I don’t know if you personally have any disabilities, but generally, when I see this take, the person doesn’t.
I’d take a crispr treatment without hesitation. And everyone I know would do the same. My partner and I are doing IVF not for fertility reasons but to ensure certain genes don’t get passed down to our kids.
That whole disability-is-a-positive view is a very privileged thing to say.
Not the person you replied to, but this is a nuanced conversation, much beyond the simplicity of disabled or not.
Deafness is the one that comes to mind,
there are others that do as well, but I grew up in a Deaf household so I know a bit more about it.
For a group of Deaf people, they quite like being Deaf, they have their own language and schools etc. Those schools arent particularly decent, but for the group that like being Deaf they dont care. They’d rather fix the schools then fix their kids.
The notion that disability is a social issue is true, but fixing society to cater towards most disabled groups is a far greater task in most cases. Obviously Deafness and others are the expection where it is felt that it is easier/better to fix society.
Deafness has been “curable” for a while, yet i was raised to see that cure as a form of genocide, trying to erradicate a linguistic minority, rather than fix them. As without deaf children, it was very unlikely anyone would pick up their language.
I frankly think that there is no downside to try to be positive about disablilty, i say this from the uk, where the rhetoric has been destructive beyond belief. That said it is all very case dependent.
Thanks for the response. I understand what you’re saying, and I wholeheartedly agree that society should be more accommodating of disabilities. No argument there.
However, you’re mixing up a coping mechanism for a true belief that ones disability is a net positive. I am not deaf, but I see this all the time in my circles and my own upbringing. Growing up, my parents would regularly visit religious authorities and psychics to assure them my circumstances were for the greater good, and I’d have met a horrible end without it. In my teens and early 20s, I believed this too. Many caregivers and disabled need to believe this to get through the day and find meaning in their lots.
I dont throw shade on anyone coping like this. It’s a much better path than the other ones I’ve seen, such as depression, suicide, and drugs. But at the end of the day, that’s all it is, a coping strategy. I promise, in their heart-of-hearts, if they could “reroll” their genetic lottery and avoid their disability. Every single person would. No sane person would voluntarily sign up for this.
While one could attempt to make an argument that society as a whole benefits from disabled people. And I dont disagree. A society that cares for disabled would be more humane and a nicer place to live in. But no rational person would seek it out for themselves. I’m not directing this at you, but imo those that subscribe to the belief, like OOP, are either misinformed about disabilities or are hand waving away the harm it does to the person.
I don’t know if you personally have any disabilities, but generally, when I see this take, the person doesn’t.
I’d take a crispr treatment without hesitation. And everyone I know would do the same. My partner and I are doing IVF not for fertility reasons but to ensure certain genes don’t get passed down to our kids.
That whole disability-is-a-positive view is a very privileged thing to say.
Not the person you replied to, but this is a nuanced conversation, much beyond the simplicity of disabled or not.
Deafness is the one that comes to mind, there are others that do as well, but I grew up in a Deaf household so I know a bit more about it.
For a group of Deaf people, they quite like being Deaf, they have their own language and schools etc. Those schools arent particularly decent, but for the group that like being Deaf they dont care. They’d rather fix the schools then fix their kids.
The notion that disability is a social issue is true, but fixing society to cater towards most disabled groups is a far greater task in most cases. Obviously Deafness and others are the expection where it is felt that it is easier/better to fix society.
Deafness has been “curable” for a while, yet i was raised to see that cure as a form of genocide, trying to erradicate a linguistic minority, rather than fix them. As without deaf children, it was very unlikely anyone would pick up their language.
I frankly think that there is no downside to try to be positive about disablilty, i say this from the uk, where the rhetoric has been destructive beyond belief. That said it is all very case dependent.
Thanks for the response. I understand what you’re saying, and I wholeheartedly agree that society should be more accommodating of disabilities. No argument there.
However, you’re mixing up a coping mechanism for a true belief that ones disability is a net positive. I am not deaf, but I see this all the time in my circles and my own upbringing. Growing up, my parents would regularly visit religious authorities and psychics to assure them my circumstances were for the greater good, and I’d have met a horrible end without it. In my teens and early 20s, I believed this too. Many caregivers and disabled need to believe this to get through the day and find meaning in their lots.
I dont throw shade on anyone coping like this. It’s a much better path than the other ones I’ve seen, such as depression, suicide, and drugs. But at the end of the day, that’s all it is, a coping strategy. I promise, in their heart-of-hearts, if they could “reroll” their genetic lottery and avoid their disability. Every single person would. No sane person would voluntarily sign up for this.
While one could attempt to make an argument that society as a whole benefits from disabled people. And I dont disagree. A society that cares for disabled would be more humane and a nicer place to live in. But no rational person would seek it out for themselves. I’m not directing this at you, but imo those that subscribe to the belief, like OOP, are either misinformed about disabilities or are hand waving away the harm it does to the person.