I would have said something. Even if you couldn't change her basic viewpoint, you could at least have let her know that that kind of language is demeaning & inappropriate & offenisve.
I understand how awkward it must've been, though. I really don't like closed-minded people, but if they're overbearing I can find it hard to stand up to them.
dude...if i was there I would have punched her face off...but thats just me.
There was a physics teacher who stated (my school is an all-girls school) several times that boys are better and cleverer than girls. He was promptly fired.
Wow, so he was foolhardy as well as sexist. 
I mean, how could he *not* anticipate that happening? The only thing I can think is that he wanted to get sacked for some reason...
Actually, I agree with the comment. Respect has to be earned. "Human" is just an arbitrary classification. Why should that earn you respect?
I do not think that intelligence ought to be the sole factor on which we decide how "worthy of respect" someone is. Things like loyalty and integrity and perseverance count, too. Furthermore, mentally *** people can't help being mentally ***, but ignorant people (at least in our society, where there is free and easy access to information) are often just too shallow and apathetic to correct their ignorance. I would respect a mentally *** child who did his or her best with the mental faculties s/he had more than a woman who wasn't mentally disabled but was ignorant or insensitive enough to think that using dehumanizing terminology like comparing disabled kids to pet monkeys wasn't going to offend anybody.
Animals have feelings; what distinguishes humans is their accomplishments and their capacity to satisfy the needs of another and to self sacrifice for another.
Animals are able to self-sacrifice for another too.
But what about people who cant do anything, live without showing signs of ANY mental activities (even at the lowest level)?
Brain damage lowers possibilities of achievements but it's still possible to achieve something. Though sometimes brain damalge can be really brutal. I only think of Clive Wearing who can't remember past the last 30 seconds. What can he achieve? Almost nothing since after 30 seconds he forgets why he started to do something (he can play piano for several minutes but well, you don't have to ask yourself why you play piano...)
What does make the brain special for you? Why brain? Brain is just of the organs, just like an arm is.
Well, the ability to do something depends on biology. You can't blame a person with Down sysndrome that it was born *** and hence is not able to do something better than /in best case) finish middle school with mediocre grades
If it is not fixable, how can it be one's fault? One is BORN with low intelligence. It'l like saying, birth defects are fault of newborns.
Actually there was several Ameslan-speaking chimpanzees. First they just mimicked humans but then began to speak by themselves. The experimenters were surprised, as they began to joke and swear in Ameslan - and they though out those jokes and swearwords by themselves!
Actually there was several Ameslan-speaking chimpanzees. First they just mimicked humans but then began to speak by themselves. The experimenters were surprised, as they began to joke and swear in Ameslan - and they though out those jokes and swearwords by themselves!
OMG!!!! THATS SOOO COOL!!!!! Too bad they didnt speak english and werent at the zoo so I could and understand them.
I was thinking, what if there was two people. One was a person who had an 210 IQ and was a scientist, leading a research project for a cure agaisnt cancer. And the other person was a professional sports player, having a learning disability, and in his free time he went out and volunteered to help with sick kids at the children's hospital.
In Lousie's view, the scientist would be more valuable to society than the professional sports player. Because his skills are more usfull
But lets says the scientist never found the cure for cancer and never really made any bounds in his research, thus not having many accomplishments. Then the sports player went out and won the stanly cup, and then became a cyclist and won the tour de france (without steroids :p), then became a baseball player and broke the homerun record (also without steroids :p), then he would have more accomplishments than the scientist, in Lousie's view "deserving more respect". Her views contradict another.
For me, for each person, when I decide how much respect I give them I evaluate on a number of factors, it's something called worth. What they are worth to me. And all I can say is that every person can be worth something.
Animals kill other animals for food. The do not kill out of pleasure.
Actually, chimpanzees are also known for killing each other. In some regions chimpanzees even "re-invented" (i.e. it was invented earlier by humans but they invented it independent from them) spears which are made specially to kill other chimpanzees and are never used to kill non-chimpanzees. Chimpanzzes already re-invented spear and hammer. If we humans don't destroy them, it is entirely possible they will evolve into kind of humans (actally some biologists think they ARE humans and not apes - Homo Troglodytes). There is an opinion that humans made its biggest progress after they understood how to use fire. Chimps still didn't cometo that idea, but if they do - watch out!
Unfortunately, we humans destroy our possibloe biological brothers - in the last 40 years the number of chimpanzees in the world went back from 2 billions to 200 millions, mostly due to human intervention.