— Justin Boatner
During the Nuremberg trials following World War II, a psychologist tasked with monitoring the mental state of top German officials made a chilling observation: It is the “perfectly sane” people we should be worried about.
That statement holds a heavy truth that society still refuses to look at.
To be “perfectly sane” in the eyes of the law and medicine simply means someone has passed the standard evaluations. They are determined to be mentally stable and competent. This is exactly where the danger lies.
Society has a habit of looking at people with:
…and automatically labeling them as “unstable.” The societal norm assumes that these individuals are a risk or lack the capacity to lead. But this norm fails to look internally at the “perfectly sane” who cause irreparable damage every day.
There is a massive irony in how we view disability. While society pins “instability” on us, many neurodivergent individuals—particularly those on the autism spectrum—operate with a high-intensity, logical firepower.
We often cut through social biases, status, and “nuance” to reach a basic, calculated logic.
Consider this analogy: A bus is barreling down a path and cannot stop. In its way is a high-ranking elected official. If the bus swerves to save the official, it crashes, killing everyone on board. If it stays the course, it saves the many but kills the one.
The fact that the “perfect” psychological profile produces more hesitation and bias should tell us everything we need to know about who we should actually trust in positions of power.
Why is this a critical matter? Because when a “perfectly sane” person commits a horrible act, it is seen as an individual choice. They have the privilege of being “competent enough” to avoid systemic changes.
But if a person with a disability commits a mistake or a harmful act, it is pinned against the disability itself. Lawmakers use those actions to restrict our rights, limit our autonomy, and keep us out of high positions. We are told we don’t know what we’re doing. We are told we are too unstable to lead.
We have to have this discussion because the “perfectly sane” have the ultimate cover. They can do immense damage—far more than those with disabilities—while maintaining the excuse of “competence.”
It is time to stop pinning actions to a diagnosis and start looking at the damage caused by those who fit perfectly into a world that is, itself, far from sane
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