Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-30176971-20170312023045/@comment-1669199-20170410003937

Megalodon Commando wrote: Genesjs wrote: Megalodon Commando wrote: Genesjs wrote: Megalodon Commando wrote: Distant Shadow wrote: Megalodon Commando wrote: NotLessOrEqual wrote: PenBird2000 wrote: OFFTOPIC : How does that gave you cancer? Please understand that cancer is a deadly disease. The term "cancer" has lost all meaning, y'know. Same with AIDS thing. Don't try to ignore this. It's. Not. Something. To. Disgust. Something.! Too bad the term "cancer" is now becoming a meme...And I wonder why they use the word "cancer" unironically.

So back to the topic. That re-color gave me Autism? Autism is something you're born with. Exactly. And like the others said, it's nothing to joke about. There are just some things that are meant to be kept serious since it's not a joking matter. Well yeah. There are a number of users on SNN that are Autistic. So it's clearly an insult towards them. Are you claiming to speak and be insulted on behalf of these Administrators? No. I was simply pointing towards anyone with Autism who may feel offended by what Notless had said. Nothing to with any Administrators whatsoever. Ignore my mentioning of Administrators. I thought I saw you referring to Administrators who have Autism rather than just any Users here in general. I apologize for misreading what you actually said. That being said, I'd like to rephrase my initial question. Are you claiming to speak and be offended on behalf of any Users here who have Autism? Because I think that if anyone here is offended over someone making jokes about Autism, they are more than capable of expressing their dissatisfaction with them on their own, and by extension, regardless over how you or anyone else here may personally feel about these jokes, it isn't against site policy to make specific kinds of jokes over any group or demographic, so even if anyone finds them distasteful there's no need to try and go out of your way to shame anyone from making those kinds of jokes. I can make the argument that we should never shame or otherwise try to stop anyone from making any kinds of jokes regardless over what they're about, but that's an argument for another day. Bottom line, NotLessOrEqual was just trying to be funny. There's no need to take him so seriously. I could see he was trying to make a joke but it just sort of went a bit peer-shaped. That's why I didn't take any further grudges against him afterwards. As I've mentioned on my profile, I am one of those people diagnosed with the condition and I wanted to point out to NL that it isn't a disease you can catch like malaria. Well, no one knows where Autism comes from but still, I was speaking on behalf of my own kind here that might get offended by it. Pointing out that Autism is not to be made into a joking matter. As some of us have great problems trying to deal with it everyday beyond the Web. And some of us (including me) don't take kindly to some of these "Jokes".

As far as administrators go, I only know Mystic Monkey is autistic, but that's all and like me I don't think he would've made too much of a fuss about it. Anyway, I said what I needed said. Sorry for getting us off the topic. If you understand that NotLessOrEqual was just making a joke in his criticism of that picture when he said that the picture gave him Autism, why did you go out of your way to address him as though he in any way implied that he actually believed the opposite?

You shouldn't speak on behalf of anyone on a given topic unless they've given their consent for you to do so just because you assume that someone who belongs to the group you are going out of your way to represent on their behalf might get offended at someone making a joke about their disorder. Not everyone is going to react to the same things the way you yourself might react to them. You can take offense to whatever you please, no one is preventing you from having your own thoughts and opinions on any given topic, but don't act like you actually know how everyone who has the disorder is going to act, because like you they are individuals with unique minds and perspectives, shaped by their own life experiences. If you're going to speak on behalf of these people without them giving you their consent to do so, then you'll have to accept the idea that these people who you are so eager to defend are incapable or otherwise unwilling to speak for themselves on the matters in which you are taking offense for them, and that by extension you're prepared to take any criticism they, or others who may take issue with what you're doing, may have towards you if you end up misrepresenting their positions in any way. Do you believe that these people are incapable of speaking for themselves on this issue?

I can understand feeling upset or hurt by others belittling or otherwise making light of a condition that you yourself may have, and that you don't want yourself, and others who may be in the same boat as you, to be looked at any less as people. But electing oneself to speak for others, when no one has chosen you to speak on their behalf and have otherwise not told you what they or most people like them may themselves feel about a given issue, is a dangerous game to play, because even if your motives are ultimately well-meaning it can be very easy to misrepresent what a group of people actually thinks about a given issue when you don't actually know what the thoughts and feelings of these people actually are before choosing to elect yourself as their spokesperson. At the very least, if you're going to try and speak about what a group's interests are, even if you're not electing yourself to speak for them on their behalf, you should show evidence that gives credence to whatever claims you wish to make about where that group's thoughts and interests lie.

Bottom line, don't put yourself in a position that makes you speak on behalf of other people unless you actually know what you're talking about and have the evidence and data to back up your claims, and make sure that these people actually choose you to be their spokesperson if you feel that they may need one.

Anyway, like I was saying before, don't take NotLessOrEqual too seriously, or literally. Unless he's actually making unflattering claims that are demonstrably false about an individual or group of people, or is otherwise going out of his way to antagonize someone, then there's no need to be so critical of his actions. Remember, words are just words, and jokes are made of words. Words can't harm you in any way unless you choose to let them. You don't have to like them, but you don't have to let them wound you, either.