I just heard
Joe Scarborough opining about the horrific shootings in Aurora, Colorado on
Friday morning. His take:
Of
course you don’t want to generalize, but as soon as I heard about this
shooting, I knew who it was…it happens time and time again…I think a lot of it
has to do with mental health, again most of it has to do with mental health…You
have these people that are somewhere, I believe probably on the autism scale…I
don’t know if it was the case here, but it happens more often than not…you hear
about it happening all the time…for those who may not have a loving family, a
support group, who may be a bit further along on the autism scale…I do think,
again, I don’t know the specifics about this young man, but you see too many
shooters in these types of tragedies bearing the same types of characteristics
mentally.”
Wow. Just
wow. So now rather than a medical condition, autism is a form of mental illness
that leads to homicidal rages. I’m not sure where to begin, but I’d have to
start by pointing out the obvious to Joe—yes, a lot of these types of tragedies
do have to do with mental health. Is that really such a leap? But why would he
think “someone a bit further on the autism scale” would engage in a murderous
rampage? Why the baseless assertion that “more often than not” the perpetrators
of these hideous crimes are autistic?
Joe mentions
he has a son with Asperger’s that “everyone loves”, as if this makes him an
expert on the autism “scale”. It frightens me that there are people unfamiliar
with autism that heard this nonsense and take it as credible evidence autistic
people are a danger to society—heck, Joe said it and he has a kid with autism
so he should know. There is enough misinformation about autism without labeling
those afflicted as homicidal maniacs.
Yo, Joe—Get
your facts straight before you disinform millions who watch you. Maybe even
take the time to learn something about autism. Having a son on the spectrum, or
as you would say, “scale”, doesn’t give you the right to slander an entire
group of people—many who can’t speak for themselves.
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