I've seen some people during this whole thing with Britney defend the conservatorship for that exact reason. Like, they'll claim that what she's going through is horrible but in the same breath claim that she needs the conservatorship because she's "mentally unwell" and if she goes off of it she'll make "bad decisions" or some other nonsense like that. As if being mentally ill or disabled in any way means that they are incapable of making decisions for themselves and gives permission to others to infantilize them and treat them like objects. And like, so what if she makes bad decisions? We all make bad decisions all the time, that doesn't mean we deserve to have our rights removed simply because we make mistakes or missteps. Britney hasn't really had a chance to live her life because people around her kept controlling every aspect of her life, and the moment she makes the smallest of mistakes people were hounding her left and right (she even said it herself, she was afraid of coming forward with all of this because she didn't think people would believe her, and that's just so sad).

It's both the lack of empathy and also the lack of educating oneself of what a conservatorship is supposed to be versus what people often abuse it for. And what Britney went through is unfortunately very common with conservatorships, and it's horrifying thinking about how easy it is to manipulate the system that already doesn't value mental health or people with disabilities in the first place.