Athletics Nation: Misinformed And Loud About It!

obviously, in the title of that comment.

My dad died last year of PSP, a Parkinson’s-like disease in which the victim gradually loses all muscle control and eventually dies of it. If someone were to make a joke of my Dad being like Captain Pike from Star Trek and not being able to communicate except by beeps from his wheelchair, I would think that’s funny.

This past year my mother has also started having medical issues that require some care. I won’t share what they are, since she prefers that private, but if by chance someone happened to make a joke about what she suffers from, I would laugh at that, too.

Yes, of course, when a person suffers from a debilitating medical condition or handicap it is tragic. It is a hardship on both the individual and the family members who are directly affected. But it’s also part of life, and if I can’t sometimes laugh about it, what shall I do instead? Spend all my time being dour and serious about it? I’d rather laugh along with the jokes.

I know Nico. I know he’s not insensitive about Down syndrome, just as I know he’s not insensitive about the various learning disabilities of his own students even though he sometimes jokes about them as well. He’s not ridiculing Down syndrome sufferers; he’s just making another silly pun, as he so often does, and today that happens to be the subject.

That said, I don’t want to be rude or hurtful, and I know Nico doesn’t either. If you (oakballnack) or anyone else is genuinely offended by a joke, then I would hope to avoid making that joke, even though it wouldn’t offend me. I’m glad you shared your feeling about it with us. I’m not trying to deny your feeling, nor change your mind. I’m just sharing my own.

And didn’t make much sense, even after reading it over and over. I honestly don’t see the humor at all and I accept a pretty broad spectrum of humor. But I don’t get the insensitive part. Where was it intolerant? Where was it prejudiced? It was a pun… He merely used the phrase with no positive or negative spin.

I get that we need to be careful with the issue. I am right there with you. And I can’t stop you from getting offended even if I do not. But claiming it is some sort of violation when it does not appear to be, seems a bit much. Maybe the joke was so bad that it was left too much to interpretation and you are interpreting it different than me.

On the other hand, I will say that true torture’s post down the thread a ways is insensitive although also vaguely so. It does seem to imply a negative connotation in that he appears to yell it as an insult. It isn’t explicitly negative so I guess it would be hard pressed to be called a CVG violation, but I didn’t much like it either way.

It’s possible I am interpreting Nico’s usage wrong, but his only violation would seem to be one of making lame puns.

I’m also outraged and offended by Nico’s insinuation that he and Jennifer Love-Hewitt practiced unsafe intercourse. Jennifer Love-Hewitt obviously has higher standards than some blogger that lives in his mother’s basement.

to me I like to look at the intent of what someone says and try and go from there.

It’s puzzling, but some people seem to believe themselves entitled to make hurtful comments AND decide whether the subject of those comments is being too sensitive.

On a larger level, the term “political correctness” is too often used to belittle, even suppress, the efforts of relatively powerless groups (depending on the context, this could mean women, gays, racial minorities, the disabled, or others) to voice their views.

As for Nico’s joke, I got it, and it didn’t bother me, but I can also imagine reasons other than lily-livered oversensitivity why someone might have been offended.

Political correctness has become something of a dirty word, but not without reason. Go back a little further. The part you’re missing is that political correctness itself has been used extensively to silence the “other side” of debate. The backlash against political correctness is not unjustified.

The prodding, through attempting one to feel guilt, to use gender-neutral terms like “firefighter” in place of “fireman” or “visually challenged” or “hearing impaired” in lieu of “blind” of “deaf” serves no real purpose and typical examples of political correctness. The calls to change the Cleveland Indians mascot are made under the cover of political correctness. The recognition of “ebonics” as an actual language is done under the guise of political correctness. The awarding of “participation awards” and the practice of not keeping score in little league games are a product of political correctness.

Political correctness has less to do with not being a douche and more to do with having to cater to every last objection every oversensitive whiner might have. Political correctness conveniently ignores context and intent. Personally, I have more important things to worry about than whether a woman firefighter gets offended by the term fireman or not and I think use of Indians, or Seminoles, or Utes, as mascots is motivated more out of respect than it is degradation.

serves little function and is a bad attempt at humor … well, let’s just say the front-page articles would be a lot shorter. ;-)

But the fact that people were offended is not necessarily Nico’s fault. As UncleLeo said, there is a responsibility on the reader to properly interpret what is written. Too often words and phrases are seen as offensive by readers who do not take time to understand their meaning or usage. The phrase Downs’ Syndrome is not offensive and neither was Nico’s intended use of it. He cannot be responsible for people taking offense to this any more than he can be responsible for the effects of every other word used in the post. It was mentioned before, but should we also take offense at the roundabout reference to the mistreatment of animals? Its a serious issue, but I don’t see anything worth getting offended over, except for lame humor (Seriously Nico, try harder : p )

Your first post stats that he is making light of the condition… he is not. Understanding that this is possible is key to any sort of fair discussion on the issue.

And to be clear… I am not trying to attack you and I do appreciate that you have taken offense and that this is an issue you feel strongly about. I just feel compelled to stick up for Nico. If someone took such deep offense to something I had written, I know I would feel absolutely terrible about it regardless of my intent. And if I can help you be less offended (because no one here wants to upset you or anyone else), then all the better. We shouldn’t be making any sort of derogatory comments about any groups of people and Nico, as much as anyone, knows this.

Amauri-Pi Gonzalez
Ken Kourac
Bobby Valentine

Perfect for WBC matchups in 2013

Jesus, I miss baseball.

Clearly, I’m the victim here.

Kick the dumb ones to the curb.

Bill James fired him for a reason, you know!