If I want to describe my greys as being 'slightly autistic' I do so because it fits their bill perfectly (no pun intended) and I think no person with autism will be insulted by that, because well, they/we know what it is like and probably recognize it in the behaviour of the bird!
(Or is this about the old ' you can only joke with/about your own handicaps'? So only white-people are allowed to tell white-people-jokes anymore?)
As long as the quoted mental deviations from the norm are used correctly - I do not see the problem.
If we keep this up you cannot ask for help because your bird has seizures, because someone who suffers from epilepsie *might* read this and *may be* insulted ?
I do not advocate the use of mental illness to belittle or otherwise intentionally make someone feel bad, but as an accurate description of symptoms or a quick, shorthand way of describing a situation...why not?
(even though we curse freely with every known physical illnes ever invented as well as the mental ones in NL / its a cultural thing / so I may be a bit lax about it)
You coming here and demand we censure ourselves in *the* one thread where everyone can talk freely in their own words about what they experience and went through or are still dealing with makes me really angry, scared and a lot of other feelings that are not nice (will sort them later - because, yes autism is timeconsuming).
So thanks for ruining free speach and the feeling safe here! (but no thanks)
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Whooa..ok; I dont know if you meant this reply to be a parody of what an argument to what I said would be or not (there may be a language/cultural miscommunication?), but it comes off as pretty hostile.
I simply "asked" that psychological diagnosis/conditions not be used to describe animals, and I explained why can be considered insensitive, at best, to others.
I did not "demand" or "tell" anyone what to do, and I am sure that I did not "ruin free speach" [~sic], anywhere.
I think there is a basic misunderstanding that I see in your post and others', about the difference between having symptom/problem, and having an actual, diagnosed mental condition. I think most of us know that grief/mourning/depression can be observed in some animals, like birds or dogs, etc. Those are transitory emotions, though, just as they are when a human endures a death of a close one. They arent mental conditions that they are diagnosed as lifelong difficult issues.
A bird or dog could very well go through a trauma that conditions them negatively, and that looks like PTSD, or they might sustain a head injury that makes their disposition seem to change. But we dont know exactly what is going on, mentally with them,without physical data, because they cant communicate it.
Birds are complex, but to the best of my knowledge and scientific research, they do not have conditions such as autism, as you bring up, or bipolarism, or schizoid disorders, etc. Those are diagnoses reserved for humans, only. And only humans read this board. And some of them have these conditions, or have loved ones who are challenged with them.
Many more read this board than post on it. And while individual posters who may have some conditions are fine with it, and some of the silent ones looking in too, they do not make up the sum of people who have looked into this board, will look into this board, and who presently look into this board. I have to wonder, if they thought they were going to be aggressively attacked for saying that they didnt appreciate people using their mental diagnoses as humorous casual banter, why they would even want to post it , here. That is not being welcoming to people with ideas and experiences different from yours, in the least.
I happen to be a person who has people close to me who have children diagnosed with autism, as well as people dealing with mental conditions that are difficult to live with, and harmful on many levels.
The biggest harm to these people, though, isnt from the problem itself. No; as usual, it is with how other human beings decide to perceive those conditions. Through ignorance; yes. But most of the harmful attitudes come from people being willfully ignorant. By treating a mental condition as something to joke about, to strip it of its real definition, to use it as a punchline or as a way to condemn someone. Words actually mean things. No matter what intent is meant by the user, there are other people down the line who are affected by the causal, and careless, use of mental diagnoses.
You used an analogy of white people only being allowed to make jokes about white people. It wasnt a good analogy because we were talking about mental illness, and unless you meant to say that white people = mental illness, I dont know why you would use that as an example. But because you did, you also managed to give impression that you think it's permissible for white people to make jokes about people of color. I think you said you are Dutch? So, whether you yourself are white or not, you must realize that white people making fun of people of color has a context, correct?
So I really do not know what you are arguing for here. Is it for your right to free speech on the board? I dont make the rules here; and I cannot take them away,either. Are you arguing that the right of free speech come at the price of another person's dignity? Because the case can be made, that it is entirely that to which you propose, when you use a mental diagnosis of a child, for example, to make a quip-y comment about your bird's behavior. When another word, such as saying that it's repetitious, instead of "autistic," would serve as a better descriptor, and not put that child's parents through the additional indignity of having their kid's diagnosis batted about like it was nothing; that it was nothing more than an animal's quirk. Do you think that the emotional turmoil that that kid's parent's go through on a daily basis is so insignificant, that they should just laugh away at your usage of "autistic," because you deemed it so? Or that someone for example dealing with schizophrenia should not feel sick at hearing someone blithely joke about their bird's behavior, as if the symptoms that were racking them were something light that they could recognize in that bird, and so laugh along with the 'joke' of a diagnosis that is ripping their lives apart? I am sorry if I do not sympathize with your anger over the mere mention that it is insensitive to belittle other human beings because we dont care to examine our own behavior and how it can affect other people. Because it does, I am telling you from direct experience.
In my private life, in my home, with the people I love, I can swear like a sailor. I can put a compound sentence together that could make a pirate bush, I am sure. And the only people that hear it are those loved ones around me ,who know me intimately and know what my character is worth from experience.
The board may be full of friends, but there are many more people who do not post here, but that will just read it. What I was asking for, was not censure. It was for selfawareness and sensitivity. People dont say what I did because they want to censor. They want to appeal to a sense of fairness, as a call to treat others, who may not be like us, with basic human decency and dignity. If your first impulse, to a call to selfexamination in the name of treating your fellow human with dignity, is to cry out that you are being downtrodden upon and censored, then you really are showing that that you dont seem to care about anyone else outside of yourself.
This site prides itself on being inclusive and non-offensive, and I was *just* complimenting someone in PM about it; so its sort of disappointing that my post caused such a response.
Added: No one should have to have anyone jump down their throats, just for proposing something progressive on the board. If the bent is toward making ALL people feel welcome and respected, that should never be seen as a bad thing. Human progress, overall, might have setbacks from time to time. But it is, as history has shown, unstoppable. Short of humanity's annihilation, that is.
. She is fluent in English; Thadeous speaks Polish.
