Posts by Sacha
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Impact on parents of the aspie angle in coverage of this killing.
I know of worried parents who have called local autism organizations, eyeing their sons with Asperger’s or autistic disorders, wondering if they are looking at future killers. Many more of us are worried that others are wondering the same thing about their sons. That last is a legitimate concern. In the comments to many articles on the shootings, you’ll find otherwise sensible-sounding people writing, for example, that they know 13-year-olds with Asperger’s and anger issues who could themselves become Adam Lanzas when they grow up.
“Anger issues” aren’t the same as “inclined to mass murder.” Autistic people are people, just like everyone else. Personalities accompany their neurobiology. Some express themselves with aggression, just like some non-autistic people do. But autistic people “almost never” use weapons or planned violence when being aggressive, and their aggression rarely involves anyone outside of their immediate circle, Catherine Lord, director of the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain at New York Presbyterian Hospital, told The Lede blog in The Times as the paper addressed the growing concern that people with autism might be stigmatized by media coverage of the Newtown shootings. In fact, the features of the Connecticut case are more common in non-autistic populations than among autistics.
In spite of these correctives, autistic people and their families are now forced to do two things: mourn the horror in Connecticut and defend autistics against these misrepresentations.
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to Emma Hart,
True. In the human rights sense of 'enjoy' perhaps.
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to B Jones,
It's so beautifully scripted, directed and acted. Enjoy the interplay between him, his wife and his son unfolding.
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to B Jones,
You reckon the show didn't reach some conclusions? Don't have to be expressed in explicit written/spoken words.
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to B Jones,
I'd stop short of calling it analysis though.
I would. If it opens up a subject area for consideration, it counts.
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to Bart Janssen,
For me it can feel like I'm being told my feelings are wrong sometimes.
Makes sense. People - including women - can sometimes assume we all feel the world the same way. Pressure on men to 'talk more about their feelings' reflects that.
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Pretty basic question would be: where was this young man's father?
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to Danielle,
So men end up not having any practice in talking about their own gender as a category
mostly true, yes
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to Keir Leslie,
Being poor is being marked
And has practical consequences that have not been addressed nearly as much as some other group barriers have been.
However as Russell and others have noted, this latest mass killer was not poor.
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to Russell Brown,
That's a weird thing, from my point of view.
We all relate to some objects though, right? Cars, buildings, coffee machines, other toys.