Claudius murdered Hamlet's father. Hamlet believed that Claudius murdered his father. I know scholars argue about whether Hamlet is crazy or sane -- whether his beliefs are delusional or not. I'm not concerned with Hamlet's sanity.
Claudius acts as if he were a guilty man. My conclusion about Claudius is based on the behavior of Claudius. I prefer not to see Hamlet's sanity as dependent on the correctness of his representations about reality. He probably qualifies as delusional -- after all, he talks to the ghost of his father.
Over the years people have gotten caught up in whether I am sane or crazy, as if that somehow affirms or disconfirms the correctness of my representations about our friends. That is a misadventure. I am probably crazy; in fact, for legal reasons I have to say I am crazy.
Independent of my mental status, our friends are crooked. They are a pack of racketeers. Your own conclusions should be based on an assessment of their behavior. The criminality of our friends is a fact that exists independent of my representations about them. Leave my sanity out of it!
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