It seems society in general sees racism and sexism as bad but disablism and mentalism as okay

Pardon me Ross1975 but this is yet another demonstration of the flaws and bias present in AI.

"There’s little public outrage when disabled or mentally ill people are talked about badly in politics or the media"??? That's not the case. As with most media and things, it depends what one reads and whom one talks to.

Some people will always stigmatise and blame others in unfair ways. But that's only some people and in my experience there are fewer of them every day. Don't talk to them if you disagree with them, simples!

😇

Don't these artificial intelligence gizmos just confirm anything one might ask it? They give me the creeps, quite frankly.

So every claim for state support is genuine, mental or physical? A person can assert that there are chancers out there, without it following that all claims are fraudulent.

I don't believe that my Muscular Dystrophy is a con, any more than the thousands of other legitimate claims, mental or physical. You are labouring on a falsehood.

Hi Ross,

I'm in two minds in regard to certain types of "isms". I do think that there is more tolerance in society for some "isms" compared with how disablism and mentalism are viewed but I don't believe that any of the protected characteristics actually are fully accepted. Unfortunately we have been living in the cultural zone of "one" since the late 1970's, it was one of the core features of Thatcherism/Reaganism and even New Labour didn't try to steer away from it enough.

Yes we do get vilified and those of us with non-visible disabilities are exposed to it even when it is not aimed at us specifically. I have sat in rooms where people have slagged off those of us with mental health problems and I challenge it but I've also known that I was not the only person in the room with similar mental challenges and seen them sit on their hands. This is mainly because of stigma but also because of the way that politicians and the media like to have "villains" who they can turn other groups against. Racism and Sexism are still as real as is homophobia and hate crimes are soaring across protected charactistics but at the moment those in power are targeting the disabled, immigrants, the transgendered community and those over pension age. When you turn communities against each other they are easier to control and,more importantly, they are not looking at those who are the real problem.

There will be bad seeds in all groups who will abuse the system however there are a lot less of them percentage wise than in the top 1% who almost all abuse the system. Yet the politician and media rarely sell that story. Much of the media is controlled by the 1% so it can only be expected to divert attention from their own abuse.

We live in a worl;d where stats are manipulated. We are told that the benefits bill is the highest it has ever been. Well when you realise that the state pension is included in the benefits bill then it comes as no surprise that it is the case. More people are living longer lives and because we live longer we are also more likely to develop issues which can be classed as disabilities. If these figures were removed, then we would still have more people and more cost but it would be a much smaller figure. However that would not make such good propaganda.

There never seems to be discussion about why there is there such an increase in mental health issues in young people? It's all very well calling them a burden, but unless you seek to understand the causes, you will not be able to help them. Why are more people having more stress in their daily lives and suffering a variety of mental health issues? Successive governments and the media have tried to portray it as a weak society rather than consider the root causes and blame everyone rather than themselves.

I thought we had come a long way in removing the stigma from mental and physical disability but since the Brexit vote (and I am not blaming any of it on leavers/remainers but on how the campaigns were run) there has been a wider division in society and also a removal of tact. So many lies were told and groups turned against each other that it has caused a long-term fracture in our society along with a decisive shift in where the centre of politics sits so that people feel that they have freedom of speech but without any responsibility for what they say. Social media has been a perfect tool in escallating that chasm.

The fall in the stats of those disabled employees can also be mapped to the defunding of incentives for employers to take on disabled employee such as the grants to make premises safe or to put in place reasonable adjustments. Job centres are actively advising people not to put their disability on their application forms and the rules about disabled people being interviewed if they meet the selection criteria seem to have disappeared. It is strange that politicians cannot see the cause and effect.

So yes I would agree that we are in the firing line at the moment, but I don't think that the attacks on us are any worse that the attacks on over groups in society. Racism is strongly linked to Islamophobia/Anti-semitism and is still institutionally rife in this country and immigation remains one of the hottest argued subject but still ignores key information. Women may be the majority but they still have restricted access to the boardroom and senior management positions. LGBTQi rights in the UK have moved from the top of Europe towards the bottom with only Italy below us (not including the once USSR controlled eastern european countries), transphobia is at an all time high and our governments have led attacks on the old and young. None of us are being treated favourably.

I like to think about who benefits from creating divisions between people!

It seems every day a new division pops up, who is stirring the pot?

I can't remember where I read before, it could even have been on here but you can enjoy my re-telling!

There was an experiement where they had red and black ants living together in a jar. They left each other alone and went about their little anty-lives, until someone shook the jar, and the ants killed each other, blaming eachother for the shaking.

Who is shaking our jar?!