Quote:
Originally Posted by Qtx
Treading carefully...lets throw some autism in to the mix. Some people with autism, through no fault of their own, can rub people up the wrong way. Or they say things that offend without meaning too. Some neurotypicals are able to take onboard the reasons for this, others are unable to or simply don't understand the reasons. Such a person may dislike the autistic person because of how the autism makes them act. Should it be a crime to give that honest opinion that they don't like someone because of the autism instead of just thinking it?
On the other side of the fence, someone with autism might get offended by a joke that was not intended to be malicious and just light hearted banter.
It is very hard on the internet to tell if anyone has any disability, mental health issues or something going on in their life that would cause them to be sensitive to things otherwise seen as benign. Add on top there are always clashes of personalities between people without any notable issues and people often take things the wrong way.
Trying to police that with new laws or legal action is not a good thing.
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You make some very good points. I think the way to deal with this is for people to voluntarily make any issues known, as I have done, so that any difficulties can be acknowledged and taken into account. People cannot make allowances if they are not informed of a person's difficulties/limitations and, once they are, they are legally obliged to take them into account.
I remember one member who had dyslexia became fed up of people picking him up about spelling mistakes, so he explained his difficulties on his tagline.
Some forums disallow posts about spelling mistakes for this very reason.
I once saw a programme about a guy with tourettes syndrome, which resulted in him having verbal ticks. He went into a shop where a black woman worked and started swearing and using racist language.
She knew him and his condition from previous experiences and took it in her stride without becoming offended as she knew he couldn't help it and didn't mean it.
I was very impressed with her professional and understanding attitude and hoped that her employer took note of this.