It's clear this has an effect on people who read it. - personally I and others have read commented here find it distressing and potentially damaging. There is a term I have come across newly: "rage bait". I'm adding this to "dog whistling" when considering information I encounter...
I have no definitive answer to why this is taking place. One might speculate: a government edict to spin things one way or another, personal bias on the reporters part without sufficient editorial control, some sort of crazy "got to get lots of people to read this" metric and a rush to the gutter with news reporting and perhaps wider society - I don't know and I doubt I ever will for sure in this particular case.
On the premise of wanting to be helpful tho' I think that there may be a lesson from this about misleading framing of "headlines", badly calibrated views about what is taking place and the sort of emotional distress that information exchange of all sorts can generate here that I'm appreciating. I conclude that how I and others react to that is a key part of whether it is perpetuated.
I think how its reported is part of the so called culture wars, some media want and promote the idea that we need to go back to how things were in some mythical gold age, when things like being neuro divergent, gay, trans, non Christian, a sexual abuse survivor or whatever didn't exist, or were criminal or people were locked up in an institution and not seen or heard by "decent people". Pretending the misery caused by these things being hidden didn't exist.
Adults in the UK broadly speaking haven't a clue about how the media is playing them or don't think it effects them.
Kids aren't getting taught it properly.
And OFCOM are trying where they can, with limited means, to get the message across.
Meanwhile we're all messed with because not enough people vote against it one way or another - only if people realise they're being duped can they want to do something about it in my opinion
Tragically I don't think enough people actually care about it - until it becomes their problem most people ignore the problems around them.
I think a big part of the problem has been a lack of difference between political parties over the last 20 years, they're like two cheeks of the same bum. At least with 5 parties now theres some difference between them to choose from, but I still think none of them really understand Autism and other ND either.
I think a big part of the problem has been a lack of difference between political parties over the last 20 years, they're like two cheeks of the same bum. At least with 5 parties now theres some difference between them to choose from, but I still think none of them really understand Autism and other ND either.
