Scarborough opines that CO shooter is "on autism scale"
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Really? From a parent of a child with Asperger's, no less. Sure, let's spout off that autism is at the root of mass murder "more often than not." Ugh!!
https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/07/scarborough-holmes-on-autism-scale-129779.html
"As soon as I hear about this shooting, I knew who it was. I knew it was a young, white male, probably from an affluent neighborhood, disconnected from society ? it happens time and time again. Most of it has to do with mental health; you have these people that are somewhere, I believe, on the autism scale," said Scarborough, whose son has Asperger's syndrome. "I don't know if that's the case here, but it happens more often than not. People that can walk around in society, they can function on college campuses ? they can even excel on college campuses ? but are socially disconnected."
DD1, 1/5/2008 ~~~ DD2, 3/17/2010
Re: Scarborough opines that CO shooter is "on autism scale"
I can't honestly say that one of my reactions to reading about his background wasn't, "Hmmm, I wonder. Some of that sounds spectrum-like."
But there are ways to talk about it, as you just did, that doesn't label everybody with ASD as a potential mass shooter, and/or assume that "more often than not," anybody who commits such an atrocity does so because they're on the spectrum. To me, that's just a form of denial that makes an already-vulnerable group a target for blame and suspicion, while ignoring the fact that there are plenty of non-ASD-related reasons someone can feel angry enough, and disconnected from society enough, to kill other people.
Whether Holmes is on the spectrum or not, I would expect a more nuanced take from someone who's got a kid with ASD.
DD1, 1/5/2008 ~~~ DD2, 3/17/2010