: On 17 October 2012 19:17, Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.pyt...@pearwood.info> wrote: [on Asperger's] > Excuse me, I think that anybody who was offended by it needs to take a > long, hard look at themselves. Would you be offended if Rurpy asked "Are > you diabetic?" There's no more shame in being Aspie than there is in > being diabetic, or allergic to wheat, or colour blind.
In the culture in which I grew up, at least, dropping "do you have developmental disorder X"? into a fairly combative reply like the one under discussion would definitely be considered rude, not because there's any shame in having developmental disorder X, but because it's a plausible assumption that the questioner thinks there is [and that that's why they used the question as a retort]. I don't mean to imply that this was rurpy's intent [especially given that he's withdrawn the comment]. But to me it did initially feel more like "Are you blind?" than "Are you diabetic?" ... and the former is more commonly used as an insult than a genuine enquiry. -[]z. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
