Sunday 19 August 2012

On Your Marks, Get Set, Go!

I didn’t think it’d be long before the whining started. Jackie Ashley on the upcoming Paralympics:
There is a crude, unthinking sports fan who confuses the human lottery with virtue; who worships a Bolt or a Phelps because they are big and physically impressive; or who thinks that Australian or British sportspeople are inherently "better". Why waste time talking about it? Because it's exactly the same kind of stupidity that denigrates other people because they happen to have been born with physical palsy or a learning disability, or to have had a car accident that resulted in both legs being amputated.
See, we shouldn’t have cheered for Mo Farah, because it makes us more likely to go out and tip a disabled man out of his wheelchair.

I think that’s what she’s saying, anyway.
… the Paralympics may be morally more important than the Olympics. For the stupid adoration of people because of their physical luck has as its flip side the stupid ridiculing or hostility to people because of their disabilities. In essence, it's the same thing. The comedian's vile insult, the punch at a bus-stop, the schoolboy mockery of wheelchair-users are all failures of empathy – failures to see the people who are actually there.
Ah. Yes, idiotic as it might sound, that is indeed what she’s saying.
And in Britain, at least, this is the time to worry. Official government figures show that the number of disability hate crimes reported to the police in England and Wales has reached a record high – there were some 1,942 last year.
Have they indeed?
So what's going on?
Well, it’s simple. For one thing, we’re recording them as such now, whereas before they would have simply gone down as crimes against the person (which, since you seem to dislike the use of labels, I’d have thought you’d be in favour of?).

For another, victims have realised that there’s an advantage to be had in claiming to have a ‘high profile’ crime, so it wouldn’t surprise me one little bit if a disability is claimed as the reason for a crime, when it may not have been the case at all.
Charities believe it must be linked to the rise in "scrounger" rhetoric by ministers, and the suggestion that huge numbers of people are dishonestly claiming benefits.
Of course they believe that. Given the alternative…
And because there are always a few bad apples, it is an addictively easy blame game. Yes, there are idle people with disabilities. Yes, there are crooks who happen to be partially sighted. It's the same with those who aren't disabled … except that they are a little harder to pick out, and pick on.
If you think people are more sympathetic to able-bodied criminals and benefit cheats, you really haven’t read many local newspapers…
As the Paralympics will remind us, there's a vast range of disability, and it's people with learning disabilities who are most at risk. According to the Papworth Trust, 90% of them report being bullied, with a third saying it happens every week or every day. These are the people at the sharpest end of the fear and insecurity that comes with hard times. What's happening to them is the latest episode in the sad saga of discrimination of old: "they're the same" – all black, gay or Jewish people. It's seeing the label, not the person.
Oooh, a Godwin!
Mostly, in modern Britain, we've moved beyond this. Mostly, but not quite. That's why the Paralympics matters so much.
Yes, to avoid labelling which leads to thinking of people as different we should have a great big separate event, exclusively for the disabled.

And not mention Oscar Pistorius. Not once.

6 comments:

Tatty said...

"See, we shouldn’t have cheered for Mo Farah, because it makes us more likely to go out and tip a disabled man out of his wheelchair.

I think that’s what she’s saying, anyway.


I think what she's saying is we shouldn’t have cheered for Mo Farah, because it means we'll definitely go out and tip a disabled man out of his wheelchair.

'Cos, y'know, there are no inbetweens when you are focused solely on "the flipside".

The application of DoubleThink DoubleSpeak here is breathtaking.

Look at the langauge she uses....the word "stupid" liberally splattered all over the place. How does she excuse the massive offence that simply MUST be caused to the "mentally-challenged" ?

People like her HATE everyone not specifically designated a chosen label. So , it's ok to Hate some of the people all of the time it just depends on who you are and who you hate and whether "they" do, too.

Labels we cannot use...for fear of causing offence...are perfectly ok for some of the people all of the time to use depending on who is using them and who they are describing.

Honestly, how do these people NOT drive themselves insane with the constant back-and-forth of this twisted logic ?

If this twaddle is now the epitome of "intelligence" then I'm happy to remain as thick as pigshit...

Anonymous said...

"Honestly, how do these people NOT drive themselves insane with the constant back-and-forth of this twisted logic ?"

The answer maybe, at whatever age she is now, is that it is the only way she can make any money.

She's hardly going to retrain as a plumber is she?

She has her lefty sinecure and a pound a word or whatever for drivel must be a soothing balm.

I just wish she and her type would just leave us normal Black, White. Less Abled etc etc etc types alone to live our lives in peace.

The Left are so fond of labels.

My labels are much simpler. Good person or bad.

Most IMHO are good!

Edwin Greenwood said...

See, we shouldn’t have cheered for Mo Farah, because it makes us more likely to go out and tip a disabled man out of his wheelchair.

Hmm. There's the germ of an idea there. A new inclusive Olympic sport in which able-bodied Black men compete to show their prowess in tipping mobility-challenged Jewish lesbians out of their wheelchairs. It wouldn't be too difficult to work up a suitably contrived set of rules against which the participants could hone their skills.

Perhaps the beginnings of a triathlon there. Let's see: wheelchair-tipping, dwarf-tossing, ...

Problem solved, innit.



Anonymous said...

"...The comedian's vile insult..."

The stupid bitch probably doesn't even realise that Jimmy Carr got that idea from a squaddie at Sellyoak where he was doing pro bono morale work.

JuliaM said...

"The application of DoubleThink DoubleSpeak here is breathtaking."

That's our 'Guardian'! ;)

"The Left are so fond of labels.

My labels are much simpler. Good person or bad. "


Spot on!

"Problem solved, innit."

:D

"The stupid bitch probably doesn't even realise that Jimmy Carr got that idea from a squaddie at Sellyoak where he was doing pro bono morale work."

That would take research. Too much like hard work!

Anonymous said...

Disability Hate Crime is going up... because we are actively going out and recording it. I have recorded more this last 6 months than in my previous 20 years. Why?....because the gaffers want it and i will be disciplined if i fail to record it.

Agenda driven policing....whatever cause they want to promote..etc

If they ever turn round and tell us to actively seek out male victims of DV....or white victims of racism...then you can expect a massive rise in that. Don't hold your breath on that with them though.