What Should We Call Them?
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I’m trying to come up with a short, witty term for those things that people say regarding disability that people with disabilities mostly roll their eyes about, but that non-disabled people say all the time and think are very insightful. For example:
"The only disability in life is a bad attitude."
“Everyone has some kind of disability.”
“Disabled people are just like everyone else.”
A the moment, I like to call these “Low-Calorie Ideas”. They aren’t exactly wrong. On some level they are even a little bit right. But, they are off-base, and more importantly they say less of substance than they seem. These aphorisms sound significant, and to some they kind of feel good, but if you think about them at all, you realize that they are pretty thin and empty. When you say them, you haven’t said much.
What other ways can we explain why we don’t like these kinds of clichés?