Actually, there are states where the mental health law is such that they cannot legally release you to a homeless shelter if you're homeless (or become homeless while put in the ER/on a psych ward on a temporary hold, such as someone getting kicked out from their living situation while in the hospital) and then they have to legally keep you there until some sort of living situation is found for you, such as a group home or a psychiatric nursing home. It doesn't mean that the person who's in the hospital long-term deserves or needs to be there, it means that housing for disabled people sucks and laws that supposedly protect people are actually hurting them, because it's been my experience and that of others that it would have been safer to be on the street than be in the hospital and get abused by staff and other patients (which happens more than is reported).
There are also people who are being inappropriately medicated and overmedicated for reporting things about their "weird" beliefs to their doctors/therapists; I was one of them, and I've known others.
So while we don't have the snakepits of the 50s, it's wildly inaccurate to say "nobody ever gets abused by the system anymore in America". It really depends on where you live, and your socioeconomic background (poor people are treated badly by the system, generally). Autistic people are still often victimized by the psychiatric system for being obviously different; see blogs by people like Amanda Baggs and other autistic rights activists. Just because these cases are a minority doesn't mean they don't exist. And a lot of people who do experience abuse, misdiagnosis, inappropriate medication, etc, actually don't talk about their experiences because they've been shamed due to the stigma of mental health in this society, or they're not believed because of this "that never happens anymore" attitude, and so on.
I definitely do share your concern about people feeling the need to act super-normal and "sane" to justify being otherkin, because that is problematic, but just saying that nobody ever gets abused by psychiatry and everyone is treated wonderfully is... really not the most helpful thing, either.
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There are also people who are being inappropriately medicated and overmedicated for reporting things about their "weird" beliefs to their doctors/therapists; I was one of them, and I've known others.
So while we don't have the snakepits of the 50s, it's wildly inaccurate to say "nobody ever gets abused by the system anymore in America". It really depends on where you live, and your socioeconomic background (poor people are treated badly by the system, generally). Autistic people are still often victimized by the psychiatric system for being obviously different; see blogs by people like Amanda Baggs and other autistic rights activists. Just because these cases are a minority doesn't mean they don't exist. And a lot of people who do experience abuse, misdiagnosis, inappropriate medication, etc, actually don't talk about their experiences because they've been shamed due to the stigma of mental health in this society, or they're not believed because of this "that never happens anymore" attitude, and so on.
I definitely do share your concern about people feeling the need to act super-normal and "sane" to justify being otherkin, because that is problematic, but just saying that nobody ever gets abused by psychiatry and everyone is treated wonderfully is... really not the most helpful thing, either.