You Can’t Feed Into Mental Illness And Expect Stability | Episode 137 - The Brett Cooper Show

Summary

The Brett Cooper Show – Episode 137 “You Can’t Feed Into Mental Illness And Expect Stability”
February 18, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Brett Cooper unpacks the recent Rhode Island mass shooting committed by Robert Dorgan—a 58-year-old transgender man who killed his ex-wife, son, and wounded others at a family hockey game. Brett analyzes the event's aftermath, media coverage, and the political narratives it spawned. The episode grapples with deep social questions: Are shootings like these primarily political? How should society address mental illness? And is “affirmation” of identity always helpful, or can it sometimes feed instability?

Major Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Shooting: Facts and Family History

[00:00] Brett details the tragic incident: Robert Dorgan shot his ex-wife, one son, critically wounded three others, and ultimately killed himself at a hockey game.
Court documents show a long domestic dispute history coinciding with Dorgan’s gender transition around 2020.
Ex-wife’s divorce petition cited “gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic and personality disorder traits,” later changed to “irreconcilable differences.”
Brett emphasizes: “This entire thing was personal. This was not a political assassination. ... These types of family disputes are the most common type of mass shooting.” [01:55]

2. Media & Political Response

Brett criticizes immediate political reactions following mass shootings—both left and right seeking narratives that fit their causes.
- The left focuses on “racism, misogyny, or Trump,” while the right highlights “gender confused they/them.” [00:36]
This case sparked “two factions within the right” to clash over the shooter’s motives and affiliations, rather than the traditional left-vs-right discourse.

3. Shooter’s Mental Health Acknowledged by Family

The shooter’s daughter, interviewed by media, confirms his mental instability:
- "My father was the shooter…” Press: “Was there a family argument?”
- Daughter: “He has mental health issues...” [03:28]
- Later added, “he had been struggling ... for quite some time. He was very sick.”
- She viewed his gender identity issues as a symptom of deeper mental illness.

4. Media Censorship and Narrative Control

Brett accuses mainstream outlets (NYT, Bluesky, etc.) of sanitizing or ignoring the transgender aspect:
- New York Times avoided using “transgender” in their reporting:
  “The shooter was born in 1969 and went by two different names.” [08:27]
- Social media users noted posts referencing Dorgan’s transgender identity had few or no comments, suggesting “narrative protection or willful ignorance.”

5. Online Radicalization & Shooter’s Political Leanings

Dorgan left disturbing online comments the night before the shooting:
- “Keep bashing us but do not wonder why we go berserk.”
- “Don’t be so butthurt over someone different. Then wonder why trans people go effing berserk.” [09:30]
He presented as politically complex—transgender, but also pro-Trump, anti-communist, and vocal online.
Notably, he opposed medical transition for children:
- "Post op trans here, six kids, gotta leave the kids alone. It is a commie plot to divide and destroy the country."
- Brett comments: “Maybe we don’t just stop with kids, because you haven’t set a glowing example right now...” [13:56]

6. Debate on Mental Illness vs. Affirmation

Brett challenges the emerging line of social-media reasoning:
- Reddit users suggested society needs “more care, acceptance, tolerance, and inclusion” to prevent such violence.
- Brett: “Care and acceptance… is actually what got us here. Because all that care was fake to begin with. Real care does not involve affirming someone’s delusions…” [11:57]
- She stresses: “You cannot affirm severe mental illness … that is not productive, it is the opposite of healthy.”

7. Institutional Solutions & The Mental Health Crisis

Brett supports re-opening psychiatric institutions (with compassionate reforms), believing current systems leave both patients and families unprotected.
- “If a white guy named Robert … got sent to an asylum instead of having his delusions affirmed, his wife and daughter would still be alive.” (originally quoted from Greg Price, endorsed by Brett) [13:24]

8. Broader Takeaways

Brett warns against finger-pointing solely at politics, guns, or “one side.”
Mass violence, she argues, often boils down to “chronically online, angry, politically engaged, mentally ill” individuals whose issues are compounded, not solved, by digital affirmation and society’s current approaches to mental illness.

9. Final Thoughts on Public Health

Brett concludes the real public health crisis is mental illness, exacerbated by a lack of robust support and the tendency to “affirm” rather than treat.
“Affirming that illness, regardless of what kind of illness it is, only makes it worse. So that is the public health crisis. It's not the guns, obviously.” [16:55]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“I am just tired of the finger pointing because obviously this issue is so much deeper than politics.” – Brett Cooper [00:41]
“This was not a political assassination… these types of family disputes are the most common type of mass shooting.” – Brett Cooper [01:55]
On NYT coverage: “I'm sorry, New York Times, this is not a ‘Charlie but went by Chuck’ situation. His name was Robert, but in recent years, he had gone by Roberta.” – Brett Cooper [08:35]
Highlighting mental illness, not identity: “I think that his gender identity issues are a symptom of a deeper issue.” – Shooter’s daughter [03:43]
On affirming delusions: “Care does not involve egging people on as they start to believe that everyone is out to get them, that their human rights are being stripped away. All of that is toxic empathy, and I want none of it.” – Brett Cooper [12:02]
Supporting reform of institutions: “We do need to figure out how we compassionately protect … because right now our system does none of that.” – Brett Cooper [13:37]
Summing up the problem: “Maybe it isn't the commentator, maybe it's the vulnerable American populace. Maybe it's the Internet at large and what it's doing to our brains. Maybe it's our mental health crisis.” – Brett Cooper [15:05]

Important Timestamps

00:00–04:00 — Overview of the shooting, family background, court documents.
04:00–05:00 — Shooter’s daughter’s confirmation of mental illness.
08:27–09:30 — Media’s avoidance of transgender aspect, social media censorship claims.
09:30–12:05 — Radicalization, shooter’s online comments, critique on social media responses.
12:05–13:37 — Problems with affirmation strategy, Brett’s case for institutional reform.
13:37–16:55 — Shooter’s political complexity, right-wing discourse, and mental health as public health crisis.

Episode Tone & Style

Brett Cooper’s tone is direct, impassioned, and often critical—especially toward media narratives, performative empathy, and both left/right political responses. She weaves statistics, direct quotes, and personal experience into her argument that mental illness—not politics or identity alone—is the root issue to address for public safety.

This summary recaps the substance and style of the episode, providing context and insight for those who have not listened.

Transcript

Brett Cooper (0:00)

Two days ago, a 58 year old man named Robert Dorgan shot and killed his ex wife and their son while attending their other son's hockey game. He also shot and wounded three other people, including his ex wife's parents and one of her mother's friends. And as of the time I'm recording this episode on Tuesday afternoon, all three are still in critical condition. And as normally happens after any kind of high profile shooting, the Internet and the media jumped into action dissecting every single part of the of the story. But what's interesting to me about the discourse going on right now is that anytime there is a mass shooting like this, the left and the right launch out. You guys know what I'm talking about. They're looking for a way to make it political. They're hoping or often assuming that the shooter is on the other team. And then they use that information as, you know, political fodder. The left runs with it. If it is a straight white man, they say that it is racism, that it is misogyny, especially if he likes Trump. Oh my God, then that's even worse. The right jumps into action if it is a gender confused they them these days, usually the latter. Just saying. But that's what happens every single time. But right now with this shooting, even though this is happening a little bit, there is something a little more niche going on because the shooter is so complex. And so instead of just seeing the left versus the right, we are actually seeing two factions within the right duke it out. And honestly at this point I am just tired of the finger pointing because obviously this issue is so much deeper than politics. Okay, so from where I am sitting personally, I see no debate over this man's motivation. This man went to a hockey game where his entire family was going to be. He intentionally killed his, his family members. And court documents that we all now are seeing show a long history of domestic disputes within this family, starting around the time that he transitioned back in 2020, because yes, this is another trans shooter. Now one article says that Dorgan went to the North Providence Police Department, this all happened in Rhode island and reported that he had recently undergone gender reassignment surgery and that his father in law wanted him out of their North Providence home because of it. So there's an issue there with the in laws. And then the article goes on to say that around the same time his then wife Rhonda, who is the woman who was shot and killed, filed for divorce under grounds for divorce. Rhonda initially wrote quote, gender reassignment surgery narcissistic and personality disorder traits. Those reasons were then crossed out and replaced with irreconcilable differences which have caused the immediate breakdown of this marriage. And yeah, I would say that your husband transitioning is irreconcilable differences. So I understand her there. Now, that divorce was finalized in June of 2021, according to court documents. So what I'm trying to get at here is that this entire thing was personal. This was not a political assassination. This was not just somebody open firing in a movie theater or a direct and clear targets. And tragically, if you guys did not know this, but these types of family disputes are the most common type of mass shooting. One article talking about this reads that between 2014 and 2019, 68.2% of mass shootings included the perpetrator killing at least one family member or having a history of domestic violence. And also on top of that, nearly half of female homicide victims are killed by a current or former romantic partner. So obviously, Dorgan's ex wife, Rhonda is now in that category. So again, this is not inherently political, but because it's the Internet, in 2026, it is going to become political. Now. Soon after the shooting, as she was leaving the local police department, the press caught Dorgan's daughter and asked her a few questions. They just stuck a microphone in her face. And she also confirmed that he was mentally ill. Just watch. My father was a shooter. What happened? Shot my family and he's dead. What was the reasoning? Was there a family argument?