On his MSNBC program this morning, Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough made the stunning declaration that people like Aurora mass shooter James Holmes are “somewhere, I believe, on the autism scale,” and that while he didn’t know if this was true of Holmes specifically, “it happens more often than not.” (HERE)
He later retracted his comments…
I don’t get the stupidity of that comment… I do not have autism and have known only a few who do, but this? This is just crazy.
To suggest that autism is connected to mental health problems?
Ugh.
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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stupid comment.
This is the kind of crap that promotes stigma against people with any kind of neurological issues.
My 13-year-old son has Asperger’s, and he didn’t deserve to be linked to mass-murder because some jackass on TV is talking to ignorant viewers. If he’d spoken to an actual expert before mouthing off, he would have realized that there is nothing of relevance in his rambling.
Americans don’t understand mental illness or neurological disorders, and instead of bothering to try tend to spout off stupid nonsense like this. He apparently prefaced by saying that he has a son with Asperger’s. I feel very sorry for his child, whose father would subject him to this kind of stigma and sick fear-mongering.
I really don’t know much about Joe Scarborough, but this is more than enough for me to view him as rather a loathsome human being.
As for retracting his comment: Sadly, that isn’t how words work. Once you say them, you can’t unsay them. If he apologized and said that ignorant talk show hosts are actually more dangerous than the average person with Asperger’s, then that might be a start.
I’d probably better stop now.