PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Vapid Discrimination Against the Mentally Ill by Various Independent Media Centers
by Skelly Dubhuidhe Friday, Aug. 31, 2007 at 2:27 AM

Is there room for hate on IMC?

Vapid Discrimination Against the Mentally Ill by Various Independent Media Centers

Hypocrisy, it seems, is not limited to the right wing. It flourishes in Independent Media Centers. It seems difficult to believe that the very same people that are sensitive to discrimination against homosexuals, women, minorities, and other oppressed groups in our society would fling vapid vile against the mentally ill. I had no intention of addressing this issue head on when I wrote a short article yesterday about signs of disrespect in the notes of hidden articles on some IMC collectives, until I found a response that was posted over and over again in response to my article on various IMC's across the country. The tone and nature of the response leads me to believe that its author is one of the editors responsible for the proliferation of these stigmatizing terms, such as “idiocy”, “ k00kish”, “ k00ky”, “ real woo-woo”, “ whiff of nuttiness”, “ weirded-out”, “ Wacky”, “loony tune”, “wacko”, “paranoia”, “ loco”, and so on. Of course, the responder might just happen to be a bystander, but I find it unlikely.

I've embedded the response here, so as to give IMC readers a chance to see the logic behind this hate:

“If you had bothered to read the hidden articles you will realise that the 'Reasons to hide' given above are perfectly reasonable.

When you have seen the gibberish spammed for the twentieth or thirtieth time by the likes of "Bobby Meade", "Johnny America", and other spammers with obvious mental health issues you will realise why IMC editors get a little pissed-off.
I think their comments are quite mild in the circumstances.

Furthermore, you should read the editorial guidelines. This article would be in breach of the guidelines on some IMC sites. They have mailing lists where these issues are discussed.”

The logic is basically this:

1. An IMC editor is so terribly burdened by posts from the mentally ill that he feels justified in using hate terms which disparage all mentally ill persons.

2. This specific IMC editor is doing the mentally ill a favor by merely using hate terms (perhaps an implication of doing something worse?)

3. Shut up and don't criticize me publicly, as I publicly criticize others, because I'm special.

This editor's response proves that I was correct in reading only the editor's notes on hidden articles and not the contents of those articles. I did so because I was writing about the attitudes and beliefs of some IMC editors and not the articles that they were responding to. If you accept this IMC editor's logic, then you would accept an IMC editor adding notes calling an African-American writer a “nigger” because that writer happened to be annoying, calling a gay writer a “fag” because his articles are inarticulate, calling a Zionist a “kike” because his viewpoint is offensive, and so on. The same logic that permits one to use words of hate in one circumstance, if applied to others, reveals itself as faulty and unbecoming of an IMC editor.

In the same way that Al Sharpton would demand the resignation of a racist radio talk show host who calls female African-American basketball players “nappy headed hoes”, I demand that the editors of DC IMC and Baltimore IMC responsible for these comments of hate against the mentally be ejected from their collectives and forever barred from activism.

Simply hiding articles with the label “Policy Violation” should be enough!

I have seen a loved one pass from this world through suicide because the stigma of mental illness prevented him from treating his depression. I, myself, have suffered discrimination for depression. I've have seen too many homeless schizophrenics dumped like trash upon the street to stand silent while some hateful bigot plays gatekeeper to the left.

Fire this bigot's ass and read this: Before You Label People, Look At Their Contents