I feel I should offer possible trigger warnings on this. I can haz opinions that society kinda does this.
I feel I should offer possible trigger warnings on this. I can haz opinions that society kinda does this.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/09/cancer_stigma_don_t_blame_patients_for_their_disease_no_matter_what_the.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/09/cancer_stigma_don_t_blame_patients_for_their_disease_no_matter_what_the.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/09/cancer_stigma_don_t_blame_patients_for_their_disease_no_matter_what_the.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/09/cancer_stigma_don_t_blame_patients_for_their_disease_no_matter_what_the.html
I guess I'm naiive but I didn't know cancer blame was a thing. Yikes.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes. People will ask why the cancer patient didn't follow the asker's own personal Unified Theory of Health. (Why didn't you take ten g of vitamin C every day? Why did you eat meat? Et fucking cetera.)
ReplyDeleteWhen my paternal grandmother was diagnosed with liver cancer people were all "but you didn't do anything to get that", like liver cancer is God's tool to punish alcoholics and has no other possible causes.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to separate the veins of religion running through society from this. Frex, the bad things don't happen to good people, so you must have done something bit. Or the one that makes me want to punch things, god doesn't give you more than you can handle. Uh, right, sure, this is just a test. Bite me.
ReplyDeleteF-L Silver Right, like I wanted to feel EVEN MORE INADEQUATE than I already felt for not being able to cope with this crap, now you tell me that God thought I could handle it so now I've disappointed the Almighty as well? Fuck you.
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget one of the things the very, very close friend I lost to the extremely aggressive, extremely ugly cancer in 2014 had said when I visited them for the first time after she got the diagnosis. Almost speaking to herself, she said "...but I did everything right..." meaning eating right, not smoking, etc.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if she had heard/felt explicit blame from someone, but not necessarily, because it's all-pervasive already. So even as I rushed to reassure her on that point with halting words, I knew that the impotent rage those words lit up was doomed to remain impotent.
So I'd like to plus all the comments in this thread and especially Alistair Young's just-world fallacy comment even more times.
Actually, that sounds pretty accurate. Can I use that?
ReplyDeleteF-L Silver accurate, but perhaps a bit heavy on the existential despair for the average toddler.
ReplyDeleteI'll save it for junior high age. Perfect angst window opportunity.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite are the people who tell parents they are bad parents because they "allowed" the doctors to give their children chemo and radiation. Didn't you know chemo and radiation cause cancer?
ReplyDeleteYes, this is as illogical as you imagine.
Stefanie Fiskaa
ReplyDeletewhat
Well, and, they do. Well, radiation can, chemo not as much. But kicking the problem down the road is still a win.
ReplyDeletePeople say stupid things. Like the parents weren't told there were risks. Oh, well, ok, let's just let the kid die now, then. If those people were the same people who were going to suggest unproven alternatives as if they were safer because they were natural, ugh.
ReplyDeleteZeynep Dilli yeah.
ReplyDelete