Coprolalia
It’s extremely rare that the exact same slur is uttered by a person with Tourette’s syndrome 3 times like John did it, because one of it’s symptoms, coprolalia, the involuntary swearing or utterance of obscene words, inappropriate and derogatory slurs, is rarely repetitive in a verbatim way 3 times. For instance, they won’t say: “fuck you!”, 3 times, they’d most likely say: fuck you, fuck, fucking fucker, etc. There will be variations. They may take a physical characteristic and run with it, for instance, “bald”, but they won’t say bald 3 times, each iteration will probably vary. And there’s the meds angle, that everyone seems to overlook but it’s crucial here. A person with Tourette will most likely require meds to attend such highly stimulating setting, such as an award ceremony, with red carpet, international press, hundreds of cameras, etc. The meds are similar and sometimes the same as the ones taken by ADHD patients, because otherwise they may suffer a flair. After checking the footage, John Davidson seemed perfectly adapted to the limelight of the BAFTAs, no tics were displayed, no motor symptoms of any kind were present, etc. This leads me to believe he was most likely on meds OR that his Tourette is very mild or well controlled. Therefore, in any of those cases, yelling the N word, in public, 3 times, with absolutely no variations, is extremely, and I can’t emphasize this enough, EXTREMELY, implausible. Therefore, he might have Tourette, sure, but he’s using it as a smoke screen to cover up and even justify his raging racist believes. As usual, one thing does NOT necessarily cancel the other one out. Saying that Tourette’s automatically makes you a good person is as stupid and false as saying that Tourette’s automatically makes you a villain. In order to treat Tourette’s patients with outmost respect, first we have to acknowledge that Tourette is a condition that can/should be treated but it won’t magically fix your underlaying racism if you’re a racist, neither will it make you one, if you’re not. Period. It will completely strip you away from any social filter that could allow you to keep your mouth shut about any racist remarks that may cross your mind, if you’re a racist in the first place though. Like John Davidson.
Update: tnx @mr-controversial for pointing out that the scientific reference that backs up my personal and professional opinions aforementioned was not pasted here.
There's more but I will only quote the 2 I mentioned in my response (RB notes).
This article explains coprolalia, one of the most baffling and socially unacceptable vocal tics symptoms of Tourette Syndrome (TS).
In his original 1885 description of the syndrome, Gilles de la Tourette emphasized the triad of multiple tics, coprolalia, and echolalia.26
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