Baggypants wrote:They don't need to be dehumanised.
Agreed. But you're the one who's actually doing that here, I feel.
Absolving them of reasonable personal responsibility for their own actions, to not unnecessarily act like twats, is the actual "special pleading" that's happening here.
Holding them to the very same standards of decent human behaviour as every other person is treating them as the autonomous human beings that they are.
They might well be as freaked out and stressed about it as everyone else - though that is speculation and not a known fact - but all the more reason why they should, as human beings, empathise with not freaking out and stressing others. And certainly not be taking an amused pleasure out of it, which they clearly were, because "it's just a prank, bro".
You're the one "dehumanising" them, as you're classifying them as a "special case" - distinct from everyone - who doesn't have the same rights and responsibilities as everyone else, to have every right to be there as long as they abide by the exact same standards of decent human behaviour as everyone else was doing, because you imagine - we don't know, you're just speculating - that they might be freaked out and stressed, which you're holding as a higher priority than those others they are definitely, as a known fact, freaking out and stressing by their actions.
You're not treating them as autonomous human beings, equal to everyone else, but are "special pleading" for them to be given exception for their speculated bad feelings - which we don't even know is actually true, as many youths erroneously believe themselves to be magically immune to this, that simply isn't true - above the known bad feelings of those who're known to be more vulnerable.
That said...
Cloudane wrote:Was with my dad earlier and this happened (he's a bit nervous with all this at the mo)
Was there a particular reason why your father, who's in a vulnerable category, was accompanying you shopping, rather than staying at home and having you do the shopping on behalf of everyone?
The kids were being twats. No question.
But your father should surely not be placing himself in a situation where this could even be happening to him in the first place?
Vulnerable groups should remain at home, and you can do their shopping for them, yes?
Seriously, folks. This is not a game.
Everyone needs to very rapidly appreciate the gravity of all this, pronto.
"Words ought to be a little wild - for they are assaults of thought on the unthinking."
- John Maynard Keynes
Although sure shopkeepers were keeping everything open too so compounding the problem.
This was after she told me the police were blocking tourists coming into the town via cars (she lives on the coast up here).
