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Hey, Armory Todd!
Though we really can't guess which of the images in the gallery evoked this reaction, it touches on an interesting point: where do you draw the line between civility and prejudice—and can the two really be distinguished? There's probably no answer, but it's probably worth thinking about.
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jeffreymoyer00@yahoo.com writes:
I'm proud of being politically incorrect (I'm a Libertarian, for Christ's sake), and I love your webpage. However, it bugs even me that retarded people are included in the mix.
Thanks for the good words—and you're right, there are a couple of the images we're not entirely comfortable with. Problem with having four people on a project is that sometimes the vote is split two to two. Problem with those four people living in four different cities is we can't all see whether it comes up heads or tails—how curious it always turns out to agree with whomever tossed it in the first place.
But anyway ...
Though the site's certainly mean-spirited, we generally try not to be just plain mean—at least not to anyone who doesn't genuinely deserve it. I don't think any of us has ever set out to make fun of anyone who's disabled, but I don't think it's right to shy away from a given photo because the person "looks like" they might be disabled.
It seems to me that it's a deeper, more significant, kind of prejudice to conclude that a person is "retarded" just because of the way they look. You really can't tell by appearances (see "The M.I.T. Homecoming Queen" for a detailed—or at least illustrated—rant on that topic).
It's difficult to laugh at someone who obviously can't help their condition.
We get a lot of e-mails from folks who find it quite easy to laugh at people who are obviously ugly—and who probably can't help it. If they could, why wouldn't they?
But seriously ... while being ugly is a condition most people obviously can't help, putting your photograph on the Internet certainly is.
To draw an analogy: I can't sing. I've tried, and I make sound that's very much a Saint Bernard when someone stands on his testicles (not that I've done that, but I kicked a shih-tzu in the nut-sack once, and if the sound were deeper and more prolonged, it would sound just like my rendition of "Louie Louie")
And so, there aren't any MP3's of me howling away out there in cyberspace—or at least none I'm aware of. If there were, I probably have no grounds to object when some mean-spirited radio host would play them on the airwaves as a cruel joke. And should he hesitate to lampoon me because I sound like I might be mentally deficient (and I certainly do - no doubt about it)?
I should hope not.
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