Ableism

[Hive King 2,001]

What are your thoughts on ableism? I'm not exactly sure what it is but right now, it sounds stupid. I saw someone getting pissed off because they were throwing around the word "insane" and that was ableist. This is odd because they were referring to the Joker  So the Joker's not insane?

 

Can someone explain what ableism is? Or is it really just people getting pissy?

[Blue Moon 6,341]

Apparently, it's discrimination against people with disabilities (I'm getting this from Wikipedia). If that is the true definition, then I'd say I don't agree with it. You shouldn't discriminate someone on something out of their control, or anything for that matter.

[Shanks 10,816]

I think you might be referring to Albeism which is discrimination against people who are physically, mentally or neurologically disabled.

[-Zephyr- 84]

Pretty bad if it's discrimination against disabled people 

[Scootalove 10,689]

Basically, it's discrimination against disabled people. I don't think it is right to discriminate someone who does not function like you do, it's just wrong.

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

I'm assuming tumblr caused this...

 

The issue here is that Tumblr has been severely over-reacting on what constitutes a  ableist insult. Really the only common things I can think that I would call that are:

 

Using Autism/Autistic as an insult

Maybe Retard or Retarded depending on the context(this is a really iffy one because unlike Autism, it's no longer used as a medical diagnoses which makes it a grey area). 

maybe Schizo.

 

But yeah, I would not count insane, crazy, stupid, idiot, dumb, dumbass, moron, nitwit, or anything of that nature for various reasons. Complaining about those is just abusing the "political correctness" card.  

 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2014 by Shoboni

[Ribbonfree 2,383]

It's not right to discriminate based on disability, and society is still in the midst of making sure those with physical or mental handicap have equal access to opportunity... But the term is also thrown around a lot when it really shouldn't be. It's something I've noticed a lot on Tumblr, calling out people as ableist when you don't have a legitimate medically diagnosed disability. So the problem with the term is the problem with a lot of terms on the internet. People using them in contexts they shouldn't.

[Hive King 2,001]

Thanks for the info and clarifying what real ableism is

I still don't really know why the word insane, when applied to the Joker, is discriminatory

Because this guy is clearly well adjusted...

[ghostfacekiller39 23,860]

Gah. 

 

Alright, allow me to begin by saying "Hey, goddammit, it doesn't matter who you are, we should all be given an equal opportunity until proven otherwise, and race, sex, religion, physical/mental disabilities and all that gnarly stuff isn't evidence enough to prove that those people shouldn't be given the same opportunity as everyone else." You know, that old stock saying with a lot of truth on it.

 

I don't see how throwing out the term "ableist" when someone is calling another person autistic or retarded or something of that nature can be wrong when speaking to the person throwing out that term, but context means everything with other terms implying disability. If you're using them with malicious intent, then I think you're being ableist due to the fact you're taking disabilities that are actual problems for other people and using them to put down another person. If you're just joshin' around, though, and some throws out "ABLEIST!" at you, than they're just either trolling or too thin-skinned to be worth holding a conversation with.

 

More or less, context means everything in this situation

(I don't hang around Tumblr, by the way, so I'm neutral on that...er, thing, I've seen brought up a few times above me )
 

[Eloquence 2,076]

Oh tumblr, tumblr tumblr tumblr. The Joker most certainly is mentally unsound, insane if you will. It's an important part of his character.

 

Like everyone else said, ablism is a really serious issue, and it makes me positively ill when words like autistic and "the R slur" (I shudder at the thought of even typing it) are used as insults, as one is a diagnosis and most certainly not a bad thing while the other was and is a word used to dehumanize the mentally handicapped, and holds the connotation that those with mental disabilities are beneath those who are "normal" (as they're called, even if a "normal mind" doesn't really exist). However, it also upsets me when some tumblr "warrior" makes a mockery of a worthy cause by using it to inflate their own ego by picking needless fights (which is what I assume prompted this thread in the first place). It's all just really sad...