My fake disease is worse than your fake disease

In the 80’s the fad “illness” du jour was dyslexia. It was all the rage. It had vague, generalized “symptoms” that could easily be applied to pretty much anyone. Everybody who was anybody was getting diagnosed with it. It had the appeal of excusing laziness and bad choices while simultaneously making you a “victim”. But today it seems to have all but disappeared. No reason is given. No one claims to have cured it, but it’s rarely mentioned.

In the 90’s the fad “illness” was ADHD. It, like dyslexia, had vague, generalized “symptoms” that could easily be applied to pretty much anyone. Everybody who was anybody was getting diagnosed with it. It had all the excuse and victimization power of dyslexia but also included a rational for drugging your kids senseless so you didn’t have to actually parent or teach them. Not only could the “victim” claim it as an excuse for bad behavior, but the “victim’s” parents could use it as a convenient excuse to avoid responsibility. But it’s fading away as well. You don’t hear of it as often. It’s mentioned here and there, but it’s taking that dusty road into obscurity that dyslexia already took. Did it get cured, or was a more fun fake “illness” found to replace it as happened to dyslexia?

The fad “illness” these days is autism. It, also has vague, generalized “symptoms” that could easily be applied to pretty much anyone. Everybody who was anybody was getting diagnosed with it. It excuses bad behavior and choices and instantly bestows “victim” status.

Now this time they actually picked a real condition, then invented a new form of it for their fad “illness”. That gives the added weight of lumping the two together when it’s convenient—like when someone calls them on inventing a disease—allowing them to claim the proof for the real disease is proof for the fake one.

But in the end, snake oil salesmen are still snake oil salesmen, and whether it’s unscrupulous quacks or people simply looking for a convenient excuse for bad behavior, there will always be invented illnesses to exploit.

I think the next one should be called Cooties. It at least gives it a little more legitimacy, doesn’t it.

Posted by Danny Carlton at April 23, 2009 7:27 AM