MNHQ .. Can we talk about disability bashing?

[Brownsugarshortbread]

Over the years i have posted on and enjoyed MN.
Sadly there seems to be a growing culture of it being okay to have a go at disabilities, those who claim DLA and those who's children have 'invisable' disabilities such as ADHD and ADD.
The terms 'freak' and 'scrounger' have been batted around and comments from some posters IMO certainly boarder on harrassment and discrimination.

When certain posts or posters have been reported, some have been removed, yet a lot haven't.

And while I agree with free speech, these types of comment or reaction to these comments, are not an education for those bigoted posters. Nor do those whose lives are touched by disability wish to be used to educate those posters.

Disability Harassment

is unwanted behaviour based on disability,
impairment or additional need. Such behaviour may include comments that are patronising or objectionable to the recipient or which creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment for people with disabilities. Disability harassment includes inappropriate reference to disability, unwelcome discussion of the impact of disability, refusal to work with and exclusion of people with disabilities from social events or meetings.

Yes, for 'rampaging mob' read 'hurt people"

Im proud that i started the thread about the disgusting comments. No one should use the f.......k word anywhere near sn children.

to be completely clear, i think that a mob went after that poster on the freakshow thread. i think they were wrong, and i think that they forced the poster into an invidious position.

i think that a mob went after the girl on the natalie cassidy thread as well.

i am reasonably open with friends as to the fact that i use this site. two people i know, who i really, really like and respect, have revealed to me that they were hunted down and flamed on here, in the most disgusting fashion. one was accused of being a paedophile, in a thread that ran for days (she revealed who she was by PM when i appeared on the thread saying wtf). the other was called a cunt and a bitch and a bad mother for something so fucking trivial it beggars belief, but a pile on is a pile on so great fun for all concerned.

i think MN have a tricky job managing all of us on here and mostly get it right. i think that should be the starting point for any discussion, tbh. but i think that we ALL have to be responsible for our behaviour, the offendor and offended, because all too often people are both at the same time.

sorry I don't like offended people being called mobs, if you post something that ill cause offence, people have to react.

tbh aich with out meaning to I think you have proved the point, people can't win when they point out something is offensive, they get called things like a mob/sn mafia and so on

they should react by reporting the thread, if they feel the person is trolling. as was presumably felt to be the case with the freakshow thread. you really cannot have it both ways.

if they instead respond on the thread and act like a mob, they're a mob. hurt or not.

bottom line is that the poster was not trolling, she was a bit odd and she was talking about the wrong programme but her comment should have been let to stand. mn held off on this for as long as possible, but they eventually gave in. they shouldn't have, because in actual fact it made things on that thread a lot worse. the mob still hung around to have their say, and someone who had been speaking out on behalf of children with disabilities (albeit in satirical style, which i agree was not sensitive) was branded disablist.

but that is want mn hq want, they want to educate, but if we do we get called names.
you are calling people who were offending a mob, I am confused now as I thought you were supportive, but now you don't even want people to react

i think that more people should have read that post properly, is what i think. it was crystal clear. and then the poster came back and made it crystal clear again, but was ignored.

Bottom line - I dont think you can say how we should interpret things and whether they are crystal clear to us unless you walk in our shoes..,sorry

this i what always happens the person who causes offense becomes the victim.
when the real victims are the people who have to put up with being called these names.
you must know what it is like, the heartbreak at someone calling your child a spaz or a retard, it hurts, so you come on a place like here, and see grownups using disblist terms, and if you challenge you are attacked.
calling the offended is no different to calling them the sn mafia, or saying pc gone mad or all the other crap things people say.
it was right to delete that post, just a shame mn hq don't do it more.

true enough, but once the poster has come back and explained, and said that they work with disabled children and is horrified at the accusation, it's time for the benefit of the doubt.

but then my friends were accused of being cunts and paedophiles by some of MN's finest, so i am probably a little sensitive to the mob rule thing.

sorry, no. you were not the victim. she was trying, quite craply, to defend children exploited by television. she didn't call your children freaks, any more than i called john merrick one earlier.

anyway, i am broadly pro justa's points, think that MNHQ's deletion approach has to become more nuanced, but also think that a lot of people behaved badly on that thread. i can handle feeling all of those things at the same time, it's fine.

I just cannot engage with someone about this who cannot understand my position because you can't if you haven't experienced it, broad minded and intelligent though you undoubtedly are.

perhaps people jumped, but maybe they were pushed,
if you have had to put up with this crap over and over, in rl and on here, you loose patience, we are told to educate but ffs if people react they are called a mob.
no win situation, oh hang on the haters win

so you would have deleted the freak show comment from the off, fanjo? despite the lack of intent, despite it having been written in a satirical voice, despite the posters saying 'hang on, i think she means something else entirely - you wouldn't have waited for clarification?

Yes, as it hurt people, deletion wasn't necessarily a punishment but a protective measure to stop others seeing it

well it may be that Lenin was right when she said earlier on that if a hard line was taken about words like spaz, mong, retard etc then it might be easier to let something like that carry on a bit longer as hackles wouldn't be up. (am paraphrasing).

although that is kind of what i was saying, when i said that a firm line might help with the rampaging mobs, so you might object to that as well.

if someone posts a disablist post it should be deleted. end of.

well i cannot agree that that would be the right thing at all, fanjo. so we must agree to differ. i do not walk in your shoes and i do not claim to, but we do not tend to let the aggrieved dictate the law in this country and i do think that yours would have been the wrong response.

No hackles were up, iwas genuinely wounded to the point of tears by the offending phrase, that's the long and shortbof it...no mob mentality or outrage at the words used but real hurt

agreed, shoesy. but it wasn't disablist.

and i wish that hadn't been the case, fanj, i swear. i'm sincerely sorry that you were hurt and i can see why you would have been.

I believe you..just want to make clear I wasn't outraged in some pitchfork waving PC gone mad mob rule sense.

No, off to bed as DD will wake soon for hours

so why are we talking about it? why did mn hq delete it?
it has been used as an example like other threads. tbh I never watch the programme so only did a quick lurk and post on that thread(asked if it was any good)
as I live with it 24/7 not my idea of relaxing tv.
you are using phrases like rampaging mob, so what do you want, people to just let posts go? report and let mn hq say oh that post is ok just hide it....
I will tell you I am sick and tired of this crap,

No=now

oh so now you decide what is and isn't
mn hq must have thought it was bad, if they deleted, the people who were offended must have, but they are all wrong?

'pretending to be normal'
is offensive
it is
very