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Let’s discuss Dhar Mann’s latest video on autism

mysterionz

mysterionz

oh hamburgers!
V.I.P Member

as an autistic person, he hasn’t learned his lesson on how to depict autistic ppl without stereotyping. What do you think? I’m making this thread because he keeps on coming back to this topic and does an awful job at it. Augustheduck on YouTube made a great video analyzing why the “autistic savant” trope is bad.

 
Couldn't finish watching. Just terrible. No idea who this person is and feel no need to see anything by them again.
 
mysterionz said:
Don’t give dhar dhar any more of your spare time. He’s annoying.
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I'll take that recommendation safe in the knowledge that my life will be no poorer from never seeing his stuff ever again. What an absolute pile of cliched crap. I'm not even offended by it, it's too poor to be taken seriously.
 
I’m not watching the video either as this guy sounds like he’s one of those people who thinks they know more than you do and talks down to you as if you were an idiot and I absolutely hate people like that. The only time I’ll tolerate anyone like that is with Sheldon on The a Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon as he does have moments where he learns that his behavior is correct or appropriate and does make an effort to change even if it’s a tiny bit and he has difficulty doing it.
 
Right or wrong, I am thinking these videos are more targeted to the preteen and teenage population rather than adults. As adults, we tend to view these things as "basic" to the point of missing a lot of information and lacking some accuracy. You probably weren't the "target audience" in this case.
 
I don't know who he is so I googled Dhar Mann, he comes across as being a typical snake oil salesman. He has also been convicted of fraud a few times, his business history is crap, he's a scam artist. I would just ignore him. He's not trying to help anyone or actually do something. It's all about getting people to watch the videos. The content doesn't really matter. If he makes a controversial video that upsets people he just gets more views and for him that's great.

From Wikipedia:

"Mann was charged with thirteen felony counts of fraud for allegedly defrauding a city beautification program while operating his real estate company MannEdge Properties in 2008 and 2009. Prosecutors reduced the charges to five felony counts in August 2013, and later that year Mann pled no contest to the five counts."
 
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Stunningly over acted
Cliches
Super obvious heavy handed dialog & plots
*Be nice; that abnormal person might be useful*

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebVideo/DharMann

knowyourmeme.com

Entrepreneur And Film Producer Dhar Mann Accused Of Underpaying Vital Actors In Wildly Successful Videos

Dhar Mann, the man behind a successful empire of videos meant to teach social lessons to viewers, has been accused by several workers of being underpaid, kick-starting a worker protest and sparking controversy.
knowyourmeme.com knowyourmeme.com
 
I won't watch because I've heard about this guy. Apparently his videos are "feel good that you're not the worst person" videos. There is always a clear Villain and a clear hero and you're supposed to feel good that you're not like them. Everything is overacted to absolute extremes.

Also apparently he's not paying his actors what they're worth and when they went on strike he apologized to the people who weren't on strike about the people being loud outside as if it wasn't entirely his fault.
 
I have seen his videos before. Very stilted, stereotypical, and heavy handed. Terrible stuff.
 
Kisa the tea said:
Also apparently he's not paying his actors what they're worth and when they went on strike he apologized to the people who weren't on strike about the people being loud outside as if it wasn't entirely his fault.
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He's a scam artist. Just look at his past, he's a convicted fraudster.
 
I didn't see anything really wrong with the two autism related videos I skim watched. Yes, they were cliche, used stereotypes, suffered from B-grade acting, etc (not all bad - some of the kid actors did well). But the overall message seemed positive. So I'd say, not worth making a fuss over.
 
The thing I dislike most about this video isn't even the savant stereotypes. It's how it perpetuates the idea that respect is transactional. The reason Tessa stops being mean to Heavenly is because she realizes the value of being nice to her, namely: getting an automatic A in math class, getting assistance with studying, "in art class Tessa takes Heavenly's advice and her project turns out great," etc. Not to mention the reason she turns around on Ralph is because he is competent at everything he does. The respect comes from recognition for their skill (which is NOT a dynamic exclusive to autistic people). I would not want to be respected solely based on how good I am at things, and I would ESPECIALLY not want to be accepted as autistic for that reason as well. It's a very surface-level respect. Not to mention the pressure that it puts on the autistic person to live up to their "friends'" expectations of competency in order to keep their friendship. What would this video say happens to the relationship when the autistic person experiences skill regression?

Another troubling aspect of this narrative is the expectation it creates for neurotypical people to be tangibly rewarded for being nice to us. It's saying, "you shouldn't be mean to the autistic kid in your class because they might help you with your homework one day," rather than acknowledging that you should be nice to the kid ANYWAY, no matter if brings you value or not.

Anyway, happy Friday y'all!
 
premiumsockets said:
The thing I dislike most about this video isn't even the savant stereotypes. It's how it perpetuates the idea that respect is transactional. The reason Tessa stops being mean to Heavenly is because she realizes the value of being nice to her, namely: getting an automatic A in math class, getting assistance with studying, "in art class Tessa takes Heavenly's advice and her project turns out great," etc. Not to mention the reason she turns around on Ralph is because he is competent at everything he does. The respect comes from recognition for their skill (which is NOT a dynamic exclusive to autistic people). I would not want to be respected solely based on how good I am at things, and I would ESPECIALLY not want to be accepted as autistic for that reason as well. It's a very surface-level respect. Not to mention the pressure that it puts on the autistic person to live up to their "friends'" expectations of competency in order to keep their friendship. What would this video say happens to the relationship when the autistic person experiences skill regression?

Another troubling aspect of this narrative is the expectation it creates for neurotypical people to be tangibly rewarded for being nice to us. It's saying, "you shouldn't be mean to the autistic kid in your class because they might help you with your homework one day," rather than acknowledging that you should be nice to the kid ANYWAY, no matter if brings you value or not.

Anyway, happy Friday y'all!
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I wanted kids to be nicer to me in high school because it would be the right thing to do and refused to associate with them if I could tell that they were just using me for their own selfish needs. What the bullies didn’t know is that being the kid of a highly recommended mechanic in the area has its advantages and I could have sent them to my dad if their car needed some work done and they didn’t have a lot of money for the work or even which car dealership they could go to get a new car.
 
premiumsockets said:
The reason Tessa stops being mean to Heavenly is because she realizes the value of being nice to her, namely: getting an automatic A in math class, getting assistance with studying, "in art class Tessa takes Heavenly's advice and her project turns out great," etc.
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Plus, this ties into the “villain being nice to MC only because they’ll gain something from it, villain learns their lesson and they and the MC become friends” trope.

premiumsockets said:
Not to mention the reason she turns around on Ralph is because he is competent at everything he does. The respect comes from recognition for their skill (which is NOT a dynamic exclusive to autistic people). I would not want to be respected solely based on how good I am at things, and I would ESPECIALLY not want to be accepted as autistic for that reason as well. It's a very surface-level respect. Not to mention the pressure that it puts on the autistic person to live up to their "friends'" expectations of competency in order to keep their friendship.
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You are saying 100% facts here.

premiumsockets said:
What would this video say happens to the relationship when the autistic person experiences skill regression?
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Assuming the MC was replaced with a non-verbal or character with higher support needs, Dhar Mann wouldn’t touch that. He probably wants to only cast “high functioning“ white, cisgender boys and men and only cast a person of color to be “inclusive”, given his past controversies of being a con artist and not paying his actors for their time.
 
premiumsockets said:
Another troubling aspect of this narrative is the expectation it creates for neurotypical people to be tangibly rewarded for being nice to us. It's saying, "you shouldn't be mean to the autistic kid in your class because they might help you with your homework one day," rather than acknowledging that you should be nice to the kid ANYWAY, no matter if brings you value or not.
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That’s like villains/bullies that only be nice to the good guys so they can get something they want.
 
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