29th October - Why I had a fight with a stranger online



I say 'fight', but I'm not one for arguments tbh, I can't be arsed with them and I'm nowhere near aggressive enough to ever raise my voice or use abusive language. Instead, I prefer the term 'educate', to help guide someone on their own path of realisation on why their opinion is wrong. Never was that more true than on TikTok the other night when I saw a video posted by a Mother of an autistic child, who wanted to help other parents in spotting the signs of autism in children. She added that her own daughter has exhibited many of these behaviours from an early age, without being diagnosed, and they included things like lining up her toys, or spinning around on the spot, in circles.




Most of the comments were supportive and helpful, except for one which stuck out like a sore thumb at the top of the comment list, simply stating: "It isn't just abnormal kids who do this. My kid is normal, and he does it too". Now then, if you're a decent human being, you'd already have spotted the trigger word(s) in that sentence which are not really acceptable to use. So, with that in mind, I politely commented: "Let's not use the word 'abnormal', as that implies that those who have autism are not 'normal', and what even is 'normal' anyway?"



As per, with uneducated morons on the internet, they took this is a direct attack and quickly retorted "I'll use whatever words I want, thanks!". Now then, at this point, I happily conceded that I can't control which words somebody uses, it is a free county after all, and replied with: "I can't control your word choices, I can only advise you on which ones might be deemed offensive to some, as, by using them, you can appear ignorant or uneducated on a certain subject". Once again, they pointed out that they see nothing offensive about their choice, and so I posted a link to a website which offered explanations on which terms you should, and shouldn't use, and added: "Here is a handy list of guidelines which may be able to assist you".

Once more, the stranger came back with a comment on how they'll use whichever words they want to. My final retort, was that I can't stop racist folk using the 'N' word, or stop psychos from raping, or entering an entire school with a gun and shooting down 200 innocent kids. I can only advise people on what is deemed socially acceptable, and unacceptable, and if I can even persuade ONE person today on the differences between both, then I've achieved my goal as a helpful member of the human race. The entire comments list was shortly 'disabled' by the user after this, I presume as they were as bored of the debate as I was. I don't usually get involved in such back & forth, but on this occasion...




... This was WHY I argued with a stranger on TikTok.


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