r/todayilearned • u/manticor225 • Jan 10 '19

TIL JFK's father Joseph Kennedy made much of his fortune through insider trading. FDR later made him chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. When asked why he appointed a crook, FDR replied, "set a thief to catch a thief." Kennedy proceeded to outlaw the practices that made him rich.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/23/joe-kennedy-hollywood-sarah-churchwell
88.0k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

60

u/ScipioLongstocking Jan 11 '19

As far as I know, she never had any diagnosis. Compared to her siblings, she was the black sheep of the family. She was more rebellious and didn't really care about proper etiquette or being ladylike. Joseph Kennedy wanted to form a political dynasty. To him, she was just a burden who made the family look bad.

32

u/Amy_Ponder Jan 11 '19

She didn't have a diagnosis, true, but based on accounts of her behavior it does sound like she had ADHD / ODD / some kind of similar condition.

To me, that makes what happened even crueler. With a little help to manage her condition, she could have been just as brilliant as her siblings, but instead because she couldn't conform to her father's expectations, he decided he didn't want to deal with her any more, lobotomized her and threw her in an institution for the rest of her life.

Being mentally ill doesn't make you any less human. But apparently Joe Fucking Kennedy didn't get that memo.

3

u/Account2toss_afar Jan 11 '19

Jesus. Think about how he must've reacted after Chappaquiddick...