Early update for May 19, 2024
Added 2024-05-18 03:55:01 +0000 UTChis mom wants him to have his fingers inside your guts
the sal/danny slipshine comic goes up today??? hit up slipshine.net with your subscription, etc
Comments
I agree, but I think in this particular case Dorothy isn’t armchair diagnosing *badly*, even though she de facto is doing armchair stuff? She broaches the topic gently based on evidence and doesn’t push (she’d be a fantastic talk therapist if she could disconnect at all from her clients) or do Booster’s sassy Hannibal Lecter (positive!!) routine The part where she’s clearly in the wrong is getting huffy and defensive about the suggestion she’s ND (especially given mounting evidence)
Sajuuk-Khar
2024-05-18 19:05:08 +0000 UTCnah, we all understood it fine. dorothy's playing a fun linguistic game here. when she asks walky if he's got adhd, based on his admission that he has trouble holding thoughts in his head for long periods of time, she's being kind and helpful when walky, in turn, suggests that she has autism, based on her saying she's been actively researching it, she becomes defensive. and when he follows up by, as she did, connecting an admitted facet of her behavior back to neurodivergence, well. let's reread that last sentence, sure to pathologize someone means to connect someone's behavior back to a health problem. that is, indeed, what dorothy's been doing. but it's a word that has very negative connotations. it is typically brought up in reaction to someone trying to use neurodivergence as an insult: describing someone they don't like or has negative qualities in medicalized terms. someone says that because a person did x, they must have y disorder, and another person responds by pointing out that this implies all people with y disorder do x. that sort of thing it draws a line in the sand. what walky did is different, meaner, than what dorothy did. moreover, the thing being pathologized is "being organized", a trait dorothy takes pride in. which takes us into what it means for a trait to be pathologized--it's usually something negative, isn't it? if a behavior needs to be explained, let alone in terms of mental illness, it's generally a bad one. when someone describes, say, donald trump's ego or joe biden's gaffs as the result of mental illness, they're doing that because having an ego or misspeaking on important matters are bad. (this is not, to be clear, to say biden or trump are not bad, or that their ego or gaffs are not issues, merely to illustrate what a bad argument for those facts looks like.) dorothy is accusing walky of saying the fact that she's organized is bad or harmful in some way, the sort of thing you'd only do if something is wrong with your brain now, look. i'm not trying to ascribe malice to dorothy here. i think she's genuinely struggling with the idea that she might be neurodivergent, i think the idea scares her, and i think she's lashing out because of it. that's all understandable. it also doesn't change the facts of what she's doing: turning the tables on what was previously perfectly fine conversation between friends because the outcome of it makes her uncomfortable. walky can't be doing the same thing she's doing, because if he IS, it means there's something "wrong" with her. what walky's ACTUALLY doing, therefore, must be insulting dorothy! yes, that's it. walky has done a bad, and therefore, dorothy is not autistic. case closed
Seth Aaron Hershman has they she pronouns
2024-05-18 15:55:38 +0000 UTCI guess Joyce has a type.
Andrea Andrew
2024-05-18 14:01:49 +0000 UTCFinally!!! Nice shot, Walky!!!
Amós Batista
2024-05-18 13:07:31 +0000 UTCLotta people in these comments need to re-read Dorothy's last line.
electric_claire
2024-05-18 12:06:36 +0000 UTCOof, self-diagnosis is super good, but diagnosing friends is barely ever a good idea… I say this as a person currently in a psychiatric hospital (burn-out) who got the official Autism diagnosis two weeks ago with ADHD diagnostics still being in the works (most likely I'm both). The people at the lunch table who start handing out diagnoses to others are the most annoying… (quote: "*points to somebody* Oh, you're definitely BPD, and *turns to me* yeah, for you, the autism is reeeaaally obvious")
halfur
2024-05-18 06:33:53 +0000 UTCMy armchair psychology is noting a different folder, which is feeling obligation to take responsibility for other peoples’ problems one cannot reasonably be responsible for is squarely on the Neuroticism trait axis.
Shane Wegner
2024-05-18 06:03:53 +0000 UTCIt’s in line with the accommodations she’s glad to make for everyone except herself (I kind of wonder if some of that is from the Keeners, subconsciously? because even good, supportive parents can have blind spots!)
Sajuuk-Khar
2024-05-18 05:32:09 +0000 UTCDorothy has such a cognitive dissonance when it comes to neurodivergence. She sees no issue with other people having it but absolutely despises the idea for herself.
Grace Kieser
2024-05-18 05:22:20 +0000 UTC"Excuse me while I... whip this out."
Harold
2024-05-18 05:17:08 +0000 UTCDorothy does the same thing to concentrate that Joe does, huh 🤔
Sajuuk-Khar
2024-05-18 05:06:47 +0000 UTCGet Walky'd™ chump
Jey Siksa
2024-05-18 04:31:33 +0000 UTCIf that ends up being correct, Sarah called it first
BBCC
2024-05-18 04:13:48 +0000 UTCAs nice as it is to see Dorothy and Walky interacting like this, I can't help wondering whether she's violating Joyce's privacy by discussing her potential autism without her permission (and with Walky, of all people). (The saving grace here is that she isn't explicitly discussing that - his reply indicates that it's likely Walky'll just write this off as Dorothy Being Dorothy.)
Harold
2024-05-18 04:12:43 +0000 UTCNice sequence of two-shots except for the borderless panel where Dorothy whips out the phone and inadvertently pivots the conversation to the autism spectrum.
Dan Rabin
2024-05-18 04:09:18 +0000 UTC
