Cross-disability stigma-busting requires ID/DD community reciprocity to MH/BH/SPMI community

   Stigmatized language to talk about, rather than with, people with disabilities is a problem for the SPMI/Mental Health/Behavioral Health community as it is in the ID/DD and physical disability communities.  Indeed, the term "intellectual disability" only came into use because of the federal Rosa's Law after activism state by state for the exclusive benefit, after use of inclusive rhetoric, of the ID (formerly called MR) and DD (developmental disability) community.  


  The letter below represents one manifestation of the similar and persistent problem.

Letters to the Editor
A terrifying disorder




October 24, 2014
   Please, please educate your reporters and editors on the proper use of the word “schizophrenic.” The otherwise excellent Oct. 18 front-page article “Florida floods magnify political climate battle” reported that state leaders took a “schizophrenic” position by denying climate change yet trying to combat it.
   Schizophrenia is a terrifying, severe, disabling brain disorder that affects millions of people and their families. It is characterized by bizarre, paranoid behaviors, including the belief that others can control your thoughts and read your mind.
   Please remember that politicians and others frequently exhibit “puzzling” or “contradictory” behaviors that have nothing to do with this tragic mental illness.


Peter Perl,
Silver Spring


The 'slogan' "Einstein's definition of insanity" in 'political dialogue/conversation,'
 represents another manifestation of the stigmatizing language that still exists after the statutory victory of the 'no r-word' campaign by 2010.
 

("Doing the same thing twice and expecting different results") called "Einstein's definition of insanity,"

often used as part of the pathologization of political disagreement, is as bad as using '- t a r d,' that no r-word activism fought in an anti-stigma campaign that coalesced around the use of the r-word in the 2008 film "Tropic Thunder."


 
This tweet


also shows that the problem of stigmatizing language used to talk about, instead of with, people with disabilities still exists for people living with (and trying to recover from the worst symptoms/traits of) SPMI (serious and persistent mental illness) in HCBS settings with LTSS as people with intellectual/developmental disabilities are (with the 'recovery' concept replaced by social acceptance, mutual respect and community inclusion).  


  No reciprocity has been given in coalition work, on ending stigmatizing language, to mental health consumer and family advocates, who participated in the United Cerebral Palsy-Special Olympics (Disability Policy Collaboration) 'no r-word' coalition.  


  Or, to be more nuanced, at least no meaningful reciprocity, leading to quantifiable gains in quality of life for people in the ID/DD community for the commensurate benefit of the SPMI/Mental/Behavioral health community, was given. 

  

  Use of the r-word in the 2008 film "Tropic Thunder," if a person had bothered to see the film for themselves instead of practicing zombietime.com - style individual activism following the loudest, often remote to a person's physical location, social media advocate voice including 'I don't want my money supporting the film' = BDS tactic, was an admonishment to self-advocate, take charge of one's life, that should not have included the replacement of monetary costs of Independent Living skill improvement, that an individual could not pay themselves, with time on social media searching for a similarly-situated peer and using DIY/maker/open source culture to make what one can't afford to buy or live without.


http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/full-retard?full=1


Here is a video clip of the scene in which the r-word was used. Watching the clip doesn't involve 'spending my money to support the film' also known as the BDS tactic.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y3FzVQi-R8

Lazarus: “Everybody knows you never do a full retard.”

Speedman: “What do you mean?”

Lazarus: “Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, ‘Rain Man,’ look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Count toothpicks to your cards. Autistic, sure. Not retarded. You know Tom Hanks, ‘Forrest Gump.’ Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon and won a ping-pong competition. That ain’t retarded. You went full retard, man. Never go full retard.”















Shorter script:

Try to maximize your innate strengths.  Self-advocate (for self but mostly as part of a person with disability-led disabled community because ( "individual representation is a legislative fiction"



Try telling that to Autism Speaks or Grasp then, who act with much less
honourable motives than ASAN.
Individual representation is always a legislative fiction, no one person in 
any large community can accurately represent the beliefs and aspirations of 
every single constituent, not in the least because those are likely to be 
paradoxical an contradictory. One therfore advocates a community rather than 
individuals.




   Try to make a case for/demonstrate expanding eligibility for adequate financial aid with LTSS in HCBS settings AKA the social safety net. DIY/maker/open source culture and self-help and actualization/consumer-survivor/self-advocacy disabled community movements can't fully 'work around' paying for or obtaining, for all community members at a decent living standard of daily shelter/permanent supportive housing/food/clothing and employment.
 

   All of the above movements, led by people with disabilities, are to one degree or another attempts to expand what should be a public good/part of what President Lyndon B. Johnson originally intended as a "Great Society" and what President Franklin D. Roosevelt originally intended as a "New Deal."  


   Unfortunately these movements have been turned into attempts to privatize what should be a public good/part of the Great Society and New Deal.  Both the Great Society and the New Deal were disrupted/creatively destroyed by the military-industrial complex, in service to the richest 1% of multinational corporate business owners, trying selfishly to stay richest (kill economic class mobility) in a struggle against communism and national socialism (fascism) or (radical Islamic) terrorism/(sharia law/Islamofascism).  Actually all three 'global enemies' of 'western interests/way of life' represented 'undemocratic socialism' of a socialist economic system without representative, or proportional, representation within democracy, as a political system, of how people self-govern.  

   Note small d and r for nonpartisan world view/outlook/tone.

   

   What used to be called the military-industrial complex has morphed into the homeland security/counterterrorism-industrial complex, fighting an 'endless war' of a  'global war on terror/man-made disasters' against supremacists of all religions who go horribly wrong in trying to make a moral case of how people should treat each other, that the socialist economic and democratic political case couldn't make before.  More appropriate integration of religion and pluralistic democracies is what used to be known as interfaith (ecumenical) cooperation among communities of different faiths on social justice issues nonviolently within political systems.  Interfaith and ecumenical cooperation on social justice issues has taken the new form I blogged about here.


     


The comments from 'know your meme' make the same point that the 'no r-word' or 'say the word to end the word' social media and IRL stigma-busting advocacy campaigns stripped from public discourse by focusing too much on the use of a word, at all, rather than noting the context of how a word was used. 




Che
2 years ago
I think the summary above is wrong: “he talks about how Chuck’s acting method for his mentally handicapped character, the titular Simple Jack went “full retard”, thereby overdoing the acting and making a possibly decent film stupid.” In the dialogue it seems more like the fellow is saying, “Don’t accept the part of a fully mentally handicapped person.” Not, “Don’t overdo the acting.”



precambrian_ARISE
2 years ago  Che
It’s more that “retards” in successful oscar bait films are esthetically “retarded” (i.e. act in a weird way) instead of actually being afflicted by any mental disability. Probably the only exception to this would be the Aviator, however, OCD doesn’t influence intelligence and they barely show the later part of Howard Hugues’ [Hughes'] life where he utterly lost control.
Furthermore, the disability his frequently shown to allow them to do something great instead of being a, well, disability (i.e. A beautyful [Beautiful] mind).
Overdoing the acting has little to do with that. You just need to take the role of a “retard” that is actualy a superhero. You end up with a uplifting movie that get you a best actor oscar. If you take a role with an actual “retard” you get a realist but ultimately bleak movie and you go back home with nothing (i.e. the Aviator).
2


Che
2 years ago  precambrian_ARISE
There is the conspicuous exception of Day Lewis’s Oscar-winning performance in My Left Foot (1989), no? Cerebral palsy is also classified as a type of ‘mental retardation’; i.e., ‘intellectual disability’ (cf. ‘developmental disability’).


http://knowyourmeme.com/users/precambrian_arise

precambrian_ARISE
2 years ago  Che
Haven’t heard of that movie, but yeah that might be another exception (also Cerebral palsy ISN’T a type of mental retardation, those affected have normal intelligence but have muscular control problems).
The Simple Jack movie is a reference to the movie “I am Sam”, which was an obvious oscar bait movie that failed. In [comparison], Forest Gump and Rain Man got the oscar. These two movies show the lead role accomplishing great things because or with the help of their “retardation” while I am Sam is a little more realistic, showing the lead role to be actualy disabled and unable to be a decent father despite him wanting to. The movie with the lead caracther being “full retard” failed to get the oscar.
Also, this might be relevant to this article


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropic_Thunder#Controversy