Forty-two percent of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers said that former President Trumpās recent remarks about immigrants āpoisoning the bloodā of the country makes them more likely to support himā¦
Thatās cool; Iāll just ramble at you awhile. : ) I really want to say some things that I didnāt say in the thread.
To anyone reading this, there was a comment more or less assigning negative things to āall mental illness and bigotsā. The author edited the comment after push back, but I didnāt think that was really sufficient. In this essayā¦ (not memeing, gere we go)
What I wanted:
I donāt have a copy of what was said. Itās gone and I should be happy. BUT, Iām not. I want some acknowledgement that it is understood why that wording was awful and some assurance that attention will paid in the future. Iām basically describing an apology. Itās not, apologies have an acceptance stage that Iām willing to skip. I do not think itās reasonable to hope all those with a mental illness accept the apology.
I did not explicitly ask for what I wanted. Honestly saying my piece and getting silence was expected.
What I got:
Despite editing my comment to reflect fair points, I do believe mental illness absolutely needs to be discussed more.
Ok, but you did not discuss it. You made a sweeping statement. It was worthless at best. Not a discussion. Why even say this to me.
The post continues by adding extraneous groups to the discussion. So now we have bigots, trumpers, the mentally ill, people exposed to lead, drug addicts, people with genetic conditions.
Now, I have no idea what to expect. I made a fuss about making sweeping statements about general groups, and now we have more people to vilify. I genuinely cannot tell if they simply not reading what I said, or are they listing people to line up against a wall? Only the author knows. I strongly suspected itās the former. I still do, but less so.
But I did get confirmation, that no, they do not see my point. They do not realize how easily they are vilifying those with mental illness. Hereās what was said:
the fact remains that there is a deeper issue of mental illness that resides within the Republican ranks.
Is it wrong for a group to have a high concentration of people with mental disorders? I donāt think so. In fact, do you know what group has quite a high percentage? Therapy groups. Are they evil? What is that quote saying about Republicans that canāt logically similarly apply to therapy groups?
My Goal:
The real issue here that I did not realize how subtly I was referring to a rhetorical trick that was at the root of my complaint. Itās very similar to the motte-and-bailey fallacy. Say a hate preacher wants to convince their flock that gays are evil. (Iām going to switch to saying āhomosexualsā because thatās how you are likely to hear this in the wild.) So instead, he just decries horrible acts of molesters. But the preacher never simply says āchild molestersā; they sub in the phrase āhomosexuals and child molestersā. That way, the audience will connect them. They wonāt realize it, but their brain will wire a connection anyway.
This is the language I was fighting. My goal was to get this person to see that they were (unwittingly?) committing this rhetorical trick. I heard complaints that should be made of bigots instead made of āmental illness and bigotsā. Donāt lump innocent motte in with a horrible bailey.
It is pretty likely that the author didnāt read my post. It seems they picked words to respond to instead of any ideas. Like I wasnāt really talking about guns or gay rights, but those words are kicked off the typing. The gun tangent was understandable, but I said nothing about homosexuality per se, and they say
There is nothing explicitly wrong with being homoexual.
Which again, true and ick. I tried to stick an implied parenthetical āor implicitly eitherā in there to kinda fix the ick, but what does it mean for something to be implicitly wrong? But I knew better than to bring this up. Not the fight to have.
The Conclusion:
I simply wanted them to avow or disavow the paraphased comment: āIt is nice that I can now identify all mental illness and bigotsā. I expected them to see vilification now. And I think they did. In fact, they added some more calling them āpeople who proudly broadcast their own ignorance and lack of appeal to reason and moral standardsā.
So I guess that is where they are comfortable leaving it. I really think there is something about the mental illness label that makes them afraid of people. Itās sad.
But who knows. They claim they āwrote very, very clearly: Trump supportersā when I asked what group they were talking about. Obviously, they didnāt mean people with mental illness, but again, they did bring up bigots, trumpers, the mentally ill, people exposed to lead, drug addicts, people with genetic conditions. So writing isnāt their strong suit. You did not āwriteā that. It was not clear. It was not very clear. And it surely wasnāt very, very clear. But keep writing āveryā in there. I might be fooled that it was clear eventually. Maybe they genuinely donāt see my point. But I doubt it. There is clear resentment of the mentally ill.
I can see your point, and for my part understand your grievance, however I think you are asking too much and expect to much. This is a stranger on the Internet talking to a stranger on the Internet exactly like you and I. You have absolutely no reason to care about my opinion about this, and likely wonāt.
I want you to know I understand, I really do and I would have the same type of reaction on other days. For some reason my wound isnāt so raw today. I hated seeing that statement it was painful, just like when someone in my family uses the r word at me. I donāt know if maybe the fight in me has just started to die on this one.
I am autistic and homosexual with a list of mental health conditions that come from a lifetime of masking both of them plus trauma and som other shit, wanting dignity is exhausting, I donāt know your situation but I am guessing you fully understand the stress of looking over your should for fear of the consequences of someone noticing something you canāt turn off.
I hope you donāt think I have been trying to argue, I am more just wanting someone to talk to, if I added to your frustrations I am sorry! Truly!
Lol, thatās the best part. Iām not even mad. Iām just writing words for readers. I know that my expectations wouldnāt be met. Of course not. āExpectingā was the wrong word to use. It was more hope.
I just saw a transgression (hopefully a micro one), and thought, āhey, I got time and feel like writing.ā I just looped you in because I thought it might benefit both of our headspaces. Hope I was right.
You were very right, if only because I needed the conversation, but honestly having such a slight difference of opinions and not letting it blow way out of proportion felt good too. I donāt get to really talk often.
I gained a lot today, and out of anything I hope you got something, I take heart in knowing you were not realistically expecting a whole change from them. I hope a seed was planted and perhaps a heart was softened.
Thatās cool; Iāll just ramble at you awhile. : ) I really want to say some things that I didnāt say in the thread.
To anyone reading this, there was a comment more or less assigning negative things to āall mental illness and bigotsā. The author edited the comment after push back, but I didnāt think that was really sufficient. In this essayā¦ (not memeing, gere we go)
What I wanted: I donāt have a copy of what was said. Itās gone and I should be happy. BUT, Iām not. I want some acknowledgement that it is understood why that wording was awful and some assurance that attention will paid in the future. Iām basically describing an apology. Itās not, apologies have an acceptance stage that Iām willing to skip. I do not think itās reasonable to hope all those with a mental illness accept the apology.
I did not explicitly ask for what I wanted. Honestly saying my piece and getting silence was expected.
What I got:
Ok, but you did not discuss it. You made a sweeping statement. It was worthless at best. Not a discussion. Why even say this to me.
The post continues by adding extraneous groups to the discussion. So now we have bigots, trumpers, the mentally ill, people exposed to lead, drug addicts, people with genetic conditions.
Now, I have no idea what to expect. I made a fuss about making sweeping statements about general groups, and now we have more people to vilify. I genuinely cannot tell if they simply not reading what I said, or are they listing people to line up against a wall? Only the author knows. I strongly suspected itās the former. I still do, but less so.
But I did get confirmation, that no, they do not see my point. They do not realize how easily they are vilifying those with mental illness. Hereās what was said:
Is it wrong for a group to have a high concentration of people with mental disorders? I donāt think so. In fact, do you know what group has quite a high percentage? Therapy groups. Are they evil? What is that quote saying about Republicans that canāt logically similarly apply to therapy groups?
My Goal:
The real issue here that I did not realize how subtly I was referring to a rhetorical trick that was at the root of my complaint. Itās very similar to the motte-and-bailey fallacy. Say a hate preacher wants to convince their flock that gays are evil. (Iām going to switch to saying āhomosexualsā because thatās how you are likely to hear this in the wild.) So instead, he just decries horrible acts of molesters. But the preacher never simply says āchild molestersā; they sub in the phrase āhomosexuals and child molestersā. That way, the audience will connect them. They wonāt realize it, but their brain will wire a connection anyway.
This is the language I was fighting. My goal was to get this person to see that they were (unwittingly?) committing this rhetorical trick. I heard complaints that should be made of bigots instead made of āmental illness and bigotsā. Donāt lump innocent motte in with a horrible bailey.
It is pretty likely that the author didnāt read my post. It seems they picked words to respond to instead of any ideas. Like I wasnāt really talking about guns or gay rights, but those words are kicked off the typing. The gun tangent was understandable, but I said nothing about homosexuality per se, and they say
Which again, true and ick. I tried to stick an implied parenthetical āor implicitly eitherā in there to kinda fix the ick, but what does it mean for something to be implicitly wrong? But I knew better than to bring this up. Not the fight to have.
The Conclusion:
I simply wanted them to avow or disavow the paraphased comment: āIt is nice that I can now identify all mental illness and bigotsā. I expected them to see vilification now. And I think they did. In fact, they added some more calling them āpeople who proudly broadcast their own ignorance and lack of appeal to reason and moral standardsā.
So I guess that is where they are comfortable leaving it. I really think there is something about the mental illness label that makes them afraid of people. Itās sad.
But who knows. They claim they āwrote very, very clearly: Trump supportersā when I asked what group they were talking about. Obviously, they didnāt mean people with mental illness, but again, they did bring up bigots, trumpers, the mentally ill, people exposed to lead, drug addicts, people with genetic conditions. So writing isnāt their strong suit. You did not āwriteā that. It was not clear. It was not very clear. And it surely wasnāt very, very clear. But keep writing āveryā in there. I might be fooled that it was clear eventually. Maybe they genuinely donāt see my point. But I doubt it. There is clear resentment of the mentally ill.
I can see your point, and for my part understand your grievance, however I think you are asking too much and expect to much. This is a stranger on the Internet talking to a stranger on the Internet exactly like you and I. You have absolutely no reason to care about my opinion about this, and likely wonāt.
I want you to know I understand, I really do and I would have the same type of reaction on other days. For some reason my wound isnāt so raw today. I hated seeing that statement it was painful, just like when someone in my family uses the r word at me. I donāt know if maybe the fight in me has just started to die on this one.
I am autistic and homosexual with a list of mental health conditions that come from a lifetime of masking both of them plus trauma and som other shit, wanting dignity is exhausting, I donāt know your situation but I am guessing you fully understand the stress of looking over your should for fear of the consequences of someone noticing something you canāt turn off.
I hope you donāt think I have been trying to argue, I am more just wanting someone to talk to, if I added to your frustrations I am sorry! Truly!
Lol, thatās the best part. Iām not even mad. Iām just writing words for readers. I know that my expectations wouldnāt be met. Of course not. āExpectingā was the wrong word to use. It was more hope.
I just saw a transgression (hopefully a micro one), and thought, āhey, I got time and feel like writing.ā I just looped you in because I thought it might benefit both of our headspaces. Hope I was right.
You were very right, if only because I needed the conversation, but honestly having such a slight difference of opinions and not letting it blow way out of proportion felt good too. I donāt get to really talk often.
I gained a lot today, and out of anything I hope you got something, I take heart in knowing you were not realistically expecting a whole change from them. I hope a seed was planted and perhaps a heart was softened.
Thanks for the engagement today.