Offensive poster!

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Free speech also means having free reign to respond to other people's free speech. It strikes me as contrary to a "free speech" ethos to suggest that reacting to the speech is somehow wrong.

Also, offense is irrelevant. What is relevant is spreading memes about, say, how all autistic people are a**holes and how this both reflects and impacts how neurotypicals view autistic people.

Plus, people get to decide if they're offended or not. It's not a universal objective thing, but rather entirely subjective. If Simonono is offended, it is his right to be offended.

No, you're right. I'm saying that the people who did this are probably knobheads and people must be able to say so, exercising their own free speech if you like. But saying that "X is offensive and should be banned" is a very slippery slope at the best of times.

I've looked at this for a long time. I think they're saying:

1. Some a**holes claim to be autistic (when they may not be) so they have an "excuse" and can carry on being an a**hole.

and/or

2. Some people with autism use their diagnosis as an excuse to behave like an a**hole.

Both of which are true because, let's face it, a**holes come with different types of neurology and always like to have an excuse for it.

But most people when they see the poster won't think about it in depth and will see "All people with autism are a**holes" or "all a**holes have autism".

Both of which, of course, are offensive to people with autism.

Keep pulling the poster down it will cost the a**hole ink to reprint them. If he does it in some computer lab someone might report them. The more times the asshat has to the replace the torn down pictures the better chance someone or even you will catch them doing it and get it on video. If you can get them on video doing it put it up on youtube with the persons name and school on it to shame them into stop doing it.

That's fair, I guess I misread you.

If they put up a poster offensive to homosexuals, minorities, or the physically handicapped the person would be kicked off campus regarless of freedom of speech. Why can't the same repect be used with attacks against autistics?

What is the difference between an a**hole and autism?

An a**hole knows when something is going to offend and knows they have offended someone but they just don't care while someone with autism doesn't realize what they are going to say can be taken the wrong way or be offensive and they don't realize when someone has been offended or upset. An a**hole wouldn't even try and understand while an autistic person might notice it and then be upset because they think they did something wrong. An a**hole is fully aware of what they are doing while an autistic person isn't aware. An a**hole doesn't care so they act like they don't notice because they just don't care while an autistic person doesn't notice. But does it make someone an a**hole if they didn't think they did something wrong and they think it's the other person with the problem, not them? This is where I am stumped at. Sometimes I think a**hole and sometimes I think not. After all an a**hole wouldn't care right?

What is the difference between an a**hole and an a**hole with autism?

There is no difference. Someone with autism can do the same stuff above what I described about an a**hole.

Ah, is it on campus? I misread it.

In that case, it depends on the university what they will or won't allow. I understood what the people who printed the poster were getting at, though I don't necessarily agree with it.

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Last edited by ocdgirl123 on 15 Apr 2011, 5:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I tore that very poster off a wall at school once. I was quite offended.

I laughed. Basically cause I can laugh at myself. And it can't be taken seriously anyway, cause someone who denies autism exists must be mentally challenged themselves.

It's very crude, but there's a kernel of truth to it.

The truth is, being an "a**hole" is a "disease".

lol, yeah.

But that poster is plain horrible. There is NO excuse behind it. why would they do that?

I suppose the boy looks like he's brushing the "speaker" off. To me, he looks like he's enjoying hanging out in the field and is stimming.

Meh, doesn't bother me.

I don't know that they'd be kicked off campus. People get away with a ton of hateful and bigoted speech against minorities in general.

But yes, any policies against this kind of thing should be enforced equally.