sacked from everyone today. It seems those employers have a higher standard than Robbo's employers.
Media standards could be debated endlessly, but it does seem that US standards are a lot higher - e.g I believe Eddie McGuire would've lost a similar position if based in the US for any number of his gaffes. Seems those standards drop alarmingly for higher office, but anyway...

I suspect many here will share my opinion on Robinson - he's a better writer than I could be, but I genuinely believe there's at least 5 or more posters on this site that would be better. Is it the emotive common man shtick that gets him a role on 360?

Should he be sacked? I wonder if it came up behind closed doors - my hope would be that this could lead to a greater understanding of the issues some (specifically footballers in this instance) face. I'm not one to want to give him credit, but he has seemed genuine in his remorse, and that's important to me at least. I understand if it's not to others.

I've suffered some anxiety issues over the past few years, and it is incredibly difficult to try and explain what's going on to anyone. Attitudes like the one Mark tweeted aren't helpful, but I'd like to think he's going to take the opportunity to try and learn and understand and maybe even help moving forward. I get the sense he wants to be that kind of person, but keeps tripping over himself (like the article about Erin Phillips and her partner at the AFLW B & F)