Here's an article on "The Health Risks of Being Left-Handed"

[conuly]

Nothing in this article is news at all. Oh, wow, lefties are more prone to ADHD, bipolar disorder, dyslexia, schizophrenia? We only knew that over a decade ago.

No, the reason I'm linking to this article is a valid language check. ADHD is not a health risk. Bipolar disorder is not a health risk. Dyslexia is not a health risk. Schizophrenia, much though it's always sounded massively unpleasant to me, is not a health risk. These are all neurological differences (or disorders, if you prefer that term).

To call them "health risks" is really confusing. Your health isn't at risk!

In another article from Pat's Papers, some shopping malls and the like are casting a wider net, looking for more diverse Santas.

Every single comment is atrocious. It's all "Santa is supposed to be white, this is stupid" and "OMG, speaking anything but English is wrong". Apparently, it's not about the kids, it's about making sure Santa is just like them. Unless you're going to go commentsmiting (there's only 8 of them, so it's easy to reply to each and every one of them if you like), don't bother to read them. What a waste of mental energy.

Comments

[siderea]

Sorry, hon, but you're just wrong on this. The average lifespan of someone with schizophrenia is something like 60. Bipolar comes with substantial increased risks for death by suicide and accident, and dramatically increased risk of substance abuse with all the health risks that implies.

[conuly]

I didn't know either of that.

[siderea]

Okay, more because my comment above does not represent how angry your post makes me.

We live in a society in which people with major mental illnesses are regularly told that there's nothing really wrong with them, that they could "get over" it if they just tried harder, and that they don't need meds they just need more Jesus, and that if they can't get better by mere force of will it's because of moral failing on their part.

You're not helping.

People on the autistic spectrum presuming to project their own paradigm out of their personal experience onto people with other DSM diagnoses -- many of whom have very different experiences of how their conditions and society and medicine all fit together and actually are capable of speaking for themselves -- is exactly as privileged, arrogant, silencing, and high-handed as it is when (presumed) "neurotypicals"[*] do it to people on the spectrum.

[* I think it's cool folks on the spectrum have a term for folks not on it. I think it's deeply uncool the term picked erases all the other forms of neuroatypicality besides autism -- or presumes to represent them without their participation.]

[legendary-zelda.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know. If you consider mental health to be health, then I think at least bipolar and schizophrenia could be considered health risks. Plus, they both increase the likelihood that you'll commit suicide, so that's also a health risk.

If you're only considering physical health when you're talking about health, then I guess that's another matter. Though still there's the elevated suicide risk to consider.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

What lefties apparently share with people diagnosed 'with' ADHD, autism-spectrum, bipolar disorder, dyslexia, schizophrenia, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis and ME/CFS is a probable (though not yet established) genetic susceptibility to brain-path rewiring in response to congenital brain inflammation as a result of elevated maternal cortisol levels, possibly caused by retroviruses (http://www.bing.com/search?q=neuro-immune+retrovirus&src=IE-SearchBox&FORM=IE8SRC) affecting the neuro-immune systems.

Obviously, no popular-press article is going to get into THAT whole controversial can of worms with any degree of accuracy or objectivity. There's currently a huge fight (http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2011/11/xmrv-researcher-sued-jailed/) going on about it in the scientific community, but unfortunately, the matter is so complex that only scientists capable of replicating the experiments are entitled to hold any opinions about it.

Not that that's going to stop reporters, or people with Dunning-Kruger syndrome: they'll just pick the scientist they like best, then form teams around them to gossip, gas, and insult each other (as you can see in the comments to that article.) None of them are going to delve into the subject of how we're going to to determine which specific genetic markers indicate which specific kinds of susceptibilities and/or adaptations to which specific types of prenatal environmental stressors, because they'd be over their heads before they finished the first paragraph, and would have lost their readers even before that. The general populace has no slightest interest in cortisol and cytokine levels (http://www.bing.com/search?q=cortisol+cytokines&src=IE-SearchBox&FORM=IE8SRC) or any of that 'egghead' stuff, and won't even attempt to read about it.

Bottom line: current research indicates that if you're odd in one way, you're likely to be odd in other ways too, which means you're more susceptible to be bullied, marginalized, diagnosed, drugged and stigmatized by the Normal People in this society, and also more susceptible to developing several kinds of extremely painful and debilitating neuromuscular diseases that many doctors still believe to be psychosomatic attention-getting ploys.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

In our considerable experience, lefties are under more stress from the push to become right-handed from an early age, but what we observed was stammering and learning disability and if they're going to start saying those are health risks we may as well throw in the towel.

Maybe I've seen too much Star Trek, but I thought there was a difference between "mental illness" and mental disease -- an illness that affected the mind, like this rumor recently that some kids get severe OCD after having had strep. (I'm not too sure about this. If you just finished fighting off a life-threatening infection wouldn't you be worried about germs?)

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

There's an episode of Frasier where Dean Cain plays an investment banker who volunteers as a department store Santa. It's cute as hell and I didn't hear any objections.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Apparently, it's not about the kids, it's about making sure Santa is just like them.

Parsing this, is "them" referencing "kids"? In which case both sides are right as Santa should logically look like the kids he's bringing presents to. Unless they're girls.

Of course Santa is white. He's also pink, green, purple and striped on occasion.

(Considering Santa's antecedents, there is a point to be made that a northern european mythos would indeed be caucasian in appearance, but I somehow doubt any of the commentors are making it. One would have to know history to argue it...)

[conuly]

No, this "them" means the commenters. Sorry!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

"Santa is supposed to be white, this is stupid" and "OMG, speaking anything but English is wrong".

Considering that the original Santa Claus was Turkish... that is pretty hilarious.
In a sad way.

As for the "health risks": *facepalm*

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Originally Lycian, which is neither Turkish nor Greek, but a last remnant of Minoan Crete.

Now I've been bit by this awful plot-bunny about pious young Bishop Nikolaos proving his courage and Divine protection amongst the wild pagan Northmen by bull-leaping his way over the antlers of a team of eight charging reindeer, tossing the driver out, commandeering the sleigh full of treasure, and vanishing with a "Ho ho ho!" into the distance. I think I may have watched A Nightmare Before Christmas a few too many times.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Fair enough - but today Myra would be in Turkey, I believe? (And either way that means Santa should probably be, what do they call it, olive-skinned? And definitely not speaking English...)

*snickers* Mental images!