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[–]slushpilot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I have the greatest of respect for paralympic athletes.

Just not for people who only think themselves "special". I mean, the people we're talking about want to compete against women... it's really not very different if they were to say they feel excluded from the amputee category. Maybe it didn't come across so well, but I wanted to point out that absurdity.

[–]DameDuLac 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Ok, I just wanted to point it out because it definitely did not come across well.

[–]MarkTwainiac 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Slushpilot: The Special Olympics and Paralympic Games are two very different things.

The Special Olympics are for people with intellectual disabilities, such as Down's syndrome. The Paralympics are for people with physical disabilities, such as wheelchair users, those who are blind or with very limited sight and thus "legally blind," and the amputees you mention.

I took your crack to be a diss on people with intellectual disabilities. They're the ones who get called "special." Those of us with physical disabilities usually get different slurs, such as "gimp."

[–]slushpilot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I obviously don't literally think that genderspecial men should go compete with actual physically/intellectually disadvantaged people.

But it's only the next step after the kind of advantage they're asking for when they demand to win races against women. I was taking that thought to its absurd conclusion. So, whether they want to identify themselves into the amputee category or the Downs category too, it's just more of the same and either way I have no respect for it.