Often when I am writing and the subject of being not right in the head comes up, I will be happily clacking along the key board,
tap tap tap tap tappity tap tap …tap …t..a..p
and am stopped short by the fact I am in a place where I am not happy to be.
It may go something like this;
My name is Lizzie, I have a Serious Mental Illness, therefore I am mentally ill.
Crickets chirp and time passes by as I stare at the words, if I can even get them out, often I am loathe to type them. It is not, in my mind, a fair representation of who I am and what I am and what I have. It is correct but you know, I would rather be called crazy. Call me crazy but it just makes more sense.
We throw crazy around as a term which can mean a whole slew of things from the funny to using it as an insult. Yes I have been insulted by being called crazy. but I would really rather that than mentally ill. I have been zinged just as much and even more hurtful by the term mentally ill. True story.
We live in a world of PC (politically correct) terms that are designed to not hurt the feelings of any specific group which happens to bitch and moan enough about the insensitive jerks using terms we don’t like because they peg us as different or less than, and are flung in derogatory ways which we don’t like the tone of.
Some brilliant person decided to nip this normal idiotic human behavior of trying to point out another’s flaws to make themselves feel better by making it a matter of politics. Or something like that.
Because saying a term is not PC, is going to stop the insensitive jerks from flinging it around in a derogatory way. I am pretty sure they don’t give a monkey’s butt and still use the term freely and with even more intended malice now that they know it hurts our feelings. I mean c’mon.
It’s the best reach around for getting over the free speech part of the first amendment if you ask me, which you didn’t but you are here, so in a way, you did, are, well would have asked, if you knew I had such a well thought out opinion. Right? Oh what I was saying was when groups first started complaining of their collective panties being wadded up, and the politicians started caring, I mean looking for a way to get the votes, they couldn’t outright ban words or phrases now could they?
That would be infringing on our rights as Americans to speak freely without threat of censure. So they decided persecution from the social arena was even more scathing than anything they could come up with in terms of banning and punishing those who ignored the ban monetarily or civilly. plus they avoided the whole being sued for stomping all over the rights of Americans who are insensitive jerks and throw around terms in derogatory fashion for the sole purpose of (falsely) raising themselves to a higher level in who knows whose esteemed opinion. Which is kind of the real problem here, who is it they are trying to impress, but that’s another day. Or another 1000 to 1500 words today, your choice.
I can go either way. Ok moving on then…
Don’t get me wrong here, I honestly think there used to be some good to the PC thing. It does good to bring awareness to a group of people and help ease any stigma and more importantly feeling of being different, in a less than you are way. What happened is what always happens with humans, we took it too far. Every pansy poo head whiner that decided they didn’t like the way some low life loser said their particular brand of being different, would cry foul and the political correct police would start a campaign to rid society of the word in question that caused offense.
In other words, it allowed us to get butt hurt at stupid stuff.
Lunatic, is not pc anymore. I happen to like the word. Pink Floyd does too. Lunatic being a recent addition to the no no list I don’t think Pink Floyd suffered too much social backlash for using it in a song, album, life. What do you think would happen if they tried to put that out today.?
PC takes whatever it is and bans through social means the use of slang terms and requires the proper labeling of all groups different and afflicted. It is meant to make things all nice nice for said afflicted to be called by their proper terms rather than slang such as, lunatic, retard, fag, I can think if a hundred more, terms we used in place of longer more formal terms to label the same group of people, but were seen as derogatory because they were used in jokes and common conversation, and then by insensitive jerks with a sneer on their face to hurt the person it is aimed at.
Can I tell you something? If the insensitive jerk sneers when he says it, mentally ill, mentally disordered, mentally challenged, hurts just as much as crazy lunatic, freak, fucked in the head. It’s not really about the words see, it’s about who says them and in what manner.
Proper terms do not change the assholes intent. They do not lessen the sting of words thrown with disgust or meant to degrade. I am a big believer in words, you would think I would be all for and all about PC. Sometimes the words themselves are lost when the meaning is made clear no matter the term.
In terms of the words. let’s look at crazy vs mentally ill. First impressions anyone?
I will give you mine, since I have your attention,
Crazy; wacky kooky, different, unique, less inhibited, open. happy, carefree
Mentally Ill; sick, dark twisted thoughts, depression, drooling, not right, not good, sad
I am being 100 percent honest with you folks please don’t jump down my throat for telling you exactly what I see. Besides I am the one either crazy or mentally ill, both actually.
I hate the tem mentally ill. It means without mental health. “of unsound mind” according to the dictionary. Can I ask you honestly, while I have gone off my rocker a time or two, do you really think overall I am of unsound mind ? Really? I only think I am because they say I am. It also means suffering a pattern of psychological distress, and I will concede that does adequately fit but not …ok that fits.
Crazy has a slew of meanings, one being overly enthusiastic, one being lunatic, which is defined as an obsolete term for being legally insane or foolish eccentric or absurd. The other definitions aren’t nice, just like mentally ill isn’t particularly nice but I would rather be eccentric, foolish, yes even absurd than mentally deranged. I find it odd that both definitions contain the word, dangerous.
So all in all, it’s all the same really, one is not literally better than another it seems to be a matter of public opinion as to which words sound smoother, less sharp and hurtful.
Again I say, the words matter not when delivered with venom.
So given the choice, I prefer crazy over mentally ill, and I actually like the word lunatic but that’s now obsolete thanks to PC but my overall preference? Don’t be an insensitive jerk , make it a term of endearment, and you can call me anything you want. It won’t hurt my feelings is you say it right.
And we are all just mad here anyways.
True story.
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- New York City plans to ban use of “mentally retarded,” people freak out (lovethatmax.com)
- Banning “Lunatic” (webnerhouse.com)
- Ruined words and seeking justice (hopeworkscommunity.wordpress.com)
- PC Insantiy Cripples U.S. Military (counterjihadreport.com)
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Running Naked With Scissors 
Lizzie, I’m with you! My boyfriend calls me crazy in the most endearing way. If he called me mentally ill, it would be another story, and feel different. Ever hear the song Crazy by Gnarles Barkley? I wish I could post it here, look it up and listen or get a link to one with lyrics, it’s my favorite song. PC is just censorship of free speaking. I’m a crazy artist, what more exotic thing to be? hahaha JK.
Muah!
CRAZY by Patsy Cline. “Crazy for loving you.”
you are a crazy brilliant, exoticic. and amazing artist Gail… and you get what I mean by the term of endearment.. and I have had the same word that was used as a term of endearment flung st me in disgust and believe me. it was not the word itself that hurt like hell…. Much love ❤ Muah!
You are one of the wisest people I know, Lizzie – so how could you be crazy, insane, mentally ill, or whatever phrase along those lines? How about this phrase: my friend.
I like that Edward, even if you said crazy friend, it would be ok. thank you 🙂
Everything you say makes so much sense.
“Too far.” is what gets me. Native American for American Indian. I mean these so-called Native-Americans’ ancestors were born in Russia. A Native-American is someone who is born in America. Another colored people is looked down on. It should be people of color. Give me a break.
yea that’s typically the problem with things of this nature. They go too far, as if a little is good, let’s push it too far and see what happens.
I hate PC. I am innately non-PC because I call a spade a spade and call things by their proper names while we are being proper and by the colloquial names when we are amongst friends, even the friends afflicted with the colloquial names.
When I want you to know I am jacking you up, I can be far more venomous with the PC word than I ever would attempt with the derogatory term. Given the derogatory terms all have legitimate, non-prejudiced applications, when I use them as they were initially intended, I am on the road to educating some schmuck (Yiddish word for “dick”) in the etymology which so blatantly escapes them in their superiority.
Ugh. This turns my crank. A lot.
❤
I am mad, too, you know 😉
It’s more the tone than the words…
And you’re at least nine kinds of mad, Red. All of them great.
I was thinking more like …15 😉 but um nine works..
(I wanted to go low to notswet her off.She’s like, cartoon crazy, man!)
oh yea good point! did I say 15″ I meant um lower than what you said … 😉
LOL! I stay mad. 😉 It is a far better thought process than the convolution necessary to be PC.
we are all mad 🙂 just at different things lol.. and you hit on my point – you can jack some one up fra more venomously using the PC terms -so why is it so effing important to have PC
For the same reason we have social promotion in schools, graduation from third grade and the “participation” trophy. We are AFRAID to stand up and say, you know what, everyone tried their best, but your best sucked.
We celebrate mediocrity in all its forms. PC is mediocrity in name-calling. We have our bourgeois sensibilities all atwitter because someone has a word (a word!) we think should be objectionable. I absolutely will not call a manhole a “maintenance access hole” until someone gets offended because it is called a hole. Crap on a stick. As a woman, I am not offended the hole is named after a man. Most of the other holes are named after women.
This is going to be a rant if I do not dial it back.
xxx
rant away – you have some really good points… the thing I find interesting is what we are SUPPOSED to be offended by and what I actually am offended by… i didn;t know I should be butt hurt cause its a manhole.. lol i had to think for a moment why that wasnt pc – revealed quickly by you thank you or I woul have probably been mulling it over for a long time… I am enjoying your take on this…
The reason this ticks us off so badly is someone who is not a part of the offended group is offended for the group and decided what is acceptable name-calling and what is not. Our language (American) is very fluid. Our definitions change rapidly, more so than older languages (Romance languages). We have a bleeding heart who has been put in charge of what is offensive and what is not who has never once asked the people who have a right to be offended.
Let’s take about the one on everyone’s news media: nigger. The ACLU wants it removed from Mark Twain’s books as offensive. God forbid, we REMEMBER the way things were. The ,music industry is encouraging use of the word in more places than anyone is trying to remove it, except from history. Likewise, I would put good money 10 to one, fewer than one in ten people in the US knows what the word actually means. They only know the slang definition.
The ACLU has no problem with “colored people” even if the community has a problem with it. However, how big is their problem when their rights association is “National Association for the Advancement of Colored People”?
Then, you have the ppl who thing we should never ever never use the word retarded. Frankly, the most retarded ppl I know are socially retarded in believing there is something wrong with the word. If any one of these lazy PC’ers bothered to open a ….wait for it… dictionary and learned their native tongue, none of us civilized ppl would have to discuss how inane PC really is.
Ugh.
Standing ovation ! thank you for saying it.. !! damn that is awesome..really.. beautiful.
if we didn;t have 5 or 6 or 10 different meanings for every owrld then – how did you put it to me that one time about someone using it one way then before you know it hot is cold and bad is good.. and its not even a defintion fro mthe dictionary which is the acceptable social use of it… ??? if each word meant only one thing then PC actaully could make sense but its ridiculous.. its how the words are said and with what intent…
Hear, hear, Sister … any label is bad. It is definitely tone and meaning.
All the best!
Thanks, and the best to you too 🙂
I think you are not of ‘unsound mind’ at all. You are wise and of magnificent spirit, wonderful soul. So crazy? Perhaps, but in the most wonderful way imaginable.
thank you – I thought perhaps I have a sounder mind then most.. and that’s the kind of crazy that is one of the best compliments.. 🙂
And again, you nailed it. LizzieC!
One more disadvantage of pc is that the other words often hide the meaning we’re trying to express.
And how about instead of a blanket term, you say you have BPD. It’s not the same as schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder, so why lump them together in a phrase that comes with predefined bias?
I don’t know I never really got that far .. I guess the lumping comes in elsewhere..maybe with the similarities as schizophrenia and bipolar are actually similar and I believe that they thought they had found a genetic link – there is a difference between bipolar & schizophrenia and personality disorders and in my mind there is where the mistake is. I have always said, it is a matter of classifying it for what it really is…it;s a medical condition. and I see it that way alot now .. a medical condition that causes dyruption in ..blah blah blah …unfortunately the damage is deep and hard to undo.. and historically it is the ones with the medical conditions vs personality (they are comorbid though) who shunned the most.. I am actually going to do a little digging and check my facts – got room in your mailbox? lol
Besides all that people waste an awful lot of time on the wrong thing… words have meaning themselves but they are fluid and in the wrong hands it matters not what they are.. they are just the method of delivery of hate and distrust and to make someone feel bad. Words can hurt depending on whose mouth they come out of not the words themselves and people with the pc thing are totally missing the point .. I think that sticks and stones rhyme was said tongue in cheek.
As a functioning Paranoid Schizophrenic I have been called everything under the sun, my illness seeming to give permission to those who wanted to do me down (my father for instance had me down in his divorce deposition as ‘Mentally Sub-Normal’) to say whatever they liked about me because I wasn’t ‘Normal’.
May I remind the human race that it wasn’t the mentally ill who invented atomic bombs, or used them on civilian population centres… 😦
Didn’t you use the quote: “Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light”?
Just wondering…
Love and hugs always!
Prenin.
yes I do use that quote and I believe it. I wrote about it earlier, a little less than a year ago, how I didn;t get the part about letting in the light and I came to realize it is my light that I let in. You are the light Prenin – do you know how many people you inspire? Do you know how many people have seen things a different way and are open to things and people they never would have considered because of you? Think of the art that is some of the most admired in the world, think of the things that people like you and I have created..that made those not like you and I have beauty and light. You just wrote an amazing story of spectacular imagination and it is already 2 books.. wow.. forget reminding what the mentally ill didn’t do.. Look what we, what YOU have done..You are amazing and a light brighter then you ever imagine..
It matter not what they call me, should it matter waht they call you, if they are coming from a place of love and friendship and admiration of your particular talents, if they aren;t then they can be PC and use the most proper terms… it does not hurt less when it cones fro hate and misunderstanding and a desire to cut one down to make themselves feel better and we are easy targets… You know from all you have suffered, and you have come through it as bright and shining, your light brilliant, as ever.
Hugs BIG Hugs my friend. My crazy cracked and brilliant friend.. 🙂
Thanks hun – I never thought like that! 🙂
I guess if people smack you down and pigeon hole you, after a while you come to believe it… 😦
Still: Life here is better, my tormentors have given up and gone away and I lost all my so-called user friends who were bought so cheaply.
I think we can safely say things will get better from here… 🙂
Love and hugs!
Prenin.
sometimes if you take it and look at it from a different angle -(a Mental Moment 😉 ) we can put it a more positive light. There are two sides to every coin and if we make an decision to see the good too, then the bad is not so, which causes more torment for the tormentors when they do not sucessd at what they set out to do. And I am so very glad to hear that you are in a place without those people and with ones who truly care about you.
❤
Thanks Lizzie! 🙂
What would the world be without the insane?!!! LoL!!! 🙂
Love and hugs!
Prenin.
Let’s send all of the “insensitive jerks” to the “Dark Side of the Moon”.. Sort of like a time-out until they’ve learned a lesson..
and let the lunatics drive them mad! Good idea Jake.
Very clever Lizzie, very clever indeed.. LOL
😉
Crazy is a much happier term than mentally ill. There’s a boldness to crazy that I like. It’s reckless but in a fun, exciting way. Mentally ill is serious and clinical. I always wonder who it is that decides what’s PC. The news media I wonder?
I think so too, literally, by definition it still has the negative connotations but there are also the fun and fanciful ones too. Mentally ill – clinical is a really good description I didn;t even thin of that but as soon as I read it – you are dead on. Plus I think crazy – can encompass a whole bunch of people who aren;t necessarily mentally ill therefore does not segragate us into groups with as defined lines ..you are alittle crazy my cyber mom and I mean that with lots of love 🙂
You are absolutely right Lizzie! And I take your declaration as the very high praise! I am certainly a little crazy and happy to be so. Thank you! Blessed are the cracked for they let in the light! Oh how wise Groucho was!! 😀
Call me crazy but…. I think we are all crazy. Anyone who thinks they are normal is crazy. We’re just all different, in our own crazy way. As for being PC, well don’t get me started or else everyone will think I’m crazy. Which I am anyway.
LOL! I like the way your mind works – it’s crazy 🙂