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| Rob's Soapbox | ||
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Congratulations!
You have finally landed on the one page on this entire site (and on the entire internet for that matter) that is purely without bullshit... my soapbox page. There are a lot of times during our show that, whether it's because of time constraints and other obligations, I don't always get to address some issues that I feel don't get the attention they deserve. There are even more times when I just don't feel like waiting until the show the next day to get some things off my chest. Thus, I have started the "Rob's Soapbox" page. If you have clicked on this page looking for someone to coddle your fragile sense of self-esteem, or tell you what you want to hear or to reinforce your outdated world view, then exit this page right now and go somewhere else. If you are in search of the last forum for reason and common sense left in the world, then sit back, relax, and enjoy. I make only one promise with this soapbox page... if you read long enough and often enough, you will eventually be offended. So here's my latest soapbox. Listen up, 'cause you just might learn something... |
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September 30, 2007 RETARDS ARE UNIQUELY NORMAL A friend of mine sent me a picture this week he had taken with his cell phone while standing in Toys R Us. The photo depicted a box with a mom and a clearly mentally retarded child on the front, under the heading “Toys for the Differently Abled.” Never mind the grammatical incorrectness of this (“abled” is not a word) for the whole concept speaks much louder volumes about the on going epidemic of Political Correctness. Political correctness has always simultaneously infuriated and baffled me. It angers me to no end for the same reason it makes most people upset; it’s meaningless. Changing the name of garbage collectors to “Sanitation Engineers,” in an idiotic attempt to make them feel better does not change the fact that they are surrounded by refuse every day. Political correctness baffles me because in every single poll, survey, and study done on the subject in the past 20 years, an overwhelming majority of Americans are against it, fatigued by it, opposed to it, and/or resentful of it. Even people that are supposed to be made to feel better as a result of political correctness have similar negative emotions to it. Most notably, the Native American population, which literally hates being called Native American, and would prefer to be called “Indians,” the term which political correctness stamped out. The thought at the time was that calling them “native” would erroneously confirm that we, the evil white race had “stolen” their land. Even if you buy into this abomination of historical fact, it doesn’t do anything to change the plight of the Native American…or Indian…or whatever-the-hell-we’re-calling-them-this-week population in this country. Throughout the past two decades political correctness has brought us myriad phrases meant to make all of us feel better while pretending to ignore the differences in our society. Short people are “vertically challenged.” A bum is simply “homeless,” as if every person in society is entitled to a home, regardless of whether or not they earn it. A loser wins “second place.” The elderly, old, and decrepit are all lumped in as “senior citizens,” as if life is some sort of military ranking system and by living long someone gains the title of “senior,” even if they’re a drain on our culture. No where is political correctness more pervasive, insulting, guilt-ridden and dishonest than when it comes to anyone who falls under the heading of what used to be called the handicapped or disabled. The truth about political correctness is that it actually has nothing to do with the person who is being spoken about. Rather, the “nicer” terms that are created to describe people who are different than the norm are actually created to relieve the guilt that certain members of our society bear when they see someone less fortunate than them. Many of us feel horrible levels of empathy, sympathy and even pity when we see someone limping, drooling, or stumbling around. Rather than actually do something about the way that they feel (like starting businesses that cater to or train the blind, for example) the P.C. crowd simply intimidates, cajoles, and shakes-down people and businesses until they start using “nicer terms.” Then, in a truly cowardly moment, they walk away believing that their work is done by redefining the blind as “visually impaired.” Their new, nicer terms do nothing to change anything, of course, other than causing resentment on both sides of the issue. Additionally, this whole politically correct movement is making us all dumber by mis-using the English language. Blind people are NOT visually impaired. They are blind. Sight-less. They can not see. Someone who has 20/400 vision or nearsightedness is actually visually impaired, not a blind person. In order for someone to have impairment, they have to possess the sense in the first place. Using this illogic, I am tentacle impaired because I lack the limbs used by an octopus. Within the world of disabled people there are specific P.C. terms for each affliction. Deaf people are either “hearing impaired,” or, more insultingly, “visually oriented.” Midgets are “little people,” and anyone who is bald is considered “follicularly challenged.” When you see a person who is disabled, however, don’t worry if you don’t know the specific terms for their illness or disability because we keep dumbing-down the catch-all phrases that apply to the entire group. We’ve gone from crippled to handicapped to disabled to physically or mentally challenged to handi-capable to, now, differently abled. This latest is, as usual, the most insulting because it is completely inaccurate and very insulting to all of us as a whole. Tiger Woods, Warren Buffet, Jerry Seinfeld and Meryl Streep are all examples of people who are actually “differently abled.” They are all capable of doing things on a higher level than their peers within their specialized group, thus they possess a different and/or greater ability than others. Allow me to pose the most politically incorrect question I can think of (and, I might add, the most necessary question to this discourse); what exactly is it that a mentally retarded child is capable of doing on a higher level than his peers? The answer, of course is “nothing,” and lying about that truth via language doesn’t change that reality. Like usual, we’ve gone too far. “Mentally challenged,” was a perfectly acceptable compromise if we were going to agree as a society that some P.C.-ness was going to be necessary and/or tolerated. Using the word “different” to replace accurate descriptive words that correctly define a person’s condition or disability is idiotic, insulting and dishonest to everyone involved. Differently-abled is not a new term. Its’ invention is credited to the whack-jobs located inside the Democratic National Committee way back in the mid-1980’s (Google it if you care). While the term is not new, its’ prevalent use is. This is how Political Correctness works, just like every other asinine policy that is meant to control behavior and demean any thought that is different. In the 1960’s a small group of people set out to outlaw cigarettes in America. They knew they couldn’t be honest about it in a country where more than half of the population smoked, so they created a systematic campaign designed to impugn, mock, deride and demean people who had the audacity to choose a perfectly legal behavior that this small group hated. It’s taken four decades, but the smoking population of America has been cut in half (less than 25% of the population now) and it is perfectly reasonable to expect smoking to be all but extinct within the next 25 years in this country. Similarly, the P.C. crowd can’t stand that some of us have the audacity to be honest and call crippled people cripples. They have, therefore, launched a systematic campaign designed to slowly create a nation of drones, all of whom think alike and speak alike. It’s taken 25 years for “differently abled” to become the acceptable term for retards, so allow me to propose a new term for same; uniquely normal. Let’s stop the slow slippery slope and get right to the crux of the matter; the P.C. crowd wants desperately for everyone to be the same and be considered “normal,” no matter how odd they are, so let’s just start calling people “uniquely normal.” Hell, why stop with retards? If the P.C. crowd wants us all to accept everyone who is different, let’s start calling pedophiles “sexually dysfunctional.” We’ll refer to cannibals as people who prefer “inter-species dining,” and let’s call murderers “Population controllers.” Words matter and they must be used properly and smartly. Lying to people that are different, handicapped, crippled or not an even playing field (and never will be) is intellectually dishonest and stunningly cruel to everyone involved.
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