Wolfy777: Don't downvote people over anything in this topic! MartiusR: I wholeheartly agree, and not only for this thread, but in fact on any other.
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And how ironic - one of our colleagues, well known leftist, anticlerical and liberal, didn't had any respect or even compassion for our sick colleague. And normally he had mouth full with such terms as "tolerance".
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He probably didn't manage to pass on 2nd degree studies, so I've never seen him after bachelor degree studies. May God have mercy on him, have hope that his further fate is more fortunate.
I hope you don't mind the shortening and I'll reply paragraph per paragraph.
Unbelievable, someone actually noticed that "rule" (I'm no moderator so I can't enforce it per say). XD
And I echo your view, people should
talk over disagreements, downvoting is empty on its own.
Point 1: I'd refrain from calling anyone autistic "sick", even medicine qualifies it as a disorder, not a disease; for many, it's also attached to our identity and such miswording can be met very negatively even if it had no ill intentions behind it.
I realize it had no malice behind it, but someone else might jump at you for it.
Point 2: One of the reasons I avoid political topics at all cost.
I'd prefer not to put conviction under an umbrella, I'd prefer to take my time and think over a topic before giving an opinion on, every such topic is unique and deserves to be treated as such.
I don't care for political labels, they're all meaningless if ideals people "swear by" are not upheld with actions.
It's so simple yet for many so difficult: treat everyone with basic respect and kindness, beyond that lies compatibility and likeability, but those are entirely separate fields.
Regardless of whatever labels people are given or chose themselves, all of us share the exact same limits of being human (unfortunately that includes purely emotional reactions I think most of us can't control).
While I'm glad you didn't add to his torment, the next step would be to try and defend him, though I know that's anything but easy.
I've had a similar experience in the first year of my studies at the faculty.
One of the boys had a deformed arm, it was basically a stump reaching to where an elbow would usually be, all he had for fingers on it were little growths out of the main bulk.
The first time I saw his arm I gasped and the lecture hall was in the process of being emptied but still held some people. It wasn't that I wanted to make him feel bad, I was shocked because it was something I had never encountered before. And even though my dad reassured me that boy must be used to much worse when I got home and told him about it, I still felt ashamed for my reaction.
As far as I know, the person in question switched departments some time that year.
However, in the words of Holo the Wise Wolf (one of the main character of the anime Spice and Wolf ;) ):
"Remeber the lesson, not the disappointment."
I don't think the way we acted makes either of us bad people, merely ignorant at the point when it happened.
It's from such mistakes and failures that people grow wiser and what matters the most what is done with that new knowledge/experience. :)