as small as a world and as large as alone

11:28pm June 18, 2014

dendriforming:

(CW: quotes explicitly promoting dehumanization, ableism, eugenics)

The thing that’s striking about that debate.org thread isn’t that they’re saying we’re garbage or animals. It’s that, when I look at it, there’s so very little substantial difference between those comments and what I’ve heard tenured professors say in class, or in published writings.

(“Pancreatic cancer will kill you in a year, tops. People with autism linger on for decades. Think about the financial ramifications.” - paraphrased from a neuro professor)

(“There isn’t an arguement to make. They don’t offer anything to society, they are a massive burden on their caregivers, they are incapable of supporting themselves and their very existence is unsustainable.” - Debate.org commenter)

(“A developmental disorder that strikes at the heart of that which makes us human: our ability to love, laugh, and encounter others.” - John Ratey.)

(“They aren’t even alive.  To me a human is a person with the ability to think all that that entails. A mentally retarded person cannot think and are therefore not living full lives.” - Debate.org commenter)

(“It’s as if they do not understand or are missing a core aspect of what it is to be human; to be and do like others and absorb their values. […] "Their worlds are more barren, their social world is very distorted, and they come out of their world not when you want them to, but when they want to.” - Bryna Siegel)

(“Inventions like tool use, art, math and even aspects of language may have been invented “accidentally” in one place and then spread very quickly given the human brain’s amazing capacity for imitation learning and mind reading using mirror neurons. […] I suggest, also, that a loss of these mirror neurons may explain autism — a cruel disease that afflicts children. Without these neurons the child can no longer understand or empathize with other people emotionally and therefore completely withdraws from the world socially.” - VS Ramachandran)

(“Their very existence is a spit in the face of the marvelous achievement and identity of the human race, to advance, innovate, and appreciate and revel at the beauty of the universe.” - Debate.org commenter)

The difference is in the phrasings, not the substance. And what do we do with that? What can we do with that?

I don’t pretend to know. But I think it’s really important to acknowledge that what we’re facing here is already a mainstream view. The only difference is the polish.

These kinds of quotes fill me with so much rage and despair sometimes.  I don’t know what we can do against such reckless hate, as the saying goes.  And this is hate.  This is what hate looks like.  This is what hate sounds like.  This is the heart of ableist hate.  Cognitive ableist hate, at that:  This is specifically targeted at people with cognitive disabilities such as autism and intellectual disability.  And there is no way… I can’t see a way through.

I mean I know love is the only counter to this kind of hate, it’s the only thing with the power to get through it:  Miss that at your peril.  Hating back won’t help, it’ll just create more hate.  But the love has to be directed a specific way, it can’t be just random love, it has to be love with a purpose, love in the service of certain ideals, love doing something, active love.

And I don’t know where to aim it, or how, but I will never give up, because the stakes are life and death and I have already paid one too many times.  I might not get another chance if they try again.

And this is a place for DD solidarity, too, because this is not just directed at autistics.

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