Not the worst thing he could’ve said, but if (when) that turns out not to be true or the surgery’s inaccessible for Marcie’s family, that’s gonna bite him in the ass.
I don’t think its hard to put the pieces together from this point. A treatment is available, but Marcie’s family can’t afford it. Sal tries to raise the money for years through legitimate means, but after a few years realizes its never going to be enough, so she decides to rob a gas station.
BBCC
Sal’s 12 at this point and the robbery is when she’s 13. I’m guessing something drastic happened to convince her the robbery was the best way to get money if that’s the case.
Yeah this seems like a pretty ill-thought statement on every level. Does he even know what the injury was, specifically? I’m no expert on throat injuries but I would lay good money there isn’t always a surgery for that.
What else is he supposed to say here, “Yes, you’ve irreparably maimed your best friend. This is why we prefer your brother.”? He’s her dad, he’s trying to make her feel better.
BBCC
How about ‘Maybe she won’t, but that’s okay, you’ll still be there for her, right honey?’
Jago
To Sal, that might still sound the same. It kinda woukld to me (or it at least sounds a little heartless?).
Because saying that it’s okay (…which just means, it will be okay eventually. People who have major injuries that change their phyical abilities often go through traumatic stuff.) doesn’t just make it okay, especially right now. It’s not okay that Marcie lost her ability to speak so young. It’s very much not okay.
Jago
(The point I’m probably trying to make is, right now it’s a really bad injury, and it’s understandable to feel bad about that and be scared that it might never heal and become the way it was before again. There’s a time and a place to explain to your kid that disabled people can have just as a happy and fulfilling life as ablebodied people, it’s just not now.)
BBCC
I don’t really agree with this. To me, I’d feel better hearing my friend’s life’s not ruined and she can in fact still be happy and ‘it’s okay to feel bad and be scared’ is not what Charles said either. It’s one thing to say ‘Maybe not and it’s okay to be upset about that and worried about her’ and another to say ‘eh, I’m sure they can fix it’. One’s a false reassurance and not helpful at all because Marcie’s disability is not going away and someone needs to prepare Sal for that reality.
Otl1999
Clearly he didn’t know what the injury was, let alone that Marcie wouldn’t recover from it. As an immediate first reaction (especially absent any definitive reason not to), parents offer reassurance and comfort to their children, particularly younger ones. A more nuanced response could/would follow when more information is available.
BBCC
Sal isn’t a young child here, she’s 12. And you can say something comforting without going immediately to false assurance, especially when as you said he doesn’t know what the injury is.
Miri
Sal blames herself but that doesn’t mean it was her fault or she actually hurt Marcie herself. Maybe Sal got in a fight and Marcie tried to pull her out of it, didn’t listen and got punched/kicked/stabbed in the throat for her trouble? Maybe somebody wanted to upset her by attacking her “little friend” who she usually protected? (Remember the previous flashback with the guy who sent Marcie flying who Sal beat up, end result Sal got in trouble for attacking a good student and he faced no consequences for hurting a smaller kiddo coz she shouldn’t have been there?)
BBCC
Small correction – Sal beat the kid up BECAUSE he didn’t face consequences when she reported him. We never saw what the consequences were for her beating him up.
TheOthin
Sal blamed herself for Marcie’s injury in yesterday’s comic, but she didn’t say anything about that here. So unless he heard something in the call about it being her fault, her dad shouldn’t have any reason to think it was.
Whatever Sal’s “involvement” was, I’m guessing it’s the kind where no one else would think of it as her fault, just something she thinks she could have prevented.
Honestly, I don’t really care if Charles didn’t have a perfect response – he’s in the tough position of trying to process what’s going on and reassure his daughter on the verge of tears. Whether or not surgery specifically fixes it, reminding her she might be able to recover isn’t awful.
He may well look back at this exchange later that night and go “wait, I should’ve said that”, but who hasn’t?
BBCC
I don’t really blame him, but I would say it’s probably not a good response to deny the fact there’s a good chance she won’t be able to talk.
She attacked Marcie’s tormentors, causing them to attack Marcie with renewed vigor.
Remember when Sal said that Amazi-girl escalates situations instead of resolving them? Then told Amazi-girl that Amazi-girl probably does superheroics because of “the same shit that fueled me years ago”?
Yeah. Sal tried vigilantism and it landed Marcie in the ER with a permanent condition.
I’m not really sure what the answer would be in that situation then, since Sal tried the ‘right’ way to handle Marcie’s tormenters and all it did was get Marcie punished. I really don’t know what she can do at that point.
Chris Phoenix
Sometimes, in the system, there is no right answer except “The serenity to accept the things I cannot change.”
Outside the system… well, it’s hard to operate there for long.
Sometimes we can’t help kids in trouble. I still remember the little homeless girl I saw begging with her mother years ago. Just a brief look as I drove by, but she was so bright-eyed – she reminds me of my daughter now. Sometimes I wish I’d stopped to offer to tutor her or something – but a strange 6’2″ man offering to spend one on one time with a five year old? No, that’s not the answer.
Meanwhile, there are over 500 kids still separated from their parents by our government’s direct and deliberate action, some of whom will never be reunited. What can be done about that? Why am I not seeing any significant grassroots activism about it?
Geneseepaws
Because of two probelems 1) the Golden Rule, the one with the money makes the rule. In this case because Congress has the best politicians money can buy, and the people like the Koch Brothers have the money to buy them. And 2) too many people don’t talk to their neighbor’s, they don’t engage in discourse, they get their News from their smart phones’ CNN feed, or the Fox feed, or Brightbart, and nowhere else.
Rain
Probably the reason you’re not seeing any significant grassroots activism is that the media is trying to downplay it. There HAVE been protests and the like. (Have you heard about the “Occupy ICE” protests?) I would search for ICE protests near your city and see what you come up with.)
BBCC
I think that once the administration’s failed (the school administration in this case) the best ‘in system’ thing to do would be A) Yelling and or/verbally telling off whoever was being shit and telling everyone what he did and how the school failed to react, consequences wise, and B) Supporting Marcie, taking care of victims wise. Accepting something wrong consequence free doesn’t seem like Sal’s style.
Miri
Apparently the right thing to do is actually to tell an adult? IME they then either minimise what’s happening (thanks Mum, that…. wasn’t at all damaging, no really), tell you that if you punch back once, hard enough, they won’t bother you again (ummm… try “enlist 2 friends and thereafter attack you at least 3 against one” instead, Dad), or act like reporting the bullying is as much of an issue for them as the bullying (no seriously, former teacher: that is how you make children feel when you tell them that if they hear about any further incidents, you and your tormentor will both be sent to the headmistress (female principal). I thought I was being told off and threatened with serious consequences for trying to get them to do something).
With the teacher thing… A different teacher on being disturbed by a small child screaming, persistently as loudly as she could, on looking out to see her surrounded by 15 boys, told her to stop screaming before she broke a window. I was actually going for impenetrable shield bubble of piercing ear pain, because their stated reason for being in that circle around me was to all beat me up together… I’m not sure if reading a situation, de-escalation, etc were covered in their training or included in their explicitly listed duties at all, but my impression was that they were not.
Apparently schools are generally better at actually tackling it these days..? I’m not convinced but they couldn’t really be much worse without trying. Although it was when I was 17, at a school with an anti-bullying charter, that my dad had to write a letter to one of the heads of sixth form telling her that my friends were telling him that her treatment of me was verging on bullying so could she please not do that…
Don’t tell nobody what I wanna do
If they find out, you know that they’ll never let me through
And it’s no fun being an Illegal Alien
Not the first time this song has played here, and probably won’t be the last.
Actually, they have Linda’s hair color- look at Walky’s hair closely and you see the hair at the top is similar to Linda’s grayish brown hair. It’s been part of them since the start, the dark brown hair has to come from Charles but can be explained away as it being due to his premature graying…
Mmmh, I do hope Charles turns out to be like Hank Brown and puts his daughter above whatever biases Linda (and presumably he) have. We wouldn’t really see whether he’s like that in a flashback, but he’s always read to me as well-meaning, at least.
He’s a well meaning wall flower. At least in the Walkyverse he bonds with his kids a lot more when Linda is out of the picture. I assume something similar will happen in this universe eventually. Plenty of people want to pick him apart for letting some bad things happen, but it’s pretty easy to understand if you’re a quite person
“understandable” and “bad parenting” are not mutually exclusive.
like, my dad was a really nice guy, and really fun to be around, but his lack of executive functioning meant I stayed with my mum despite being scared of her, so that I’d at least get regular meals. 😛
ShinyNeen
Yeah… that’s a solid example of that distinction. By which I mean, I’m sorry you went through that, Inahc!
It seems likely to me that Charles doesn’t do anything actively harmful to the kids, and that all the harmful parenting comes from Linda. But the part that really matters is that the twins are suffering shitty parenting, and I wouldn’t begrudge anyone for being frustrated with Charles for not cancelling out Linda’s behavior.
thejeff
Not clear to me why you think that. I guess we’ve seen more of her being bad, but then we’ve seen more of her in general. The hair thing was all him, though.
Sal doesn’t seem to distinguish. Nor does Walky, when he’s forced to look at it.
ShinyNeen
I guess I wasn’t drawing anything conclusive from the hair thing (though yeah that indicates bad things about Charles’), and was focusing mostly on what (little) we’ve seen of his personality- that he’s mostly positive and generally quiet (maybe deferring to Linda?). But you’re absolutely right, I’m not drawing my read from anything concrete. And it doesn’t (and shouldn’t) matter to the kids, who are the important ones here.
Hmmm. Not the way I’d personally recommend handling it (I wouldn’t recommend giving kids false assurances, however understandable) and that’s certainly not a nice way to refer to Marcie and her family, he’s also not yelling, lecturing her on how she’s a failure, insulting her to her face, or ignoring her for five fucking years while she’s in another state so…congrats, Chuck, on not being actively shitty for once?
Also, about that alt text – I realize its likely a joke, but it’s still weird to get personal details about shitty parents like Charles going by ‘Chuck’ or ‘Charlie’ (referenced on tumblr) or Linda having a taste for dirty jokes in the Walkyverse. It’s just…no. Does not compute.
I know, but it feels like finding out Mary like anime nothing really wrong with it, it’s just the kind of personal details that make me do a double take.
Wizard
Never hesitate to call out people on their shitty behavior, or on the attitudes that lead to that behavior. But always remember they’re still people. Dehumanizing them is the first step to being just as shitty as they are.
thejeff
Also, dehumanizing shitty people makes it harder to recognize other shitty people.
“I know X does that. He’s a monster. Y’s always been nice. He can’t be a monster like X. Z must be exaggerating about what he did.”
Inahc
Yup. :/ It’s uncomfortable because it’s so much easier on the brain to just write someone off as “bad person” and not have to think beyond that. Sometimes that’s an important survival skill, sometimes it’s… maladaptive.
It’s funny – I was actually pleased with him when I first saw this strip, but after thinking about it and writing that out it ended up sounding…not. I guess when you put it that way, it’s hard to be pleased with him.
Personally, I think telling Sal, ‘Maybe she won’t, but she can still have a happy life even if she can’t talk, and you’ll be there for her every step of the way, right?’ would have been better. But this is nicer than my usual expectations of the Walkertons so yeah, good job, Chuck.
Regalli
I just assume by now most parents in this strip have some casually ableist beliefs. Tends to be the norm among society anyway, especially if they have no practical experience with one.
BBCC
Fair enough. I still say any sort of acknowledgement of reality along the lines of ‘Maybe not, but you’ll still be there for her right?’ would be better.
Regalli
Oh absolutely. And your suggestion would be ideal, it’s just me being jaded and not expecting that level of understanding from Charles, because like. Charles.
BBCC
Again – more than fair enough. I’m at the point where I expect precious little from the Walkerton parents. At this point, I’ll settle for a strip where Linda speaks to Sal without yelling at her.
SeanR
How long did it take you to come up with a perfect response?
Clock’s ticking.
BBCC
5 seconds of thought.
DSL
Were you in an emotionally fraught situation, trying to comfort a very young person who depends on you for every type of security there is?
BBCC
First of all, Sal’s 12, not a damn five year old here, and second of all, it’s really not that hard to say something comforting without resorting to false reassurances.
Frankly, Charles’ way is pissing me off the more I look at it.
Jago
You can totally live happily with all kinds of disabilities, but there’s a time and a place for that explanation, and it’s not right now.
Because telling that Sal, who obviously blames herself, is just gonna make her feel worse right now.
BBCC
If not now, when? Because Marcie’s disability isn’t going anywhere and offering false reassurance isn’t a good idea either, imo.
Jago
Because as long as there is still hope, it’s better to hope than be a mess of terrible feelings and worries.
215 thoughts on “Cowgirl”
Danielle
OW
toby
Not the worst thing he could’ve said, but if (when) that turns out not to be true or the surgery’s inaccessible for Marcie’s family, that’s gonna bite him in the ass.
Mollyscribbles
I think he’s checking to see how much he needs to minimize assurances. If it looks REALLY bad, he might try to soften the blow.
Gojira
I don’t think its hard to put the pieces together from this point. A treatment is available, but Marcie’s family can’t afford it. Sal tries to raise the money for years through legitimate means, but after a few years realizes its never going to be enough, so she decides to rob a gas station.
BBCC
Sal’s 12 at this point and the robbery is when she’s 13. I’m guessing something drastic happened to convince her the robbery was the best way to get money if that’s the case.
Sazazezer
At that age i guess a year can feel like forever.
Passchendaele
is this really the time chuck
JetstreamGW
I’d say that right the hell now is the perfect time to find out if he’s blowing sunshine up people’s asses, yes.
timemonkey
Surgery fixes everything!
Regalli
Yeah this seems like a pretty ill-thought statement on every level. Does he even know what the injury was, specifically? I’m no expert on throat injuries but I would lay good money there isn’t always a surgery for that.
Dean
What else is he supposed to say here
What else is he supposed to say here, “Yes, you’ve irreparably maimed your best friend. This is why we prefer your brother.”? He’s her dad, he’s trying to make her feel better.
BBCC
How about ‘Maybe she won’t, but that’s okay, you’ll still be there for her, right honey?’
Jago
To Sal, that might still sound the same. It kinda woukld to me (or it at least sounds a little heartless?).
Because saying that it’s okay (…which just means, it will be okay eventually. People who have major injuries that change their phyical abilities often go through traumatic stuff.) doesn’t just make it okay, especially right now. It’s not okay that Marcie lost her ability to speak so young. It’s very much not okay.
Jago
(The point I’m probably trying to make is, right now it’s a really bad injury, and it’s understandable to feel bad about that and be scared that it might never heal and become the way it was before again. There’s a time and a place to explain to your kid that disabled people can have just as a happy and fulfilling life as ablebodied people, it’s just not now.)
BBCC
I don’t really agree with this. To me, I’d feel better hearing my friend’s life’s not ruined and she can in fact still be happy and ‘it’s okay to feel bad and be scared’ is not what Charles said either. It’s one thing to say ‘Maybe not and it’s okay to be upset about that and worried about her’ and another to say ‘eh, I’m sure they can fix it’. One’s a false reassurance and not helpful at all because Marcie’s disability is not going away and someone needs to prepare Sal for that reality.
Otl1999
Clearly he didn’t know what the injury was, let alone that Marcie wouldn’t recover from it. As an immediate first reaction (especially absent any definitive reason not to), parents offer reassurance and comfort to their children, particularly younger ones. A more nuanced response could/would follow when more information is available.
BBCC
Sal isn’t a young child here, she’s 12. And you can say something comforting without going immediately to false assurance, especially when as you said he doesn’t know what the injury is.
Miri
Sal blames herself but that doesn’t mean it was her fault or she actually hurt Marcie herself. Maybe Sal got in a fight and Marcie tried to pull her out of it, didn’t listen and got punched/kicked/stabbed in the throat for her trouble? Maybe somebody wanted to upset her by attacking her “little friend” who she usually protected? (Remember the previous flashback with the guy who sent Marcie flying who Sal beat up, end result Sal got in trouble for attacking a good student and he faced no consequences for hurting a smaller kiddo coz she shouldn’t have been there?)
BBCC
Small correction – Sal beat the kid up BECAUSE he didn’t face consequences when she reported him. We never saw what the consequences were for her beating him up.
TheOthin
Sal blamed herself for Marcie’s injury in yesterday’s comic, but she didn’t say anything about that here. So unless he heard something in the call about it being her fault, her dad shouldn’t have any reason to think it was.
Whatever Sal’s “involvement” was, I’m guessing it’s the kind where no one else would think of it as her fault, just something she thinks she could have prevented.
Aviana
Honestly, I don’t really care if Charles didn’t have a perfect response – he’s in the tough position of trying to process what’s going on and reassure his daughter on the verge of tears. Whether or not surgery specifically fixes it, reminding her she might be able to recover isn’t awful.
He may well look back at this exchange later that night and go “wait, I should’ve said that”, but who hasn’t?
BBCC
I don’t really blame him, but I would say it’s probably not a good response to deny the fact there’s a good chance she won’t be able to talk.
maxyai
If it isn’t my old friend Mr. McCraig. With a leg for an arm and an arm for a leg.
AnvilPro
Jesus Sal, what did you do?
Danielle
i assume its something throat related?
Gojira
My guess is she dared her to drink bleach.
Delicious Taffy
Saying things like this only makes the darkness more powerful and tempting.
Victor
Tide Pod Challenge!
TrueVCU
Perfect comment/gravatar combo
Bladeglory
She attacked Marcie’s tormentors, causing them to attack Marcie with renewed vigor.
Remember when Sal said that Amazi-girl escalates situations instead of resolving them? Then told Amazi-girl that Amazi-girl probably does superheroics because of “the same shit that fueled me years ago”?
Yeah. Sal tried vigilantism and it landed Marcie in the ER with a permanent condition.
BBCC
I’m not really sure what the answer would be in that situation then, since Sal tried the ‘right’ way to handle Marcie’s tormenters and all it did was get Marcie punished. I really don’t know what she can do at that point.
Chris Phoenix
Sometimes, in the system, there is no right answer except “The serenity to accept the things I cannot change.”
Outside the system… well, it’s hard to operate there for long.
Sometimes we can’t help kids in trouble. I still remember the little homeless girl I saw begging with her mother years ago. Just a brief look as I drove by, but she was so bright-eyed – she reminds me of my daughter now. Sometimes I wish I’d stopped to offer to tutor her or something – but a strange 6’2″ man offering to spend one on one time with a five year old? No, that’s not the answer.
Meanwhile, there are over 500 kids still separated from their parents by our government’s direct and deliberate action, some of whom will never be reunited. What can be done about that? Why am I not seeing any significant grassroots activism about it?
Geneseepaws
Because of two probelems 1) the Golden Rule, the one with the money makes the rule. In this case because Congress has the best politicians money can buy, and the people like the Koch Brothers have the money to buy them. And 2) too many people don’t talk to their neighbor’s, they don’t engage in discourse, they get their News from their smart phones’ CNN feed, or the Fox feed, or Brightbart, and nowhere else.
Rain
Probably the reason you’re not seeing any significant grassroots activism is that the media is trying to downplay it. There HAVE been protests and the like. (Have you heard about the “Occupy ICE” protests?) I would search for ICE protests near your city and see what you come up with.)
BBCC
I think that once the administration’s failed (the school administration in this case) the best ‘in system’ thing to do would be A) Yelling and or/verbally telling off whoever was being shit and telling everyone what he did and how the school failed to react, consequences wise, and B) Supporting Marcie, taking care of victims wise. Accepting something wrong consequence free doesn’t seem like Sal’s style.
Miri
Apparently the right thing to do is actually to tell an adult? IME they then either minimise what’s happening (thanks Mum, that…. wasn’t at all damaging, no really), tell you that if you punch back once, hard enough, they won’t bother you again (ummm… try “enlist 2 friends and thereafter attack you at least 3 against one” instead, Dad), or act like reporting the bullying is as much of an issue for them as the bullying (no seriously, former teacher: that is how you make children feel when you tell them that if they hear about any further incidents, you and your tormentor will both be sent to the headmistress (female principal). I thought I was being told off and threatened with serious consequences for trying to get them to do something).
With the teacher thing… A different teacher on being disturbed by a small child screaming, persistently as loudly as she could, on looking out to see her surrounded by 15 boys, told her to stop screaming before she broke a window. I was actually going for impenetrable shield bubble of piercing ear pain, because their stated reason for being in that circle around me was to all beat me up together… I’m not sure if reading a situation, de-escalation, etc were covered in their training or included in their explicitly listed duties at all, but my impression was that they were not.
Apparently schools are generally better at actually tackling it these days..? I’m not convinced but they couldn’t really be much worse without trying. Although it was when I was 17, at a school with an anti-bullying charter, that my dad had to write a letter to one of the heads of sixth form telling her that my friends were telling him that her treatment of me was verging on bullying so could she please not do that…
Stephen Bierce
Don’t tell nobody what I wanna do
If they find out, you know that they’ll never let me through
And it’s no fun being an Illegal Alien
Not the first time this song has played here, and probably won’t be the last.
Stephen Bierce
Today’s strip is sponsored by HobbyLink Japan, now selling new Iron Giant figures.
jeffepp
Genesis – Illegal Alien
Nono
Is Charles’ hair brown? I figured the Walkertons got their black hair from somebody, and it definitely isn’t Linda.
Yumi
His hair is graying
BBCC
The Walkerton’s hair is brown. Dark brown, but brown (see: Joyce referring to Sal’s hair as a luxurious chocolate river).
Mr. Bulmbin
Something something reference to Pure Imagination.
LookingIn
Actually, they have Linda’s hair color- look at Walky’s hair closely and you see the hair at the top is similar to Linda’s grayish brown hair. It’s been part of them since the start, the dark brown hair has to come from Charles but can be explained away as it being due to his premature graying…
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/fancypantslounge/
Yumi
Poor Sal. Poor Marcie. Poor me.
ShinyNeen
Mmmh, I do hope Charles turns out to be like Hank Brown and puts his daughter above whatever biases Linda (and presumably he) have. We wouldn’t really see whether he’s like that in a flashback, but he’s always read to me as well-meaning, at least.
geno
He’s a well meaning wall flower. At least in the Walkyverse he bonds with his kids a lot more when Linda is out of the picture. I assume something similar will happen in this universe eventually. Plenty of people want to pick him apart for letting some bad things happen, but it’s pretty easy to understand if you’re a quite person
Inahc
“understandable” and “bad parenting” are not mutually exclusive.
like, my dad was a really nice guy, and really fun to be around, but his lack of executive functioning meant I stayed with my mum despite being scared of her, so that I’d at least get regular meals. 😛
ShinyNeen
Yeah… that’s a solid example of that distinction. By which I mean, I’m sorry you went through that, Inahc!
It seems likely to me that Charles doesn’t do anything actively harmful to the kids, and that all the harmful parenting comes from Linda. But the part that really matters is that the twins are suffering shitty parenting, and I wouldn’t begrudge anyone for being frustrated with Charles for not cancelling out Linda’s behavior.
thejeff
Not clear to me why you think that. I guess we’ve seen more of her being bad, but then we’ve seen more of her in general. The hair thing was all him, though.
Sal doesn’t seem to distinguish. Nor does Walky, when he’s forced to look at it.
ShinyNeen
I guess I wasn’t drawing anything conclusive from the hair thing (though yeah that indicates bad things about Charles’), and was focusing mostly on what (little) we’ve seen of his personality- that he’s mostly positive and generally quiet (maybe deferring to Linda?). But you’re absolutely right, I’m not drawing my read from anything concrete. And it doesn’t (and shouldn’t) matter to the kids, who are the important ones here.
DailyBrad
Oof.
Uhh, at least he’s trying to cheer Sal up. Dreading the mom.
BBCC
Hmmm. Not the way I’d personally recommend handling it (I wouldn’t recommend giving kids false assurances, however understandable) and that’s certainly not a nice way to refer to Marcie and her family, he’s also not yelling, lecturing her on how she’s a failure, insulting her to her face, or ignoring her for five fucking years while she’s in another state so…congrats, Chuck, on not being actively shitty for once?
Like, congrats, you cleared a low bar. Here’s your prize: https://amandavsimagination.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/not-as-much-of-a-jerk-as-you-could-have-been-award.jpg
BBCC
Also, about that alt text – I realize its likely a joke, but it’s still weird to get personal details about shitty parents like Charles going by ‘Chuck’ or ‘Charlie’ (referenced on tumblr) or Linda having a taste for dirty jokes in the Walkyverse. It’s just…no. Does not compute.
Wizard
Even shitty people are still people.
BBCC
I know, but it feels like finding out Mary like anime nothing really wrong with it, it’s just the kind of personal details that make me do a double take.
Wizard
Never hesitate to call out people on their shitty behavior, or on the attitudes that lead to that behavior. But always remember they’re still people. Dehumanizing them is the first step to being just as shitty as they are.
thejeff
Also, dehumanizing shitty people makes it harder to recognize other shitty people.
“I know X does that. He’s a monster. Y’s always been nice. He can’t be a monster like X. Z must be exaggerating about what he did.”
Inahc
Yup. :/ It’s uncomfortable because it’s so much easier on the brain to just write someone off as “bad person” and not have to think beyond that. Sometimes that’s an important survival skill, sometimes it’s… maladaptive.
Regalli
Congrats Charles, this is Not Your Worst Appearance In This Strip! I would say ‘best’, but the bar’s too low for that.
BBCC
It’s funny – I was actually pleased with him when I first saw this strip, but after thinking about it and writing that out it ended up sounding…not. I guess when you put it that way, it’s hard to be pleased with him.
Personally, I think telling Sal, ‘Maybe she won’t, but she can still have a happy life even if she can’t talk, and you’ll be there for her every step of the way, right?’ would have been better. But this is nicer than my usual expectations of the Walkertons so yeah, good job, Chuck.
Regalli
I just assume by now most parents in this strip have some casually ableist beliefs. Tends to be the norm among society anyway, especially if they have no practical experience with one.
BBCC
Fair enough. I still say any sort of acknowledgement of reality along the lines of ‘Maybe not, but you’ll still be there for her right?’ would be better.
Regalli
Oh absolutely. And your suggestion would be ideal, it’s just me being jaded and not expecting that level of understanding from Charles, because like. Charles.
BBCC
Again – more than fair enough. I’m at the point where I expect precious little from the Walkerton parents. At this point, I’ll settle for a strip where Linda speaks to Sal without yelling at her.
SeanR
How long did it take you to come up with a perfect response?
Clock’s ticking.
BBCC
5 seconds of thought.
DSL
Were you in an emotionally fraught situation, trying to comfort a very young person who depends on you for every type of security there is?
BBCC
First of all, Sal’s 12, not a damn five year old here, and second of all, it’s really not that hard to say something comforting without resorting to false reassurances.
Frankly, Charles’ way is pissing me off the more I look at it.
Jago
You can totally live happily with all kinds of disabilities, but there’s a time and a place for that explanation, and it’s not right now.
Because telling that Sal, who obviously blames herself, is just gonna make her feel worse right now.
BBCC
If not now, when? Because Marcie’s disability isn’t going anywhere and offering false reassurance isn’t a good idea either, imo.
Jago
Because as long as there is still hope, it’s better to hope than be a mess of terrible feelings and worries.