Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT Strips 3221 to 3225 (16 - 20 May 2016)
J:
--- Quote from: emsilly on 18 May 2016, 07:16 ---
--- Quote from: J on 18 May 2016, 05:04 ---
--- Quote from: emsilly on 18 May 2016, 02:09 ---Saying an autistic person has severe psychological issues seems a bit like describing a white person as having a pigmentation defect.
--- End quote ---
it seems to me that a more apt comparison would be saying that a person with albinism has a pigmentation defect. or that a person with deafness has a sensory deficit.
--- End quote ---
People with white skin are globally a minority, less than 10%. Their skin aren't dark, what's up with that? They can't block out harmful UV rays effectively, I think it's perfectly appropriate to call that a defect.
This is clearly a ridiculous argument, but defects are subjective and can only be characterised in reference to a baseline. What that baseline is is entirely arbitrary.
--- End quote ---
the human body has adapted via natural selection to produce a chemical called melanin, which among other things regulates the amount of UV radiation that the body absorbs. humans who produce more melanin are indeed more resistant UV damage, but makes them more susceptible to vitamin D deficiency. humans who's bodies produce less melanin have the opposite problem. both of these traits are ultimately the result of the same mechanism performing the same task toward the same end, only calibrated to do so in different environmental conditions.
this does not hold true for humans who are unable to produce melanin at all, which is a severely maladaptive trait. there is nothing arbitrary or subjective about distinguishing between a mechanism which functions at varying specified levels, and one which is physically incapable of doing so.
if you have a 6-cylinder car which is unable to reach highway speeds because only 3 of the cylinders fire, then the car is broken. damaged or non-functional components are preventing it from performing the task for which it was designed and built. this has nothing to do with arbitrary baselines, or cultural expectations, or statistical norms; it is an objective assessment of a machine & its level of functionality.
Eastrim:
--- Quote from: oddtail on 18 May 2016, 12:04 ---As a side note, isn't the "you're projecting!" argument non-falsifiable, and therefore not very useful in a discussion? One can always say that, but it's better to talk about the actual comic and discuss whether a certain explanation is valid. I personally think accusing someone of projecting is slightly patronizing and condescending. It's also a kind of an ad hominem.
--- End quote ---
No. Projection is fairly simple; Person A has seen/experienced/have characteristic X, Person B exhibits characteristic X, therefore Person A extrapolates other qualities and identifies with person B. Noting that something is projection is a statement of objective fact when a person directly says "I have experienced X before, they're doing X, therefore they have this other trait.' At least 10 people have made and reiterated arguments to that effect, with several more who were more vague. It's bad because it's based on a single reference point (what Person A has observed) which ignores that both Person A and B are individuals with individual reactions, and wrongly associates characteristics that may be only loosely related.
There are actual diagnostic criteria for the Autism spectrum, but they aren't even being discussed. It's all personal experiences, opinions, and comparisons to other fictional characters. It also keeps crossing from opinion to being discussed as assumed fact.
The bottom line is that it's premature. No, a comic won't have lots of detail, but we haven't even finished one encounter with her, and a lot of people have said that their assessment is based on her reaction to the fire, which is hardly indicative of someone's regular state of being.
--- Quote from: J on 18 May 2016, 13:14 ---
--- Quote from: emsilly on 18 May 2016, 07:16 ---
--- Quote from: J on 18 May 2016, 05:04 ---
--- Quote from: emsilly on 18 May 2016, 02:09 ---Saying an autistic person has severe psychological issues seems a bit like describing a white person as having a pigmentation defect.
--- End quote ---
it seems to me that a more apt comparison would be saying that a person with albinism has a pigmentation defect. or that a person with deafness has a sensory deficit.
--- End quote ---
People with white skin are globally a minority, less than 10%. Their skin aren't dark, what's up with that? They can't block out harmful UV rays effectively, I think it's perfectly appropriate to call that a defect.
This is clearly a ridiculous argument, but defects are subjective and can only be characterised in reference to a baseline. What that baseline is is entirely arbitrary.
--- End quote ---
The human body has adapted via natural selection to produce a chemical called melanin, which among other things regulates the amount of UV radiation that the body absorbs. humans who produce more melanin are indeed more resistant UV damage, but makes them more susceptible to vitamin D deficiency. humans who's bodies produce less melanin have the opposite problem. both of these traits are ultimately the result of the same mechanism performing the same task toward the same end, only calibrated to do so in different environmental conditions.
This does not hold true for humans who are unable to produce melanin at all, which is a severely maladaptive trait. there is nothing arbitrary or subjective about distinguishing between a mechanism which functions at varying levels, and one which is incapable of doing so.
If you have a 6-cylinder car which is unable to reach highway speeds because only 3 of the cylinders fire, then the car is broken. damaged or non-functional components are preventing it from performing the task for which it was designed and built.
--- End quote ---
This is clearly a ridiculous argument
Though I'll add that there is far more than 10% of humans who are white. Europeans aren't the only pale people.
St.Clair:
Shout out to all my fellow East African Plains Apes, of any and all shades of brown. (I tend to "fishbelly" myself, and have been known to joke that I don't have a color, but an albedo.)
Also:
The euphemism treadmill is absolutely a thing, and any term you pick, no matter how clinical or neutral, will acquire moral and/or judgmental implications in popular use. That, for good or ill, is simply how people are. We name and sort things into categories, reduce them to generalizations, because if we had to constantly evaluate every single situation or object or person on their own observed qualities, in real time, without resorting to these cognitive shortcuts - and there are case studies of people with, let's say "differently functioning" brains who literally have to do this - we'd never get anything else done. And in the process, we tend to attach positive or negative weight to these observed traits, mostly on the basis of how similar they are to us. :/
Reducing the complex to the simple and manageable is not, in itself, a problem. Refusing to reevaluate, reconsider and possibly recategorize on the basis of new data is.
Zastie:
There's a lot more people up in arms about opinions and early speculation than I anticipated.
In any case, I'm glad she's becoming "a character." I was hoping she would from when she was first shown, her first panel made it looks like she was just a one or two-liner character for comedic relief in the moment though.
Also hi everyone, first post here - thought I made an account about a month ago but apparently I didn't so I made one yesterday. :-D
Storel:
--- Quote from: neurocase on 17 May 2016, 23:02 ---WRT the shortening of names, one could consider me unfortunate. "Seb" is really the only way to shorten Sebastian, so I definitely don't have any options!
--- End quote ---
The protagonist of The Neverending Story is named Bastian, which could certainly be an abbreviation of Sebastian. For that matter, there was an Egyptian goddess named Bast, and someone else already mentioned Bas (pronounced "Bass", like the fish, not the vocal range or the stringed instrument).
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