# Umkay's banning **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [June 25, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umkays-banning/626264 "2012-06-25T16:57:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umkays-banning/626264/121 "2012-06-30T14:59:03Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > \ > Then again, I’ve never said “KWIM” and don’t even have a clue what that stands for (nor do I care, so nobody tell me) so maybe I’m not. 😛 KWIM = “Know What I Mean?” ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umkays-banning/626264/122 "2012-06-30T17:26:17Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Hate to take away from the various shit fights going on, but I believe the Admins and the Mods did a great job here. > > Virtue is its own reward (I almost choked typing that!) No, single malt and dark chocolate are their own rewards. That’s a hint, son. I’m running low on both. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umkays-banning/626264/123 "2012-06-30T20:12:14Z")
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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umkays-banning/626264/124 "2012-07-01T02:08:38Z")
Hey everybody… I see an issue around banning umkay (whose name, under the circumstances, I won’t set in bold-face) that I don’t recall seeing mentioned by anyone else yet. Several posters in this and/or other related threads have argued: Who/what ever umkay was, we should at least appreciate the educational value of that “Ask the…” thread. We all learned a lot there, right? [sub]Uh, right?[/sub] Well, ahem. How do we know, and why should we believe, that much of the information there is correct and realistic? I’m not talking about the particulars (rich family, living in parent’s guest house, stuff like that). I’m referring to the “knowledge” we all “learned” about what life is like for severe SCI people, how they’re cared for, how well they might be able to engage in gainful employment, the kind of active social life they might be able to have . . . It’s great to imagine that such a severely disabled person could be able to live as well as she claimed to live (under the circumstances). How many IRL disabled people have are able to live as well as that? Only a few really IRL rich people? How many other seriously disabled people will be left to rot in an institutional warehouse? Especially if they don’t have the surrounding social connections to watch over them and see that they are well cared for. I’m thinking that umkay’s “educational” thread may have given us a very unrealistic and idealistic picture of what life is really like for a great many seriously disabled people. I think there were a few posts in the thread that danced around the issue, asking umkay if she felt the need to become an “advocate” for disabled people (which she said she does not). I seem to recall this matter was publicly discussed and debated some years ago, IRL, in the case of Christopher Reeve. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umkays-banning/626264/125 "2012-07-01T02:18:22Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > It’s great to imagine that such a severely disabled person could be able to live as well as she claimed to live (under the circumstances). How many IRL disabled people have are able to live as well as that? Only a few really IRL rich people? How many other seriously disabled people will be left to rot in an institutional warehouse? Especially if they don’t have the surrounding social connections to watch over them and see that they are well cared for. > . Good point. And that’s probably part of the reason the thread was rather popular. It’s nice to think a serious disability doesn’t suck as much as one suspects it often does. So, like you note, it was probably both somewhat misleading and unfairly uplifting at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umkays-banning/626264/126 "2012-07-01T02:53:06Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > No, single malt and dark chocolate are their own rewards. That’s a hint, son. > > I’m running low on both. What a coincidence- so am I! (And virtue as well). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umkays-banning/626264/127 "2012-07-01T06:02:50Z")
There’s not much point in debating the educational value of **umkay** ’s fiction [when we have threads like this one.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=539322) ---
**Author:** ![Dunkelheit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dunkelheit/32/248_2.png) [@Dunkelheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunkelheit)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umkays-banning/626264/128 "2012-07-01T12:09:08Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Hey everybody… I see an issue around banning umkay (whose name, under the circumstances, I won’t set in bold-face) that I don’t recall seeing mentioned by anyone else yet. > > Several posters in this and/or other related threads have argued: Who/what ever umkay was, we should at least appreciate the educational value of that “Ask the…” thread. We all learned a lot there, right? [sub]Uh, right?[/sub] The issue of whether umkay’s information was valuable notwithstanding, I do see one good thing that came out of that thread: that **Sami41** got some support and advice for how to deal with her dad’s nursing home situation. Which I hope gets dealt with and his quality of life significantly improves. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umkays-banning/626264.md?page=6)