Yes! This. Exactly.

I’m sorry that happened to him. What did they do to make fun of him? How did it affect him? I am curious about his experience as I don’t exactly know what it’d be like for the person in the story with the doll, who probably has taken some guff at some point or another.

Interesting. It’s outside the norm so I think most people would share this with a friend.

Hmm. You may be right--I’m still chewing this over--but I do think the context matters. I don’t see there being any shame in having an illness of any kind, so there’s no accompanying judgment.

However, I know that my feeling about this is not typical, and that the meaning of the label beyond what I assign it still…

I was with you in the first sentence (particularly “I chose to”). Goes downhill from there. I feel differently about it than you because I have had a different set of experiences and perhaps value different things.

Yeah, I’m chewing it over...I’m not entirely sure I was right to say that.

Oh, yeah. I very much agree. I’d tell a friend-- “you won’t believe what I just saw”. We’d commiserate, and probably have a laugh or two, much like with those ‘Crap Emails From a Dude’.
I wouldn’t put it out there on social media; that just feels very wrong.
I like that the guy’s face is obscured with scribbles in the…

Yes. To me it’s a matter of practicality. If my assumption, flawed or not, leads me to behave with greater compassion, I don’t feel like it matters all that much if I’m wrong.

Oh, that’s the thing, isn’t it. The media may often react in a mocking manner towards behavior like this...but we as readers do have a choice.

As to who we want to be as people, and how we accordingly respond.
Even if he’s just a bit weird--it’s really not easy being different and I don’t think a little compassion…

Sure, it’s weird. But, just in my experience-- after 20 years of riding (my city)‘s transit, it’s gotten so that I don’t give this stuff a second thought. It’s only when people seem super angry and violent that I have any fucks to give.

See my comment below re: diagnosing mental illness in massacre gunmen.

I think generally there’s less harm in erring on the side of compassion. Even people who are just ‘a little off’ can use a little kindness--it’s not easy being different.

Could be. But.

In a nation quick to ‘diagnose’ massacre gunmen with mental illness (and thus spread inaccurate, stigmatizing, harmful info about mental illness)--

Within that national context I figure it’s relatively innocuous to urge people to err on the side of compassion when dealing with someone who *may* just be…

Mmm...yeah. I hear you, but...my feeling is, if you wouldn’t mock someone for having cancer, don’t mock someone for being mentally ill.

OMG

Let’s be honest. Her writing’s about mocking the unwell uncool kid for laughs. It’s not about how ‘scared’ she is or anything like that.

Ride public transit and get over yourself, lady. There are all kinds of people out there, and...that’s fine.

I hate this story. Misogynist-baiting in the name of clicks. Disgusting.

Hello from the greys!

Mulgrew visited Planet Cheers before Frasier made any incursions in space. She played an ambitious city council member (upper classtronaut visiting blue collar sattelite Cheers on her campaign tour of duty) who falls for Sam but is ultimately too embarrassed by his native dramz-y ways to keep that…

Asking for a friend...who, ok, is me...
How are we supposed to clean our adult toys now?

Gorgeous though he may be, he looks like Farley’s wardrobe inspiration for the ‘van down by the river’ sketch. Maybe his respectable son, come to visit? #BigTroubleInLittleChina

“Golden retriever with abs” is why I *don’t* like him. Then, I’m more a cat person; maybe that says it all.