Good Lord! I think this is the most spiteful blog post i've ever read, Full English Breakfast at Tiffany's by Juliette Wills. RJ over at Amiable Dunce thinks she may just be testing the water and trying out a Garry Bushell/John Gaunt style persona for effect, I'm not so sure.
I wrote something else about this here.
Good Lord! I think this is the most truthful blog post I've ever read, Full English Breakfast at Tiffany's by Juliette Wills. Good on her for saying what educated people are thinking, not what the nimbies want us to think!
ReplyDelete#I'm not too found of scroungers'? 'Being depressed isn't a disability'?
ReplyDeleteI've just read your article in some paper or magazine, about your ulcerative colitis etc. and your 'coping' strategies.
You basically moan about having not much money because of your own disabilities and talk of friends cutting your hair and bringing you magazines as you plead poverty.
Yet you're all over the internet selling yourself and talking about your existing clients? As you sit in your own mortgaged house and doll yourself up and get paid for sitting on your bum writing articles?
How dare you say depression isn't a disability? Serious, clinical (often genetic/endogenous), depression very often IS! Your ignorance screams from your piece above.
Have no sympathy for you at all, scrounging all over the shop whilst you're obviously better off than the average person, and all the while slagging off others for THEIR disabilities. Silly cow!
Erm, having read this article and the piece in the MOS, I think that the author is saying that there a difference between a disability and an illness such as depression. I also heard her on the radio saying that she doesn't really consider herself as disabled as she sees being disabled as being constantly unable to do something, whereas her illness doesn't necessarily mean she is incapacitated every day. How disgusting of you to post this when you expect sympathy for those who suffer with depression. Maybe she isn't able to pay her mortgage on her own, maybe her family help her out, maybe her husband pays. This doesn't necessarily equate to her being a scrounged. I think you are in the minority when it comes to your dislike of this author's attempts to make something of her life. I would also like to point out that many people with depression actually feel safer being depressed as it's harder to face their fears and move on. Does Juliette's wish and drive to do the opposite make her so awful? You clearly have a lot of anger within you and maybe want to seek some support for this. If Juliette's words offend you so much, why have you written something so viscious yourself? Does that make you a better person? I think not. I feel sick thinking about what sort of mindset you must be in.
DeleteFurther to my reply to you below - you're saying JW doesn't consider herself disabled? She makes a big point of saying that she IS disabled on her nasty blog. Make up your minds FGS! Also, an illness may obviously be disabling, so stop trying to play with the words, you obviously don't have the intelligence.
DeleteDo people not have the right to change their opinions / thoughts? Maybe if you heard the radio interview, that might have given you a greater understanding of how Juliette feels. She is 'classified' as disabled but maybe she wants to think of herself differently as that could be the only thing that helps her deal with what she has to go through on a daily basis. Ok, I agree that the dictionary definition of disabled would include a mental illness that renders you unable to function, but the word is used much more generically these days, when words like 'debilitating' may be more appropriate. What I struggle to understand is why you feel it is appropriate to attack Juliette to viciously for her opinion on depression, yet have absolutely no empathy for the horrendous illnesses that she clearly suffers with. It just results in you presenting yourself as bitter, twisted, self righteous, and fearful. Why could you not just try to have a conversation with Juliette and challenge her appropriately, whilst maybe finding out more about where she is coming from? (I am considering that question as rhetorical because, unfortunately, your previous rantings leave me in know doubt as to what your response would be). Instead of arguing your point, can you not just accept that people have different opinions and stop reading about Juliette? In a democracy, we do end up having to hear things that we don't necessarily agree with but, how we respond to that, is within our control. Would that not be a healthier approach, as opposed to being so angry? Maybe not, for you, but if you are going to debate issues that mean something to you, the least you could do is have the decency to do it without insulting those who are also engaged in that debate. I have not come here to insult you; I am giving calm and reasoned response, yet you simply tell me that i don't have the intelligence and continue to call people like Juliette, 'stupid cow' and 'thick'. It just doesn't help your case or others who suffer with depression.
Delete'Anonymous' - Your post above could just as well be directed towards Juliette Mills, as I simply replied to her nasty, scathing, bullying post with my thoughts on it.
DeleteInteresting how you are all about 'poor Juliette' and her suffering, yet totally dismissive of those - with their own substantial sufferings - who she decided to attack. Are you Juliette or a friend of hers?
Interesting, also, how you pick on certain phrases I have used, yet, again, totally ignore the disgusting attitude and words of Juliette Mills.
I'm a reasonable, intelligent, person who has a great deal of experience of suffering and a great degree of compassion and empathy.
I simply can't stand ignorant, narrow-minded bullies and quite frankly, that is how Juliette Mills portrayed herself in the blog post in question. Instead of having a go at me about my - in your mind - lack of empathy, could YOU not have 'a conversation with Juliette' yourself and question her about her own obvious lack of empathy? I certainly have no need or desire to converse with her myself.
You consider yourself 'calm and reasoned'. I consider you to have a very odd and selective viewpoint on this whole issue. Your words do not cause me to think any differently or encourage me to act any differently than I do. I don't like injustice and I don't like bullies. For myself, and for the sake of all people who are denigrated and victimised by people like Juliette (and perhaps yourself?), I will continue to speak up as I see fit and feel to be right. If you have a problem with this, as I have intimated already, I suspect you have some undeclared personal bias that is twisting your thought processes. Or else you really are just not very intelligent. Insulting? Not really. Not any more insulting than anything you or Juliette Mills have said.
Finally, you say my phrasing doesn't help my case (not that you know what my personal case is), or those with depression - by that logic, surely you must also consider that Juliette Mills phrasing in her blog doesn't help her own case or that of others with the illnesses she suffers from? No, you probably don't see that...
WHOOPS, obviously I meant Juliette WILLS throughout, NOT Juliette MILLS! Apologies readers!
DeleteActually, let me make this clearer for you:
Delete1) I have personal experience of severe physical pain and chronic severe physical pain. I therefore have GREAT sympathy for ANYONE who experiences pain or suffering and that INCLUDES Juliette Wills. However.. when Juliette was writing said blog post, she clearly WASN'T experiencing chronic severe, disabling pain (incidentally and most probably related: to anyone who says they 'carry on', 'go to work', 'get on with it', 'get up off their arses unlike some' etc. in a state of chronic, severe pain - NO YOU DON'T! It's not possible. Try telling a woman in childbirth to get up and get to work, 'just do this for me' or whatever. Those who say such things, and in particular, those who use those phrases to cast aspersions on other people, are CLEARLY not experiencing chronic severe pain whilst they're doing whatever.) Juliette was CLEARLY not suffering in such a way whilst writing her blog post and so, she offers up her words, and not her pain, to be seen and judged.
2) Juliette Wills is merely being used as an example here, and has set herself up as such with her blog post. There are sadly MANY people who share her views. They are not able to, or choose not to see the bigger pictures and how their precious 'taxpayers' money' is being used and misused in a number of ways which are much more important and scandalous than as 'benefits' for a number of people, SOME of whom - the SMALLER proportion I would say - are 'swinging the lead'.
Unfortunately, because so many people share JW's views, it is very common for groups of people to be SCAPEGOATED and DEMONISED - 'scroungers' etc. etc. I suspect that you, Anonymous, probably share JW's 'views', in particular, you seem to have a bit of a beef with people who suffer with depression and are consequently on 'benefits'.
I'm not the only person who feels the way I do, or has the perceptions and views I've expressed here, in this case, in reaction to JW's blog post.
If you haven't already, follow the link given by the author of the blog we're presently commenting on, at the top of this page, where he elaborates further on Juliette's post. If you 'feel sick at the thought' of MY 'mindset' - go and have a further look, there, into Juliette's and those of the many who think like her. Now, that's really scary!
BTW, hello Paul, thanks for the posts and platform and are you reading all this?!
I thought long and hard about giving a detailed response to everything you've said but, to be honest, I can't see any value in that. If you re-read my posts, I have not said anything that means I specifically agree with Juliette or that I don't have any empathy for people with depression. If only you knew! So, I think it's easier to simply let this one go and let you continue with your warped sense of what you consider as empathy. I'm sure you will now sit there with your little sense of victory but nothing could be further from reality, in my mind. I just can't be bothered to waste any more energy on you - I have better things to do with me time. It would appear that you would only ever allow another person to have a point of view if it were to match your own. I also don't want to give you any more of a platform to gain the attention you clearly seek, I don't need others in order to validate and justify my views. "BTW, hello Paul, thanks for the posts and platform and are you reading all this?!" - if that's not a great example of attention seeking behaviour, I don't know what is.
Delete*my time*
DeleteYou mean you've been shown not to have a debating leg to stand on?
Delete'Warped sense' - you're making yourself sound quite warped - with your latest post in particular - and appear to have nil self-awareness about anything you've written in any of your posts! 'I have not said anything....etc.'. Hellooooo?
You've totally ignored all the valid points and explanations (I shouldn't have bothered really) you've been given, in favour of continuing to display your obvious bias and ignorance.
So, you're 'letting this one go' and going out with a bitter, hateful, attacking little final word - okayyyy!
As I've mentioned before, it's interesting how you 'turned up' here just after I'd posted on JW's cloudy blog - a post which included a link to this page and did not pass moderation so was not publicly posted.
You've come on here to attack someone who merely had the temerity (!) to voice their feelings and opinions on an extremely nasty piece of writing, attacking others with problems left, right and centre, by 'brave Juliette' and continue to assume the 'moral highground' about doing so. Telling people to talk with JW and maybe try to understand where she is coming from with twisted, selfish views - and in the process totally validating her views and blog post and invalidating and denigrating ALL those people she was attacking. Again, okayyyy!
Oh, and the "BTW, hello Paul.......etc." - attention seeking behaviour? Courteous really, I would have thought, to say hello to the owner of the blog we've been posting on. You decide to see that as 'attention seeking behaviour' - your own projection entirely.
Well, our exchange is here for all to see, plus the original post by JW which started it all. Thanks for helping me to talk about it all and to fight small-minded attitudes and bullying!
Good day, you idiot.
Paul, just realised this post was not the original blog by Mrs Righteous.
ReplyDeletePulled from the original blog, here are some extracts from her replies to comments there:
"I didn't say depression wasn't an illness, but I did say it wasn't a disability, which it isn't."
[Er, OK.. so an illness, if severe, is not really a disability then? Hmmm...]
"No, I have a disabled badge. I'm disabled. I have a chronic, degenerative illness which makes walking very difficult much of the time because my vertebrae are fusing together. You might have picked up on that had you read the blog properly."
[I (a big red glowing, important, capital I there), have a disability! Poor me, I can't walk properly but I can blog all over the shop, work as a journalist, tart myself up 50s throwback style for photos, do a mean jive (and God knows whatever else she does), and moan about those there depressed people who should get up off their bloody arses and pull themselves together - they're ill but not disabled like !ME! - layabouts!Oh and they can cut my hair and bring me some magazines while they're at it because I'm disabled and broke me, but I'm not a scrounger at all, alright?]
Thick, thick, thick, silly, obnoxious woman.
Hi 'Anonymous'! Funny how I posted a comment on JW's new blog earlier today - comment waiting to be moderated and then not appearing on blog - and suddenly your comment pops up here!
ReplyDeleteFeeling sick thinking about MY mindset but not about JW's bitter and bullying little blog slagging off people with a range of problems? Slightly bizarre?
'Many people with depression.....' - do you even know what you are talking about? I think not.
You are clearly VERY offended by my post which was only a reply to a very vicious blog post, you might need to look at that? And you need to learn to spell, 'Anonymous'.
Well, today, to my personal Hotmail address, I had a long communication from Juliette Wills.
ReplyDeleteIn it, she variously; asks me if I’m jealous of her looks (nope), says she can’t understand why I have sympathy for people with depression but not for her with her real, disabling, illness (have sympathy for both, have experienced both – chronic physical pain which makes me wish someone would just shoot me – and incidentally, it’s not unlikely that I have AS myself, haven’t been xrayed for that yet - AND debilitating depression), tells me I probably hate the Daily Mail (nope, like it actually!), probably have a criminal record (nope), says it’s a wonder I haven’t insulted her cat (how dare you, I adore cats) and calls me ‘‘obnoxious’ and ‘spiteful’ and says that she pities me.
She reiterates that people who have depression have a choice to be better or not. She says that she too has depression but that she is ‘dignified and strong’ and that, because she is not selfish, she gets on and does things despite her pain and depression. Unlike other depressed people who don’t do as she does – they’re just selfish apparently.
She ends with a warning that she’s contacted the Police and that they are treating my posts here (and a short one to her latest blog, saying that a poster there might want to check out the posts over here, that didn’t pass moderation and didn’t get posted) – as ‘slander, defamation of character and harassment’. Feeling more than a bit slandered and bullied myself actually, after reading Juliette’s email and Argus piece about depressed people on benefits being scroungers.
She says she’s thinking about suing me for those things and also about getting a restraining order against me in case I turn up at her door and physically attack her, in which case she wouldn’t be able to defend herself as she’s disabled. (I’m almost lost for words at that one – a restraining order against someone who’s commented on a blog post someone has written and not threatened them in any way AT ALL?) Wow
Yes, she really did say all those things above. On the strength of what you can see here (and said attempted blog post). Really.
Hmm, perhaps I and all the other people who have depression and don’t live life exactly as Juliette does – because they choose not to according to Juliette – should mass sue her for slander, defamation of character and harassment? That would be one helluva big lawsuit! Seems it's OK to slander people if you're a 'journalist' and if you slander lots and lots of people all at once, but not if you're a singular person replying to that.
Apparently it’s significant that I tried to involve her ‘readers’ by trying to post on her blog. That would interfere with the flogging of her book I suppose, if it were posted, which it wasn’t.
cont... (too many characters for one post)
ReplyDeleteWell, it’s all here and on Hotmail for the Police and lawyers to see (if it all stays up..) – oh, maybe not the Argus article about horrible, depressed, selfish, scrounging people, because, in the last 24 hours that’s been removed from the internet...
I’m not feeling too hot physically or mentally myself at the moment and none of this is doing me any good healthwise, but I’m posting here again because I feel that it’s important to challenge attitudes like those of Juliette in her disappeared Argus piece. People who are ill and disabled in any way, not just those with Juliette’s particular illnesses (yes, disabled – debilltated/disabled – physically not able to do things because of physical or mental illness) do not need spite and bullying piled on them as well as everything else they have to deal with in life. Also because I will not let someone bully and threaten me into shutting up when I actually haven’t done anything wrong. Perhaps Ms Wills shouldn’t write inflammatory public articles if she doesn’t want people to disagree with her, be angered or upset by them, and comment on them - or want them to be seen by certain people.
I really hope that this is the end of the matter, and that Ms Wills now desists and perhaps thinks before next publicly spitefully attacking certain groups of ill people (although I doubt it, judging by today’s email). Needless to say, she’s now blocked from contacting me on Hotmail again.
Apparently, I’ll now feel the full force of the Law for posting this though (disgraceful to want to waste Police time like that really). Great, that’s all I need.