‘Mental Health’ or ‘Evil’?
PJ Media,
by
Jack Kerwick
Original Article
Posted By: Hazymac,
12/28/2025 8:44:59 AM
With the arrest of Nick Reiner for the alleged murder of his parents, Rob Reiner and Michelle Singer, commentators have taken to simultaneously pitying the accused for his mental illness while condemning him for his evil actions.
This is logically contradictory.
On the one hand, if it is illness that explains why Nick Reiner committed a crime, then he cannot be held morally responsible for his actions. It is just to hold him morally responsible for his actions only if he could have chosen, on the basis of reasons, not impulses or compulsions, to have done other than what he allegedly did.
If, on the other hand, we insist
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
MissGrits 12/28/2025 9:56:33 AM (No. 2046244)
That would be ... uh, EVIL????
6 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 12/28/2025 10:20:11 AM (No. 2046258)
I'll have to reserve judgment until the kid explains what the argument with his parents was all about just before he killed them. Perhaps Nick wasn't paying his rent for that basement bedroom? Yeah, evil has a slight lead.
10 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 12/28/2025 10:48:27 AM (No. 2046281)
It's hard to know what to think in this situation. One would first think only mental illness would cause someone to knife their parents to death. Then again, there are those among us who are just feral and evil like the person who robs and kills a shop keeper or a member of a rival gang.
8 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
kono 12/28/2025 11:10:44 AM (No. 2046292)
The endless debate over the struggle of grace against nature, of reason against passion, of response against reaction, of morality against instinct. Should we fight wildness or surrender to it? Reason brings responsibility. But mercy brings redemption. Untangling that knot is about as simple as understanding the Trinity and the Paschal Mystery. The matter of good vs evil is neither simple nor easy; but that doesn't absolve us from actively engaging it in our hearts and minds.
7 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
AltaD 12/28/2025 11:41:28 AM (No. 2046305)
FTA: If, though, it was his mental illness that led him to (allegedly) murder his parents, then he should be pitied, sympathized with, and provided with the care
And if his mental illness is the result of a lifetime use of illegal drugs, drugs that he chose to start and continue to use, is society still to pity, sympathize and provide care for him? I know what my answer is, and it's not compassion for a killer.
10 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
earlybird 12/28/2025 12:18:45 PM (No. 2046317)
media gobbledygook even af PJM. His being a child who at age 8 disrupted a "family yoga class" was cited as an example of his mental illness when it was just Little Boy 101. This jokester family was so pop-psyched out that even this petty rebellion sent up alarm bells.
We are hearinhg nothing about the appointment of Reiner's elder daughter by Penny Marshall to be thweTrustee of the trust that managed Rob Reiner's wealth. That may not have gone down well...
8 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
earlybird 12/28/2025 12:26:23 PM (No. 2046321)
Re #6, the trustee appointment occurred at some time before the murders. The question would be when the other children knew about it.
6 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
earlybird 12/28/2025 12:30:22 PM (No. 2046324)
#6 should have said
this wokester family
3 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
doctorfixit 12/28/2025 1:34:13 PM (No. 2046366)
There needs to be a very high bar to qualify for a mental health excuse. After all, every psychopath predator can be considered mentally ill. Liberals have been pushing the mental illness excuse as well as the "broken home/ bad neighborhood" excuse forever, as part of their Chaos agenda. My approach is to permanently isolate and remove all psychopaths and sociopaths from society. First offense for burglary, armed robbery, breaking and entering, car theft and so on would be 20 years. No parole, no probation, no plea bargaining. We have simply got to get these predators out of our lives - permanently. There is no cure for them, there is no fixing them. We need to build 10X current prison capacity and if liberal judges balk then they need to be put away as well. .
10 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Catherine 12/28/2025 1:59:28 PM (No. 2046380)
He is mentally ill. Yeah, I said it. Lived with one for 19 years. You cannot fix them. If they are medicated, most choose to stop the meds because "I don't like how it makes me feel." We all have a temper. At times it gets out of hand. But I've never known anyone who was at a party where everyone suddenly wanted to call 911 and the host, Conan O'Brien, discouraged them. Then he later went on to kill his parents. He belongs in an institution til he dies. I have no sympathy for him and feel nothing but anger at Rob. He should have been more pro-active in getting his son treated. Not some rehab, a mental hospital.
10 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
gramma b 12/28/2025 3:38:36 PM (No. 2046422)
I'm not celebrating Reiner's -- or anyone's -- death. But I've thought for a long time that he was a nasty piece of work, and it appears he raised an even nastier one.
5 people like this.
It is not an either or situation. Demonic involvement can display both mental illness and evil acts.
5 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Venturer 12/28/2025 4:40:03 PM (No. 2046439)
I cannot think of anything good to say about Reiner. He was the living breathing example of a meathead.
1 person likes this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
anniebc 12/28/2025 8:19:04 PM (No. 2046472)
I vote for both.
0 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
udanja99 12/28/2025 9:13:10 PM (No. 2046480)
#10 nailed it. Rob blamed the rehab professionals for not fixing his son, but no rehab will work unless the addict makes the effort himself. 17 rehabs clearly indicate that Nick wasn’t doing the work needed to recover.
I write this as a recovering alcoholic with 38 years of sobriety, BTW.
7 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Californian 12/29/2025 5:43:22 AM (No. 2046517)
This one is easy.
Look at who his father was.
Obviously he is insane. Bad genes and bad parents.
0 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
mifla 12/29/2025 6:17:21 AM (No. 2046526)
Looks like mental illness to me. That being said, society needs to be protected from him.
2 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
homefry 12/29/2025 6:44:04 AM (No. 2046534)
Meathead raised him. He had meatheads genes. HOW could he have turned out any different?
0 people like this.
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