Is something Ablest or are you Indirectly Policing Somebody’s Emotions?
Finally a Hot Take that pretends to be a handy guide that goes over how some of these terms have valid scenarios to be used in. Even though, they do get misused quite often. Do not try to act like the Internet does not have a long history of misusing terminology when making your point
CW: You’ve read the title, and the blurb. Don’t pretend like you aren’t prepared for this to be a wild ride of me getting so much shit wrong regarding marginalised groups of people. Yes, that includes me casually refrancing Aum Shinrikyo at a point in this Spicy Hot Take
The term Troll, for a wonderful example, no longer even has any kind of proper meaning due to how often it has been completely misused and misapplied. Often not to refer to a good way. I’m going to use a picture of old troll dolls to act as a thumbnail, so that people know just how good of a hot take this piece is doomed to be
Autistic Screeching is Valid
“No, seriously, that person making the high pitched mostly only audible to dogs noise is the one reacting to the scenario correctly. Why aren’t the rest of you screeching? What is wrong with YOU?!?!” — Myself, after I did something hilarious, and people started making fun of somebody give a level headed proper response to the act I just performed
I’ve found one of the biggest factors with calling shit out as being Ablest, is it usually involves pointing out emotional reactions from various groups of people
— OR —
Rather, it involves pointing at people making FUN of emotional reactions from various groups of people
So, some of you may not be aware, autistic screeching is a response often associated to people on the Autism Spectrum. It is often done in response to something that I, myself, will more often than not find completely hilarious — on account of myself being kind of an awful dreadful person
Often, it is just referred to as “Screeching” with the notion the person making the response has issues reading situations, nonverbal cues and body language being an implied addition to the matters at hand
I cannot act like giving a confused and irritated screeching noise is NOT a valid reaction to many of the things I have personally unleashed into the world. I can, however, notice that the fact it is a response that contains emotion to it, is an element of part of where people seem to be focusing on it being bad
A fair amount of society views being detached and nonreactive to stuff as an ideal position to hold onto. Those same people will often talk crap about people who don’t fit into their idealised cookie cutter molds — and often insist this means they MUST be fitting into some other cookie cutter mold that is undesirable and awful
In the case of people getting upset at the term “Screeching” — is mostly a misunderstanding of why that being used in an insulting manner is a bad thing. It isn’t bad because it is associated with a marginalised group known for being less fun at parties than myself — it is bad because it is shutting down an entirely valid emotional response to something I’ve done that gets me kicked out of parties for being a bit too fun. You know… dial back on the fun a little bit. Be fun responsibly
Functionality and Mental Health Disorders
“Look, we aren’t so different you and I. We are practically the same. Sure, I might have caused a huge genocide and ruled my domain with an iron clawed mandible. You regularly run over people’s feet with a shopping cart. Can you really say we are so different? It is practically like looking into a mirror, right now” — Insert Dark Lord’s Name Later
Another different element of fuss that is going around is how ablest the notion of acknowledging how functional people with a few disorders really are. Now, I’m all aboard the notion that Capitalism forces us all to have our self worth be tied to how good we are at making our overlords really really rich — while telling lies to ourselves that maybe we will be one of the overlords one day. However… some people are a bit less functional than others with their health
Now, usually I would point out some analogy regarding Marathons, but I’ve opted to talk about my dreams and nightmares. This is why I put the section about why Screeching is a valid reaction to various scenarios prior to this section
I typically don’t think of my nightmares as having started until the age of eight. When the Duck With Human Teeth started showing up in my dreams. The Duck With Human Teeth was horrifying as he murdered large scores of people with death traps rigged up using an elaborate series and sets of pulleys and levers. You see, the Duck being already terrifying via being a Duck — had opted to go even worse, and kill large amounts of people with Death Traps
Now, the question is, “how the heck did a Duck, much less one with Human Teeth, rig up a spiked pit, a trebuchet, collapsing wall, etc. while being a Duck?”
Well, clearly the Duck employed Levers and Pulleys — and possibly the odd inclined plane — to help set up and create these traps. Using the powers of Levers and Pulleys to add to what he could do as a Duck
The worst part was anytime I tried to tell people who was doing it, they’d laugh at me and claim, “Ducks don’t have teeth, much less human ones” — and ignore my warnings
I tried to tell them it was simply “the duck with teeth” and that only resulted in people locating ducks with serrated teeth and lamprey mouths and killing them. Doing nothing to stop the actions of the Duck With Human Teeth
Before then, I just had the normal dreams of child kidnappers, setting up traps to steal children and sell them to people running warehouses where rich weirdos go into to touch children’s privates
You see, gasoline and candy costs money — and if somebody is driving around neighbourhoods during the day, they are kind of not able to be at a job during normal work hours. So they need to get money from somewhere to afford gas and candy to lure the children into their car
The child catchers in my dreams I had prior to claiming the nightmares begun would instead set up death traps. Well… more like “Mostly Death” Traps. You see, the really good children would be the ones the traps didn’t kill. That way they could make certain they only deliver the top children to those seedy warehouses for rich weirdos to go and touch children. The dead kids were the ones that weren’t quite as good, and thus not worth locking in dirty warehouses
Most of the time I would die in the death traps. Sometimes I would survive them, and be surrounded by dead children — some of which were my own dead body — in a rather large Bird Cage looking structure — before being shipped off to a warehouse with mattresses on the floor, and shower curtains dividing various areas
It took me a few years to realise, what I described as “dreams before the nightmares started” were, in fact, their own set of nightmares
Eventually the Duck With Human Teeth was replaced with an oddly polite ancient evil skeleton who was feeding on the souls of everybody I’ve ever known or cared about. One that would spend most of his time thanking me for releasing him into the world and giving him the opportunity to feed upon the essences of everybody I cared about — and how grateful he was to drain the personality from those people — and that he could only do it, because of my wonderful assistance in allowing him into this world
This was eventually replaced with dreams where I was the person behind the nuclear holocaust that wiped out nearly all of humanity, with humanity living in small camp settlements. The younger people didn’t know who I am… but past a certain age, they all knew it was me who destroyed the world
I was just wanting to fix the problems in the world. I had created a wonderful new solution that would supply energy, food and resources to everybody. Nobody would go hungry. The world could blossum into a golden era of grand human development
I just had forgotten to carry the one… well, it was more I dropped a tan equivalent from the calculation somewhere — which at the point of work I was doing was pretty much the same as forgetting to carry a one
Also, turns out the energy source was an hyperdimensional sentient living creature that got somewhat upset at me siphoning off of it, and rolled over to stop that from happening — causing untold destruction from it just mildly shifting position due to being made itchy
Then there are the dreams where I meet some awesome and wonderful people who only exist in the dream — and I must make an effort to never wake up. As that would kill these awesome people, and the blood of their deaths would be on my own hands
Now… with all these nightmares described — is it possible to suggest that there are different levels of fucked up nightmares? Hell, if I were to have a visit from the Duck With Human Teeth in one of my dreams today, it would feel oddly pleasant and somewhat nostalgic
Having a mental illness is kind of in the same territory with its different levels of functionality
Now we could argue which of my nightmares are the least horrifying. Personally I am partial for the era that had the Sky still existing in my dreams, prior to it having been torn away. Leading to anti-aircraft weaponry being required for anywhere that intends to continue to have life live any amount of time. That anything above a certain altitude must be shot down, it is the only way to be safe and sure
That being said, they are all nightmares — even if for a while I just considered the child catching dreams of my childhood to be “normal dreams prior to getting nightmares”. Yes, saying some are less terrifying is a valid statement. This does not make any of them no longer nightmares
Mental Illness is like that. Yes, it is still a Mental Illness, even if it isn’t as bad as somebody else’s Mental Illness. A broken arm is still a broken bone, even when another person has a broken femur or a broken collar bone. Yes, a broken arm isn’t as bad as a broken femur or broken collar bone… it still is a broken bone
This is where it can kind of seem that trying to flag against different functionality levels of mental health disorders might just be policing people’s emotional states
Is it okay to claim that somebody with a higher functioning mental health disorder isn’t as allowed to talk about it as somebody with less functioning mental health? Or that they are to be bared from being treated as though they have mental health because somebody else is worse?
Well… is it okay to suggest somebody with a broken arm isn’t allowed to be upset about their arm being broken, if somebody else has a broken collar bone?
The answer is no… broken arms still suck, even if you are sitting next to somebody with a broken collar. Both are bad. One is less bad — but it is not a fun thing to have to deal with, for the person who has it
Foolish Fools saying I cannot use the term Retard
“whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire” — Matthew 5:22
So, yes, there has been an effort to tie being a Foolish Fool with mental health disorders. It is fucking retarded, really
So, a lot of people think the 70s invented calling people stupid — as that is when psychology coined the term “Mentally Retarded” as a replacement term for Idiot, Moron and Stupid. Mostly because people were using Idiot, Moron and Stupid incorrectly, and it was interfering with medical studies
With Moron indicating somebody is just above a vegetable for IQ, with Idiot being between Stupid and Moron… and Stupid being a term for below average intellect
Now, I know my stance that “trying to apply Dragon Ball Z style power levels to abilities regarding thinking is not a system that works” is a stance that is held in high controversy to many. Though even then, most of those people will not disagree that applying the different Power Levels to “Mentally Retarded” with names of Moron, Idiot and Stupid is not a solid premise to work with
Since the 70s, Psychology realised that we do not have a firm grip on what “intellect” actually is, and how one would effectively measure such a matter, and the notion of “Diagnosed with being Retarded” is usually a good way to know that somebody claiming to be a Doctor is actually a quack, and you need to get out of there before you get unalived. Like… unalived harshly and stuff
The “Medical Terms” of Stupid, Idiot and Moron were derived due to the Eugenics Crowd and the Religious Crowd having issues getting along, as calling people a “fool” was against the Religious Crowd’s policies
Oh, ever wonder why calling people “fools” is used to code somebody as a dastardly cur? It is because of a Bible passage that is typically interpreted to suggest “God is against saying somebody is a fool”
The Difference of Ignorance and Stupidity
Now, where I use the term Retard, Foolish Fool, Stupid, Idiot, Moron, et al. is one related to Hubris and Oversight
It comes to me being at an inpressionable young age, and people started using “ignorant” as another euphemism for “FOOLISH FOOL!” — and me eventually getting informed that “ignorant” just means you do not know and have not been given a chance to know
With that statement being followed up with “stupid, however, is when you do know better, and do it anyways” — usually with an allusion of physical harm occurring to the person who is in the logical set of “stupid people”
Retard is, without a doubt, an euphemism for “FOOLISH FOOL” — and yeah, it is stuck in my mind map as a foil point to somebody who is merely ignorant
Yes… Retard has been applied to people with mental health stuff — mostly by people who are either ignorant or retarded themselves
I don’t view people with Mental Health Disorders as being Retarded. They have a Mental Health Disorder
It is like saying somebody with a form of Colour Blindness has “terrible taste in fashion and home decor” — no, they are fine, they just cannot see a colour or two
You can have terrible taste in fashion and home decor and not be Colour Blind
It is kind of he same with Mental Health Disorders… sure, they might seem like they are Retarded… but they just cannot see a colour, except instead of “not see a colour” a chemical isn’t produced in their brain right, some neurons misfire or several other different elements that are involved with that stuff
You have to NOT have a related Mental Health Disorder for Retard to apply
It is kind of like talking shit about somebody with no leg’s ability to walk quickly — or commenting on a speech impediment towards the linguistic capacity of somebody missing their jaw
I mean, yes, there is a eugenics connection to this term — but there is also a eugenics connection to somebody losing their Jaw in their thirties. Yes… Eugenics people tried to determine a genetic connection to losing limbs at a later age — and they published studies to make themselves feel Special and Valid
Pointing out a Eugenics Connection is not really a good way to discourage anything — as EVERYTHING in today’s world has a Eugenics Connection. You need somebody MORE than simply “what everything has to it” to determine issues
Still calling somebody retarded for painting grass Red on their train models, when they have an issue seeing certain shades of colour is a bit harsh. Calling somebody a retard for assuming the blue paint would be a fine colour for a model of feudal Japan when they lack a proper colour and they are somebody who has researched Japan… is fine. Dude… retarded move there, bro. Yes, Blue is a happy colour — that is part of why what you did was fucking stupid
I mean, sure, call me ablest if you wish — but these are my views on the matter, and I will just think of you as somebody who polices the emotions of others around you
Yes, some people are more functional than others
Yes, some disabilities are more debilitating than others
Yes, screeching is a valid response to some things. The issue isn’t being aware that people will screech… the issue is getting upset that people are acting like those people are invalid for said screeching
One day, the term “retards” will be viewed in the same old timey charm as FOOLISH FOOLS! Because, well, Idiot, Stupid and Moron are already there. Heck, it is only a matter of time before “Special” gets to that old timey word for FOOLISH FOOL as well… because it isn’t about mental health
More often than not… it is about figuring out how to deal with a group of people policing valid emotional responses to stuff — and mistaking what the actual issue happening stands to be