Fundraiser to send Sworebytheprecious to Detroit to report on you-know-what

Whoot! Thanks, pallygirl! Links bookmarked!

Too true about the medical diagnosis business. Even for someone recent, changes in diagnosis and knowledge over the intervening years shows up. F’rex, it was standard, and still is, to say Prince Albert died of typhoid. Typhoid was much-diagnosed then, and even though his symptoms as described don’t match it at all well, nobody’s any better off with ideas now. I’ve seen everything from stomach ulcers to cancer suggested as the cause. Ditto (even more so) for anyone further back: Louis’s described as having intestinal/pulmonary TB, or ulcerative colitis, or Crohn’s disease. (Charming thing about having a Freudian picking at your personality: you almost get blamed for physical illnesses. Ulcerative colitis is all from being stuck in the anal stage, dontchaknow.)

Echoing the grrrrring here!

Yes, big grrr.

And many thanks for the links pallygirl (should it be a purrrr, to counterbalance the grrrr?)

It especially annoys me when someone gives a “diagnosis” of a historical figure (based on whatever) and then interprets everything they did or might have thought as if that diagnosis explains their behaviour. Perfectly circular logic.

A few years ago I read something which explained Henry VIII’s increasingly autocratic behaviour as he aged in the light of him being malnourished, a diagnosis apparently picked because it seems like the least likely thing anyone would have thought of.

Then again, there’s sometimes contemporary reference to a symptom which was not viewed as such at the time and which was recorded without being understood, and that can be a bit more persuasive. George III’s purple pee makes it seem at least possible he did have porphyria – however, *at least possible* is about as strong as it gets.

Until I get my time machine, my cloak of invisibility and my babel fish – oh, and my degree in medicine – and can go an check.

I’m glad everybody posted all the pitfalls with armchair psychology (especially self-diagnosis; claiming to have a genuine mental disorder to feel special is grossly insensitive). These are all major issues in casual discussions of mental disorders, which is why this topic has to be handled really carefully. Also, as a correction, I should have said “high-procedure”, “high-math”, or “high-routine” instead of “high-logic”. The idea that everything including social interactions can be broken down to a flow chart is a hurdle many on the spectrum have to overcome, especially if they have mind-blindness.

I’m not saying we should apply labels to any group or frame their hatred around a psychological disorder. What I’m thinking about is how hate groups in general exploit vulnerable, fed up people through circular ideologies that absolve them of personal responsibility and pin the blame for all life’s problems on a designated group. Understanding how they target and cater those ideas to people on the autism spectrum as well as the early warning signs somebody might be be receptive to general conspiracy theorist thinking could be used to protect vulnerable people from these groups.

I’m not saying we should apply labels to any group or frame their hatred around a psychological disorder. What I’m thinking about is how hate groups in general exploit vulnerable, fed up people through circular ideologies that absolve them of personal responsibility and pin the blame for all life’s problems on a designated group.

You should have stopped there. Hate groups focus on people who are disaffected for whatever reason. You don’t have to be mentally ill or neuroatypical to be taken in by scapegoating mentality.

Understanding how they target and cater those ideas to people on the autism spectrum as well as the early warning signs somebody might be be receptive to general conspiracy theorist thinking could be used to protect vulnerable people from these groups.

There’s zero evidence that there’s a higher proportion of people with autism in the MRM than in the general population. It isn’t appropriate to diagnose internet commenters with autism. There’s no evidence that people with autism are more likely to hate other demographic groups. At least not that I’m aware of. Unless you have some credible evidence to back your theory up please stop.

One thing about Alex’s original comment comment that’s TRUFAX though — can we not perpetuate the bull about people who don’t look you in the eyes being untrustworthy? Yeah, MRAs aren’t, for a shit ton of reasons, but plenty of decent people have issues with looking people in the eyes.

I’m touchy on that one since I get it, I’ve never worked out how much eye contact is appropriate to avoid both “untrustworthy” and “creepy”…I tend to err on the side of the former since I don’t want to be creepy, but yeah, THAT one bit of Alex’s comment is worth its salt.

@Argenti I’m glad you did mention the eye thing – I was going to on friday and then was away from electricity for much of the weekend. I also have a problem with figuring out eye contact, so I avoid it a lot. It makes people think I’m a snob, but I prefer that to panicking over whether or not I’ve stared too long.

Sorry to hear about your fish, I hate animals dying. Which is why I’m an ovo-lacto-vegetarian.

With what I’ve been reading about dairy cows, I now feel very guilty about dairy.

Thanks pallygirl. And yeah, the thing about movie crews is classist, even at the lowest levels of theatre the actors seem to forget they need to techs (we had a saying “without us you’d be naked on a bare dark stage and nobody would be able to hear you”)

RE: pallygirl

Try not to feel guilty. If you can, it’s possible to get dairy from places that are nice to their animals! (I worked on an organic dairy farm for a bit, and it gave me a great respect for the common cow. As far as I could tell, the farmer took good care of them, gave them plenty of space and dietary variety.)

I don’t like killing animals for meat, but unfortunately I’ve found that if I don’t eat meat, I get sick eventually. (And no, it’s not a lack of protein, I’m on a strict meal plan; it’s very specifically MEAT that I seem to need.)

There’ll probably be a thread on this later, but Swore has a new vid up about how Dean Esmay lost his shit after she got press credentials, and he’s seemingly convinced that her sole purpose in going to the conference is to help DAVID FUTRELLE make avfm look bad. He’s really got a persecution complex about you, Dave. He throws the word “sadistic” around a lot. Also there seems to be very little communication between avfm representatives, as JB demanded a press pass and then DE wanted to shut her out on the grounds she had one. Ummm, what?

So basically, so far as I can figure out, unless Swore comes out of this with a glowing testimonial to the amazing transformative power of avfm and their fantastic work *coughcough* they’re already poisoning the well so they can claim she’s just another back-stabbing bitch out to double-cross them after they so magnanimously let her into their He-Man Woman-Haters Clubhouse.

(Also getting REALLY FUCKING SICK of hearing male survivors of rape and domestic violence trotted out as human shields every time MRAs are criticised. “You can’t say bad things about us because if you do YOU DON’T CARE”. Such a bullshit derail it doesn’t even deserve refuting, but hearing it from Esmay instead of seeing it in text was especially vile.)