Clearing out the bullshit
Enough of the euphemisms, and enough of the pretending that psychiatric illnesses and child abuse, that we know are those things, are somehow not those things.
Two topics below.
The ‘Autism’ Spectrum
This below is just one example from a prominent person. You can apply what I'm about to say to all the other examples you can think of.
Context for this image of a book cover. Rashida Tlaib, Democrat Rep. from Michigan, said this about her son’s book (yeah, right):
There has been a shocking, hysterical reaction against Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s factual, compassionate description of real autism. It’s ugly. It’s brutal. It’s suffering for the person and for his family. People are screaming in all-caps about how “mean” Kennedy is, and how he’s a “bigot” insulting “my autistic kid.”
Massachusetts shrew Elizabeth Warren called his remarks “dangerous and disgusting.”
In light of the recent hysteria over R. Kennedy's remarks on autism--normal, factual, plainly true remarks devoid of malice but full of good will--many people are asking:
"Do these hysterical, angry people protesting Kennedy actually want to avoid finding the cause of autism? Is it that they actually want there to be autism, and they're genuinely angry that someone is working to cure it?"
Yes. The answer is yes. Not an equivocal yes, not a subtle yes. A plain yes.
Yes, these people want “autism” to be real and uncured. But more, they want the perception of autism the way it helps their image as mothers to continue without question. Put another way, these women don’t have “autistic” children. They have children they’re abusing, and who are reacting to this abuse in the ways that normal creatures react to mistreatment. They’re acting out, they can’t control their emotions, and they’re developing lasting psychiatric trauma.
That’s what happens to abused children.
Tlaib above is the premiere example. Of what? Parental narcissism. The kind that uses either real, or confected "conditions" and "illnesses" in their children in order get sympathetic attention from the public.
Yes, they are threatened by the idea that a cure for autism might be found. But they're also threatened by what this kind of conversation is also doing: exposing the fact that their children, the ones that get them so much attention, are not, actually, suffering from a debilitating organic neurological problem. And if any of those children are so suffering, it is not from a condition that can sensibly be called “autism.”
They're afraid of being found out. Found out for exaggerating, or creating, an "illness" in their children in order to garner attention and social status for themselves as parents. They’re afraid that other people will begin to see that their kid’s “autism”—unnatural anxiety levels, tics, and on and on—are the result of their Cluster B parenting.
This is a very long way of reminding you of what this really is. As soon as I type this term out, many of you will immediately understand. Some of you will react badly with emotional shock, which indicates that part of you always knew this answer.
Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy.
Retards
Got your attention?
The word "retarded" was itself a euphemism. That is, it was a "good word." A "nice" word that camouflaged an unpleasant reality.
Do you understand that? Think it through again, and read it again, and actually think it through step by step (please).
Or, try this.
"Retarded" literally and only means, "delayed." There is NO moral judgment there. There is NO implication of "bad" or "shameful."
The word retarded is morally neutral. It means "delayed." That is why you can speak of the ignition in your car's engine as being "retarded." That means you delay the spark in each cycle of the engine.
Neutral. Simply means "delayed."
I'm repeating this in this way because it actually is necessary for people to see it over, and over, and over again before most people can "get" it. You have to break the emotion tied to the word "retarded" before people can start thinking, and stop feeling.
"Retarded" was the word they used to replace "moron" and "imbecile." Note also that those words are also not "bad" essentially. They're not. Is your mind blown yet? They're simply descriptions of a real, known state—intellectual disability.
Today, the people complaining about the word “retard” are the same type of people in the 1960s who screamed at everyone to ADOPT the word "retarded" to "stop the stigma."
Is this clear yet?
Let's go to the next level.
"Retarded," being a euphemism, was a lie. Yes. A lie.
My Aunt Connie, born with fetal alcohol syndrome in 1959, was labelled "mentally retarded." She never developed past the 5-year-old stage.
loved her dearly and miss her every day. Of anyone I would give everything I have for one more day with, it would be Aunt Connie.
Connie was retarded. Not "special." Not "special needs." Not "differently abled."
She was profoundly mentally retarded. What happened to her is something you would never wish on anyone, and that would send you into deep grief if she were your child.
I grew up with Connie as a playmate. When I became older, I helped care for her when needed, changing her pissed-in underwear, washing her face and chest after food got all over it.
She was absolutely, definitely, profoundly retarded. That was the word everyone used. That was the WORD YOU HAD TO USE TO BE A GOOD PERSON according the 1980s version of todays woke "disabled advocates" set.
But in reality, Connie was not "delayed." She was not "just slower." She was not going to "catch up."
"Retarded" implies that you're merely late, just a little bit slower, but that you'll get to the same finishing line. That is not true for almost all the people we called “retarded,” and whom we now call “special needs.”
Anyone losing their minds over “retard” should feel ridiculous.
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When I was little autistic kids were the ones who couldn't speak, needed 24/7 care, and bashed their heads on walls. Now they are 15 year old boys who build semiconductors in their spare time (between writing books) out of discarded toasters, because of "spectrum." Tlaib is using her "autistic" child to grab a hunk of oppression pie. Disgusting.
I grew up with an identical twin sister who began having epilepsy when we were about 7 years old. 7 years later my half-brother came along. His intellectual capacity stalled at the age of about 6, supposedly due to prolonged high fever from the measles at the age of 2. He was progressing normally until the fever, but after that his milestones were significantly delayed. Both of my siblings were victims of a devouring mother, who appeared to devote her life to them, but actually used them to cover her lack of self-esteem and personal drive. She robbed my twin of having a meaningful life with smothering over-protection and constantly warning her that she couldn't do things I did. My brother had it easier because of his perpetual immaturity and child-like intellect. I had it easiest of all because I was left alone to take care of my own needs, learn to be self-reliant and to take responsibility for myself.
Because my mother refused to make any advanced plans for the care of my sister and brother after her death I knew that their care would be my responsibility one day. To prepare myself, I took a job as a staff supervisor for a young 20 year old profoundly autistic woman who needed 24/7 care. She wasn't toilet trained. She was non-verbal. She needed constant prompting and help with dressing, bathing and toileting. In many respects she was like a pet. Mostly, this job helped me a little with navigating state services for the developmentally delayed.
My mother wasn't Munchausen by Proxy, but she severely limited both my siblings lives, and bequeathed a burden on me that I shouldn't have had to carry. I shouldered the burden, and after my mother's death I slowly began the process of undoing some of the damage my mother had done, but it wasn't easy.
Women who abuse their children out of a narcissistic and pathological need for attention, and to receive accolades of praise from the pathologically altruistic deserve a level of hell all their own, right along with the spineless men who allow them to do it.