Buzzfeed using the term 'Autism' as derogatory

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metalab
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01 Jul 2017, 12:54 am

Video: https://youtu.be/Zr5qzV-8Zkc

This video really struck me as an indicator of how poorly mainstream perspective still views the autistic culture.

Buzzfeed made a video about a man who is socially inept, racist and mysogynist. It attempts to correlate all of these things and vilify them. Then in one part of the video it refers to the guy as 'mucho autismo'.

Really messed up I think that a relatively mainstream and popular media outlet like buzzfeed would post a video like that.

If they made a video filled with exaggerated, out of place, undeserved, negative stereotypes about an ethnic group and then referred to that person as "mucho (whatever ethnic group)", whoever made that video would be fired. But I guess it's still ok to do that with autism.

I don't know what you all think about that video. But I am just venting because it pisses me off a mainstream media outlet thinks it is ok to use the term 'autism' as derogatory.



izzeme
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01 Jul 2017, 5:30 am

Well, you are talking about Buzzfeed; that website is deliberatly offensive and insulting.

Noone should take anything they say seriously, and especially not take offense...



hurtloam
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01 Jul 2017, 6:48 am

7i just thought that was a really sad video:(



hurtloam
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01 Jul 2017, 7:02 am

On reflection I think it's more about what a corrosive influence the internet can be if you spend time talking to the wrong people.



Mr.Robot
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01 Jul 2017, 7:58 am

Every video with "Lulz" in either the description of a video or the comment section (or both) shouldn't be taken seriously. If people are starting using 'autism' as a derogatory term around me, i will gladly give them some insight into the mindset of such an autistic!


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01 Jul 2017, 8:23 am

How do you know it was derogatory or pejorative, maybe he does have ASD? Many threads in L&D indicate that many people with ASDs are indeed a lot like this character. In fact if I was to do a video about someone with ASD trying to date and I spend a day reading this forum that's probably the kind of video I'd made too.

People need to stop being so sensitive to these things, who cares? Every joke has to have a butt, every joke you tell yourself is holding up something to ridicule or using some stereotype for laughs, so if you want to give it out you have to take it. You can't say no-one can use "whatever I have" to make jokes...however a Jew a Muslim and an Irishman walk into a bar....

(NB: you saying you don't make those jokes is a fallacious argument, it doesn't make it not true)



metalab
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01 Jul 2017, 12:57 pm

I don't think you guys see the relation here...

Imagine if BuzzFeed made a video of a Mexican person being smuggling into the US to great trauma. Then they were homeless and in dire conditions trying to find work in the US. Then they get raided by US agents and deported. The video ends with 'Mucho Mexican".

That would be horrifying.

Imagine if Buzzfeed made a video of a black person growing up in poverty, then they drop out of high school. They start selling drugs, then they die in gang violence and it ends with 'Mucho Black'.

That would be horrifying.

Or what if the same was done with Homosexuals? Some gay man getting kicked out of his conservative parents house. Moving to the a liberal city, partying it up, contracting AIDS and then dying. The video ends with "Mucho Gay".

My point is they are taking a marginalized group, cherry picking all the absolute worst potential stereotypes, exaggerating them and then making them into a video.

The Autistic community is in the phase of societal awareness that the black or gay communities were like 20 to 40 years ago. The only way those communities got their terms of 'Gay' or 'Black' to not be derogatory and have the media stop using it in association with horrendous stereotypes was to call it out. That video is not okay.



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01 Jul 2017, 1:02 pm

As far as i gather the mucho autism comment was made at him by a person online. It's an accurate reflection of the things said to guys like this online. It shows the kind of abuse and bad advice they get.



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02 Jul 2017, 7:50 pm

I watched it and I found it a little sad. He tries so hard to impress a girl and than he's friend zoned. Everyone in town is laughing at him online. To make it worse, his best friend steals his girlfriend.


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Aaron Rhodes
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02 Jul 2017, 10:31 pm

I'm not the least bit offended or concerned if people treat autism that way. I don't let my autism define who I am, so it's irrational for me to be bothered by such behavior. Let people think what they want to. Just don't use it as an excuse to blame all of your troubles on how other people view your disorder. You should only be concerned if you start to believe what they say. All your doing is trying to defend people who you assume can't defend themselves, just so you can feel entitled. It's just as pointless as racial, ethnic, and gender issues. The only thing you should be concerned with is how you view your situation, not how others see it.



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03 Jul 2017, 3:02 pm

metalab wrote:
The video ends with 'Mucho Mexican".

That would be horrifying.

Would it?



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03 Jul 2017, 3:28 pm

BuzzFeed is stupid and disgusting and is basically a giant Petri dish that the internet uses for growing idiots. A lot of people hate it. And I noticed the video has many more dislikes than likes, which is proof.

Why are peoples' idea of "comedy" since the 1990's is to only be as offensive as humanly possible? :roll:



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07 Jul 2017, 4:42 pm

Aaron Rhodes wrote:
I'm not the least bit offended or concerned if people treat autism that way. I don't let my autism define who I am, so it's irrational for me to be bothered by such behavior. Let people think what they want to. Just don't use it as an excuse to blame all of your troubles on how other people view your disorder. You should only be concerned if you start to believe what they say. All your doing is trying to defend people who you assume can't defend themselves, just so you can feel entitled. It's just as pointless as racial, ethnic, and gender issues. The only thing you should be concerned with is how you view your situation, not how others see it.


I of course also have Asperger's/high-functioning autism, and I still agree with a lot of that.

This is almost like:

"You're not a real black man/woman if you don't support anti-hate (speech) laws or whatever other laws that should 'protect' us."

"You are black/gay/whatever. Therefore, because of that, you are automatically entitled to things that the 'majority' don't deserve. Also, you aren't allowed to assimilate with the 'majority' either."

It's the same mentality with a lot of others on here who assume that just because somebody isn't a minority group that they automatically have an "easy" life or are stupid/evil, and everyone who is a classified minority is automatically altruistic and superior.

Yet, I understand how the video is offensive even though I didn't really click the link. From what I heard posts on here say so far, the subject matter crosses the line into cruelty. There is still a line, no matter how thin, between just making ever so slightly offensive jokes and purposely being hateful and angry.

Sorry I just had to vent about this. I just waited to let it out this whole time because I sometimes get the feeling of being torn to shreds on a forum like this.



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07 Jul 2017, 4:54 pm

lostonearth35 wrote:
BuzzFeed is stupid and disgusting and is basically a giant Petri dish that the internet uses for growing idiots. A lot of people hate it. And I noticed the video has many more dislikes than likes, which is proof.

Why are peoples' idea of "comedy" since the 1990's is to only be as offensive as humanly possible? :roll:


I think many peoples' ideas of comedy has always been offensive to some degree in some contexts. But I think what you were seeing change in the 1990's (or it even started a decade or two before) in the change of style of humor, is that the most offensive stuff is now more open and in the mainstream. Entire society has become more liberal and progressive.

Even though the dark humor doesn't overtly offend me so much, I do grow concerned that the increasingly openness of comedy of the most offensive brand in entertainment industry and society is the downfall of western civilization. :x

Nobody is speaking out, because they are too afraid of being called a "religiously fanatic right-wing fascist who hates our first amendment!" :evil: