Okay, I want to do a bit of lift up today.

Maybe disabled people do actually have some special powers 😛 Mother Nature has to even things a bit so it gave me a cripple body but it also:

- gave me no allergies

- gave me shiny, bright, strong hair no matter what I do to them (bleach, dye, etc)

- made me capable of learning foreign languages very fast.

Let’s all think of 3 things that we think are “special” about us.

Go!

Accommodations are not special, they’re not a leg up, they’re not a benefit. They’re not putting anyone ahead in the race, nor are they taking anything away from others.

They exist to put us on a level playing ground to everyone else, and nothing more.

Very funny to me how Stansas present her character as being so interesting and complex because of her vulnerabilities, while simultaneously ignoring those same vulnerabilities in other characters. Dany is sold as a bridal slave and lacks agency throughout AGOT and after. Her dragons are either too young/small to utilize effectively or locked away for the majority of the story. They aren't some all-powerful trump card that protects her from harm. Arya is captured as a prisoner of war, forced to watch countless people tortured and murdered, and then essentially enslaved in Harrenhal with no way to fight back. She has an entire arc of feeling powerless, of being a "mouse", during ACOK. She doesn't have "kung-fu" or the ability to magically fight her way out of every situation, she's a young child lacking physical strength with only the most basic sword training.

Sansa isn't the only female character, she isn't the only young character, she isn't the only character who suffered, and no one is obligated to prioritize her. I'm so tired of Dany and Arya being mischaracterized and having their stories erased to prop Sansa up. "Sansa has kept her dignity" In other words, let's praise her for having a level of security that Dany and Arya don't have access to. She hasn't ever been forced to make a hard decision which of course means that she's morally superior to them. They can't even admit to themselves that her lack of action is due to her own passivity. If it doesn't fit their delusion, they erase it from the story and expect the rest of us to play along. Ask one of them what they like about her character without bringing up her being the ultimate victim, and I genuinely don't believe they'd be able to give you an answer. They belittle other characters more than they talk about her and these takes just scream insecurity/jealousy at the content and development other characters have in their POVs.

There’s something so intimate with seeing another disabled person in public. I was walking down the street with a friend to a cafe, my red cane in hand. Coming down from the opposite street was a young women with her friend. I saw her bedazzled cane, covered in stickers and art then looked up to her eyes. She had been looking at my cane, covered head to toe in stickers, before looking up to me. We both smiled and kept walking.But with no words spoken there was a message.

“You’re just like me. We are both here, living our lives, walking with a friend like everyone else. We exist, not just online but here in person, we are not alone.”

“actually it’s perfectly ok for people to make slime toys out of the water you need to drink. why? because I might need it 20 years from now, obviously. stop being a piece of shit to people who want you to literally go without drinking water, you ugly disgusting meanie cripple!!!! you’re hurting Future Me by being mean to these people shrieking ableist horseshit at you!!!!!! help!!!! help!!!! help!!!!”

PLEASE NORMALIZE

Doing/having friends who do Special Olympics

Having a PASS/direct support worker

Living in a group home/shared living arrangement (willingly!!)

Receiving services from the state/US government.

Having friends who were in special ed/have higher support needs than ya! FRIENDS WHO DON'T USE WORDS TO TALK!! FRIENDS IN WHEELCHAIRS! FRIENDS WHO MAY HAVE DIFFICULTY WITH EATING AND MOTOR STUFF AND SOMETIMES THEY GET A BIT OF SALIVA HERE AND THERE!

Growing up in special ed and having accommodations in college!

OCs with Down Syndrome

Hanging out and meeting friends in Best Buddies/other social skills groups! EVEN WHEN YOU STILL UTILIZE THEM AFTER AGE THIRTY OR WHATEVER!!

People of all different support levels vibing together and not seeing this stuff as "babyish" or "cheesy" or other shit! Take that internalized ableism and SHOVE IT-into the trash.

"Why does it bother you when people treat you extra nice because you're disabled, don't you want to be treated kindly?" No! I want to be treated like a human being! I don't need to be pitied and coddled and treated like some special fragile little creature just because I'm disabled, just like I don't need to be vilified and dehumanized and treated like some freakish revolting Other. I'm a fucking person. If you're an asshole, I deserve the right for you to treat me as such.

Moral Orel doesn't seem 100% like a show I'd feel seen in if you don't know me but then I remember the episode with the special ed kids and underneath the usual satire on extremist bible belt religion it reminds me WAY too much of how actual special ed departments treated me and other kids growing up.

Like the writers must HAVE BEEN THERE IN LIFE, man. I'd kill to sit down with Dino Stamatopoulos and find out what the fuck inspired him and the other writing staff that day.

I can't speak for every autistic or otherwise neurodivergent person, but I think there's something rather grotesque about the genre of posts mocking people with ADHD/autism/whatever for treating perfectly ordinary behaviors or thought processes or helpful advice/practices as somehow related to their disability.

In my experience, the neurodivergent people in question are generally talking about things actually associated with their condition in research, and sometimes about literal diagnostic criteria for it, or advice that is particularly helpful for it even if it's also helpful to others. The "problem" is usually a lack of specificity about the degree of severity or frequency or disruption they're talking about or exaggeration of actual trends into over-simplified generalizations.

I put "problem" in quotes because it's like ... oh no, neurodivergent people are sometimes imprecise, God forbid.

Yes, sometimes we don't clarify everything we mean when we expect our audience to mostly be other neurodivergent people, sometimes we're careless and don't account for the complexities and nuances of reality when venting about a world that is largely hostile to us, and sometimes our disabilities influence our communication of our experiences (how dare!!!).

I mean, coming at this from the autistic angle in particular—wait, some of us use language without perfect accuracy and/or misjudge social cues and/or tend to more rigid, black-and-white views of the world than are truly the case? How shocking.

I'm not saying neurodivergent people's inaccuracies should always be just given a pass. Sometimes it's important (or at least acceptable) to correct misunderstandings or inaccuracies! But I am saying that I think mocking disabled people for imperfectly expressing their feelings about generally real things is an asshole move.

(And yes, it's still an asshole move if you are yourself disabled.)

The fun thing about having chronic depression is that not only do non-disabled people think you're an overdramatic con artist but a lot of other disabled people also think that about you.

Me, a physically disabled (high support needs) neurodivergent (mid to high support needs) person: Hey, my neurodivergence IS extremely disabling in a way that a lot of you say "isn't possible" and also my physical and neurological disabilities often combine in ways that can't be separated and produce symptoms that are new or of added severity for me.

Responses I've gotten from disabled exclusionists (some of whom are also both physically disabled and neurodivergent):

"What drugs are you on, you delusional freak?"

"I've never experienced this and therefore you're a dirty lying physically abled neurodivergent person who just wants to be more disabled and oppressed than you are. My experiences are universal and anyone who has different experiences is a lying liar. No one can ever prove otherwise because my axiom is that anyone who claims otherwise is lying."

"The ableds are at it again."

"Sit down and let the REAL disabled people talk."

"You're never allowed to find similarities between disabilities that are of different types, even ones you have, and if you do you're actually the reason why accessibility is such an issue because conflating them is why ableist doctors don't give us what we need and why society thinks medical gatekeeping is good, actually."

"If you're that suicidal do us all a favor and kill yourself."

This is without even getting into stuff about how disabled labels often apply differently to systems. The big discourse now is "nonverbal" labels for headmates who are permanently, always nonverbal, primarily by people and systems who refuse to view systems as anything but "parts" of a single person. Which is funny to me because ah yes, we have actual studies showing physical disabilities such as allergies can apply only to individual headmates, but gods forbid you apply a neurological label to someone whose brain activity is not only visibly different on scans from yours, but to the extent that it changes your entire shared physical body!

Like here's a novel idea: maybe we could just stop policing how other disabled people talk about their disabilities forever! Maybe we could blame any and all harm done even from the unicorn-rarity "actual fakers/liars" (also don't think I don't see you being ableist against people with actual diagnosed that cause compulsive lying) on the ableists DOING the harm because it's actually perfectly possible for them not to cherrypick our words and listen to the MAJORITY of us!

Maybe, just maybe, we could form a coalition, focus on the REAL enemy (ableist medical professionals and lawmakers) and push for actual change for ALL of us!

The problem with starting to think about the Pack more is the fact that now I want to grab Skalamander the same way I grabbed Bobo like. My house now. I want to use your character potential.

I love fairytopia so much. It meant the world to me as a child.

yoooo ok that last job turning out to be bullshit might actually be a blessing in disguise because I just landed an interview for an after school theater teacher gig that pays way better~ I went to theater camp every year from ages 12 to 17 and always loved the idea of being a counselor for a program like that, and did backstage / dramaturg work for a play at UCSB back in pre-pandemic 2020 so I might actually have a shot at this. Wish me luck!

Haha my bad, I have $30 for the rest of the month. 8)

there’s a really good video i would like to share on understanding trauma, how it affects the brain and the body, and most importantly how to heal. the brain is so powerful. More often than not suppressed and unresolved trauma will result in physical symptoms. there’s so many people out there struggling with chronic pain or fatigue and are never able to find the root of it, if that is you i recommend looking into this topic!