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On people's approval of a Stuffington Post article that uses slurs against people with behavioral health challenges:
MY point is that words like "unhinged" and "crazies," by so called "progressive" writers, are no less evil than racial epithets. If he'd called someone a darky, you think he'd be writing for the Stuffing...ton post? I don't. But an epithet against a person with a disabiity is just fine and dandy, as long as that person has a behavioral health challenge! Why not just call us demon possessed and be honest about the prejudice, condescension and smug superiority, anyway? It's backward, dismissive, hurtful to people who are being stigmatized and nearly powerless to do anything about it (and when we do, get ignored, shrugged off or LAUGHED AT for defending our civil rights) and it sure as shit ain't progressive!
On people's approval of a Stuffington Post article that uses slurs against people with behavioral health challenges:
MY point is that words like "unhinged" and "crazies," by so called "progressive" writers, are no less evil than racial epithets. If he'd called someone a darky, you think he'd be writing for the Stuffing...ton post? I don't. But an epithet against a person with a disabiity is just fine and dandy, as long as that person has a behavioral health challenge! Why not just call us demon possessed and be honest about the prejudice, condescension and smug superiority, anyway? It's backward, dismissive, hurtful to people who are being stigmatized and nearly powerless to do anything about it (and when we do, get ignored, shrugged off or LAUGHED AT for defending our civil rights) and it sure as shit ain't progressive!
It's called Hansen's Disease, Mary Ann. And you're right about the stigma (which is why ppl with Hansen's hate the word, "leper.") but there's a deeper irony here: you people don't want us around because you don't want to face the fact that... your own, dysfunctional society is making YOU sick, too. A lot of us "crazies" are just very sensitive to how TOTALLY toxic and stressed out society is! We're the canaries in the coal mine: you're going to get sick, too. And you're SO AFRAID you'll get treated the way WE've been treated, if you admit you're human, you shun us and HATE us! THAT is the bottom line: there, but for the grace of whatever coping mechanisms or addictions you use to make it through the day, go YOU.
AND EVERY TIME some ASS HAT with a gun does something like this, you temporarily able minded armchair shrinks pontificate and diagnose and ASSUME all of US are dangerous!
Hell, WE are a LOT more afraid of YOU than you need to be of us! And with VERY GOOD REASON! You can get us locked up, fired, evicted, drugged, restrained and electroshocked! And shot by a damn cop just for having slurred speech or a distinctive walk! And the DRUGS??? The DRUGS are KILLING US!
If a South African Black points out to a South African white, under apartheid, how privileged that white person is, how ignorant they are of the sufferings of Black people and how easy it is to ignore Black people, that Black person is also told he or she is being "judgmental" and not showing compassion to the white.
It is YOUR world, not mine. I don't get any say in how things run, because I'm crazy, so what I say doesn't matter, anyway. If I take personal responsibility for my life and health, I'm being "uppity" and think I'm smarter than the doctors (which I actually am, in the case of MY needs and MY body, because I'm not a statistic, I'm a person), if I try to participate in "progressive" causes, I get suspicious glances or patronizing attitudes, or diagnosed or shunned, because they're ashamed of me. They're actually ashamed of how small-minded they really are when they are exposed to real difference and are ashamed at how little they actually know about "reasonable accommodation" per the Americans with Disabilities Act, and their own, cherished bumper sticker slogans about tolerance.
I have to try to stay alive in a society that hates, fears and ridicules me, all across the board, and still try to contribute positively to my community, so I have a reason to get up in the morning, and some sort of self worth and dignity.
And then, someone calls people like me "unhinged, crazies, loonies, nut jobs . . ." We've all been damned by people who cause wars, drug children with lethal chemicals, mutilate their bodies, beat their family members, take us to war, bankrupt the economy. We roam the streets, eating out of trash cans or, like me, live without heat, running water and sewage (and it'll be well below freezing tonight). We're damned because we don't look nice or smell good, but can't bathe. We're damned because it takes too much patience to listen when we try to speak.
It's not my world. I am just forced to live in it while constantly under threat of abuse. I'm just telling you what it's like to live here.
AND EVERY TIME some ASS HAT with a gun does something like this, you temporarily able minded armchair shrinks pontificate and diagnose and ASSUME all of US are dangerous!
Hell, WE are a LOT more afraid of YOU than you need to be of us! And with VERY GOOD REASON! You can get us locked up, fired, evicted, drugged, restrained and electroshocked! And shot by a damn cop just for having slurred speech or a distinctive walk! And the DRUGS??? The DRUGS are KILLING US!
If a South African Black points out to a South African white, under apartheid, how privileged that white person is, how ignorant they are of the sufferings of Black people and how easy it is to ignore Black people, that Black person is also told he or she is being "judgmental" and not showing compassion to the white.
It is YOUR world, not mine. I don't get any say in how things run, because I'm crazy, so what I say doesn't matter, anyway. If I take personal responsibility for my life and health, I'm being "uppity" and think I'm smarter than the doctors (which I actually am, in the case of MY needs and MY body, because I'm not a statistic, I'm a person), if I try to participate in "progressive" causes, I get suspicious glances or patronizing attitudes, or diagnosed or shunned, because they're ashamed of me. They're actually ashamed of how small-minded they really are when they are exposed to real difference and are ashamed at how little they actually know about "reasonable accommodation" per the Americans with Disabilities Act, and their own, cherished bumper sticker slogans about tolerance.
I have to try to stay alive in a society that hates, fears and ridicules me, all across the board, and still try to contribute positively to my community, so I have a reason to get up in the morning, and some sort of self worth and dignity.
And then, someone calls people like me "unhinged, crazies, loonies, nut jobs . . ." We've all been damned by people who cause wars, drug children with lethal chemicals, mutilate their bodies, beat their family members, take us to war, bankrupt the economy. We roam the streets, eating out of trash cans or, like me, live without heat, running water and sewage (and it'll be well below freezing tonight). We're damned because we don't look nice or smell good, but can't bathe. We're damned because it takes too much patience to listen when we try to speak.
It's not my world. I am just forced to live in it while constantly under threat of abuse. I'm just telling you what it's like to live here.
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