(May 22, 2015 at 8:57 pm)KevinM1 Wrote:(May 22, 2015 at 7:54 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: I have a comparatively minor disability (missing an eye). Here's the question:
How do you feel about the term 'differently abled'?
Boru
I'm like c172's friend in that I think the term is bullshit. I don't have different abilities. I'm not Daredevil or Professor Xavier. And, really, the term seems to be for people who are uncomfortable around people like me to create a fantasy in their heads to make themselves feel better.
...
Actually, it was me, not c172, who mentioned someone regarding it as bullshit.
I think you are right that it is somehow trying to make other people feel better somehow. Though I am not sure why it would make anyone feel better. I guess some people are comforted by positive sounding words for things, even when the thing is not positive. Ultimately, though, all such attempts at making things sound better that way are short-lived, as even if the expression becomes popular, the bad associations will just become attached to the new terminology. The woman I know who had polio is like other women, except that she cannot walk properly and has some other health problems. All of that "except" part is bad, no matter what words one chooses to use to describe it. No one in their right mind would deliberately contract polio. It is a disadvantage, not an advantage.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
