WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW?

author=Corfaisus
2. He has the authority because, despite his obvious shortcomings in proper face-to-face social interaction (who else could be this conceited without also being a shut-in?), he always has a thesaurus on hand to give him the edge over those who use more "everyday" speak. Also, there's abundant evidence to show that he's got to be trolling (the equivalent of a sentient tinderbox), which means he has every right to throw his weight around.

this was golden. Thanks for making my day. xD

^My dad's a diplomat. One of these days I'm going to use that line on him

author=mawk
and frankly, you guys, I'm disappointed that you decided to try and set me straight, instead of the guy hopping up and down and ranting about Gaza and how he's 'proven that government doesn't exist'.

Our good friend Pianotm has more credibility than you do, bub. Maybe you should get off your soapbox and actually read what he had to say without automatically jumping to the conclusion that it's in 100% contrast to your incredibly educated and infallible position.

Just saying.

You've repeatedly referred to mental illness in this discussion despite the fact that both learning disability and developmental disorder (things both often referred to as mental retardation by people who are probably pretty out of touch) are considered entirely separate entities to mental illness by every relevant entity. It casts more than a little shadow of doubt on your claim to authority on the subject, to be honest.

they're distinct, but occupy the same axis of oppression -- people who mistreat the mentally ill lump these diverse conditions and symptoms into one convenient pile. for the purposes of discussing how mainstream society abuses people with these conditions, they're effectively the same, because they're mistreated in much the same way.

this isn't about psychiatric definitions, and it's certainly not about the dictionary.

author=Yellow Magic
I don't get it: First you say that whether we had similar experiences doesn't matter because all other opinions regarding this matter besides the one you hold are wrong - and then you say we probably don't have these experiences otherwise we'd agree with your opinion?

what I said, if you'll listen, is that having these experiences isn't a get-out-of-jail-free card, and it doesn't make someone automatically right. if someone who's experienced this firsthand comes out on the side of people like jontron, that isn't the end of the discussion. some probably have, for their own reasons, and that's their business.

the reason I assume the rest of you (actually just LockeZ and pianotm) don't have this experience isn't that you disagree, but that I've had to explain and re-explain incredibly basic concepts. LockeZ literally thought that mental illness and being 'dumb' were the same thing, and that people should demean people for that because it's 'anti-intellectual' not to. when I have to constantly go back and reiterate 101 shit, it's a pretty good sign that the people demanding the explanations aren't as well-prepared as they should be.

author=Yellow Magic
I don't have an issue with the word itself - the problem is the assumption that all of us or what you deem a certain subset of humanity or something (you're being fairly unclear re: the subject of that paragraph I quoted earlier) acted/thought a certain way.

For the record, I don't think the word 'retard' should have been used at all and JonTron lacks a serious amount of, uh, emotional intelligence. I'm just not fond of generalisations of most types.

I really don't see why calling people 'nerds' is the thing you're fixating on here. there are a lot of rampant bad-faith argumental politics going on here, and it's just more convenient and descriptive to put it all under the tent of 'nerd shit'. if you think that sort of generalization is legitimately as harmful as calling people 'retards', I don't know what to tell you.

and yeah, thanks for bringing it back to the focus. comedians will slip up, and that's no big deal, but the important thing is to own your mistakes when they happen and make amends. it's very disappointing to see someone so convinced of their own moral objectivity that they'll even cite Gaza as a distraction and continue to belittle everyone affected by this for 'choosing to be offended'.

nobody's perfect, but the important thing is to be willing to learn.

e: NewBlack, I understand that it might be useful in some cases to get into more detail -- at the surface level, though, the 'retard' issue affects developmentally disabled people, mentally ill people, and others in roughly the same way. it's a slur that doesn't make distinctions, which is largely why I'm using umbrella terms. a more indepth discussion about the distinct flavours of the oppression differently-affected people face could be interesting, but I really don't think this is the place for it (and I'd need to prepare a lot more before I could argue that sort of thing with any sort of familiarity, too)

it's very true, though, that it's irresponsible to lump things together like this. I still feel like it's appropriate here as long as we're talking about something that functions regardless of those differences, but you're not wrong to be suspicious of it.

I've found that largely the main reason to be careful of my language here is that these discussions attract people who can't take me on normally, and will look for opportunities for pedantic callouts and long, drawn-out tangents instead. anything but discussing what's actually up.

(e: and because, looking back, I'm actually pretty unclear on certain points. guess it's easier to discuss this sort of thing when I'm actually readable, huh?)

still good advice, though. a lot of this happened late at night after I'd already resolved to go to sleep, and when that happens and I get my blood up, I leave a lot of openings.

I'll just blurb some phrase that may or may not apply to this situation as my contribution to this discussion.

"Never Assume, or you'll make an ass out of U and ME."

e