There's something to be said for the argument that the concept of disability is a societal construct. In the past, sign language was much more prevalent in some areas, to the point that the deaf and hard of hearing were easily able to communicate with others. That didn't make them able to hear, but it sure did remove many of the barriers preventing them from participating normally in society. And that's setting aside the fact that normal is itself a construct and I don't believe there's ever been a truly normal human being. People are different. Sometimes those differences are significant enough to be classified as something, and sometimes they aren't. And even significant divergences can be ignored or overlooked if the community around them is supportive. Remember that most of the symptoms that get people diagnosed as being on the Autistic spectrum are things that Autistic people do when scared, upset, or traumatized.
interesting point, and I mostly agree.
Though, again, while societal norms/standards of normalcy can make a given disability (or really any specific condition, not only medical) harder to live with, that doesn't mean the condition itself was not harmful to begin with.
Going back to your example about deaf people, prevalence of sign languages can certainly reduce the burden of the disability... but then you're creating a heavier burden on everyone else. It's not exactly feasible to have everyone learn sign language to help the 1 in a 1000 (no idea what the real numbers are) that suffer from that problem.
Then gain, nowadays we have different and easier solutions. My grandma is 100 years old, and her hearing is...
bad. So what I do when I talk to her is simply using a cellphone app (made to deal with deaf people) that simply converts to writing what I say, and then I show her the text.
For a blind person, ignoring braille texts, there's apps to read the texts for you.
In regards to "normal" as a construct I completely agree. I can't really comment on the part about symptoms of autism mostly depending on current emotional status because I'll readily admit I just don't know that much about it.
Given how badly MHA's hero culture handles people with potentially dangerous quirks, they're probably even worse about dealing with the medical facts of being quirkless. I wouldn't be surprised if medical malpractice, myths, or just a general lack of understanding has led to most people not knowing what being quirkless actually means. Maybe they think quirkless people will die if you breathe on them wrong. Now I wonder how often Izuku has heard people say they'd rather be dead than quirkless. Even people trying to look out for him may just have been closing doors and denying him opportunities because they think it's better for him.
Did he lack the drive to start training to become a hero before getting a quirk (this quest) or being told he could have a quirk (canon), I wonder? Or did his early attempts get doors slammed in his face, resulting in a kind of learned helplessness? There's a lot of potential to read MHA as a disability narrative.
TLDR, most of the problems disabled people and quirkless people face come from the fact that we live in a society.
in regards to the "die if you breath on them wrong"... I mean, maybe it could even be true, relatively speaking. Aizawa is pretty impressive physically speaking for someone that has no explicit power beyond quirk suppression, so I've seen some fanfics and quests talk about a "Charles atlas quirk" that basically allows people to train to superhuman levels even without a strenght-type quirk, if more slowly.
I don't really remember if it's usually assumed to apply to quirkless or not. It would make some sense if it didn't. It makes no real different in your day to day life, as most people don't exactly
train much, but in a hero career it would make all the difference if that was the difference between a weak quirk and no quirk at all.
but then again, here I'm talking about fanon.
As a hearing person, I am rather unqualified to step into this conversation, and know nothing about blindness. But deaf culture is complicated, and even a perfectly working side effect free "cure" for deafness…isn't something people would be stupid for not wanting. In all honesty, the main advantage I perceive in being hearing in my life is societal. I doubt that hearing is something that matters to me in the grand scale, besides that I'm used to it.
In short, I think that you might want to research these issues if you plan on making statements about them.
I don't mean to insult you or say that you don't care, I'm sure you do. It's just that this is in fact a complicated topic, and that kind of unilateral statement is one that someone affected by these issues could find very offensive.
I think there's plenty of advantages from hearing vs not hearing. I mean, for a random two, "music" and "being able to hear if a car is coming fast from around the corner while you're crossing the road".
saying that you don't find hearing that useful is like saying that you wouldn't mind becoming deaf that much, which I don't think is true.
In my opinion, they'd be making a "stupid" choice, which is not quite the same as saying they're stupid. Then again, their life is not my life, I have no right making their decision for them, and so while I have my opinion and am not really afraid to express it, I'd basically stop there.
In other words, I don't think it's wrong of me to say what I think, even if I don't fully know their situation and context.
it WOULD be wrong on me to impose my opinion on them by pretending they have to make the choice I think is best.
I can think of only a reason to refuse a cure (assuming no side-effects that wouldn't be worth the payoff): if they fear being excluded from their social circle because they no longer "share" their common element (deafness).
I can understand that, even if I don't agree with it.
Now, in all of this I'm talking from afar, thinking of the "general case", and I already admitted I don't know the details of the social situations of people affected by these problems. I have an opinion, I express it, and then I leave it at that, as it's not my place to do much more than that.
I don't think I necessarily need to be 100% informed of something to have an opinion of something. Not unless I have a work or a responsibility that leads me to make choices about that, at least. A Lawmaker should know about such things before writing laws that might have unexpected effects and consequences, for example.
I don't feel insulted, and I think you're approaching the topic very politely, even as you obviously disagree with my opinion, so thank you for that. That said, I don't think I'm wrong in what I said. To most people, refusing a cure for a disability without a VERY good reason would be the wrong decision. I don't know the details, but I don't think it's wrong to believe that.
if I ever had to deal with a person in that situation, refusing a treatment like that, I'd obviously want to hear their reasons before condemning the decision... but it would have to be a really good reason to convince me.