#intellectual ableism

[dyspunktional-revan]

For fuck’s sake you don’t need to put down individuals with low intelligence when you talk about the ableism you face/have faced

#leviathan.txt #leviathan yells at folkel #diagonal ableism #intra disabled ableism #intellectual ableism #ableism #swearing cw

[babblingblackwhale]

Intellectual ableism & the Trojan Horse of the "Gifted" Child

Let us be clear - there is no experience of childhood under white supremacist, patriarchal, bourgeois, hierarchal conditioning that is not violent and this violence begins in the home by the people we first call family. To be a child in this world is to be subject to some of the most potent forms of coercive violence through the ritualistic silencing of innate agency and creative expression by our parents, teachers and other authoritative adults in our life. It is within this oppressive paradigm that the indoctrination of value begins. We begin with this frame because we believe it is important to set this before we can understand what the social construction of a category of gifted kids within a wider children population does in ensuring the persistence of a hierarchal divide up into adulthood.

We have seen a number of formerly categorized "gifted kids" coming to a knowledge of their neuro-variance later in their life after hitting burnout due to the exacting physical and mental costs of maintaining impossible standards of intellectual productivity and social conformity. They are rightfully bitter about their life outcomes, the dearth of structural support for burnout and loss of skills and the staggering grief of belated realization. In their new awareness and hindsight to much of their lives, it's hard to see a silver lining in an objectively shitty lived experience. They react defensively and dismissively to being told that their lived experience (suffocating on all accounts) is a privilege. However personal lived experience always needs to be put into a broader context for the social meaning to emerge.

There seems to be some misconception (prolly due to the liberal deployment) that a person with privilege never experiences traumatic events. However it may be more useful to conceptualize a privilege as a blind spot that allows contrived hierarchies to be exploited. For example, while white people experience this world in a way that their social dominance goes unchallenged, to us however, their psychic, social and emotional experience of the world looks tormenting, wretched and unbearably desolate. Our pity however doesn't change the fact that they uphold the very same constructs that cause them misery nor that they find coherence in the ritualistic brutalization and humiliation of black people via antiblackness.

In our opinion, until the former "gifted" kids can grasp the fact that there was no "grand meaning or special prize" to justify their exploitation in these gifted kids programs while realizing that the mere act of separating and inserting and rewarding an intellectual and cognitive distinction between them and the other kids did reinforce a cognitive and intellectual hierarchy that allowed the adults to glean value from them through the schooling system and industrial work system until they hit burnout. The deep frustration and impatience that later diagnosed autistic, lower support needs adults experience when they experience skills loss and brain fog when in burnout is evidence that there is cognitive and psychic value to be gleaned from being read/regarded as being cognitively and intellectually capable even when it's temporary. It seems disingenuous (& downright violent) to deny that when cognitive and intellectual ableism still plagues most of the neurodivergent online communities especially when they desire to distance themselves from folks with IDs.

As much as people love noting anecdotally the representation of neuro-variation in Gifted kids program, there is even a more striking representation of neuro-variation within "special Ed/ special needs" classes as well and the life outcome of children in these classes are frequently so dire that adulthood feels elusive. This is a society that extracts value until it can no longer after which it disposes of you. Until it disposes you however, it will do it's possible best to lie to you that you are much special, meant to do special things in the world to stop you from seeing yourself in the "non-special" children. It is this blind spot that sets the condition for our misery and cruelty that we must challenge and the way we see it, a lot of people are waiting for the "formerly gifted" children to mourn the death of the world that lied to them and become comrades in struggle against cognitive and intellectual ableism and sanism.

#cognitiveableism #skillsloss #brainfog #gifted kids #neurodiversity #autism #intellectual ableism

[love-me-love-my-weirdness]

“Don’t let your disorder define you”

Okay but do you support the people whose disorders do define them?

Do you support people with the chronic illnesses who have had to develop whole lives around their conditions? Do you support the intellectually disabled people whose whole way of thinking is defined by their disorder? Do you support the people with personality disorders who literally have a disorder as a personality? Do you support the autism/ADHD people whose disorder you can’t separate from who they are? Do you support the DIDOSDD people who have multiple definitions of themselves because of their disorder?

Or are you just saying that because a disorder defining someone means you can’t ignore it.

#chronic illness #autism #adhd #intellectual disability #did osdd #personality disorder #cluster a #cluster b #cluster c #cripplepunk #madpunk #neuropunk #tw ableism

[voidmire-system]

laws should be written by simple language.

scientific books should be written by simple language.

studies should be written by simple language.

rules & regulations should be written by simple language.

every information, especially important one, should be written by simple language.

it's basic accessibility. people with intellectual disability, people with developmental disabilities, people with learning disabilities, people with language processing issues/language impairment, people with brain fog/low concentration, and people with other conditions that make comprehension difficult should have access to every information, especially important one.

i'm autistic and have some language processing issues. so i feel very isolated when i can't read studies, articles, books, and other info. i'm really interested in it, but can't process language. so i have to rely on others' interpretations instead of original text.

i wanna have access to first-hand information. i wanna have the opportunity to form my own opinion, not rely on others' explanations.

btw, "simple language" doesn't mean "avoid complicated ideas & nuances", it means "explain complicated ideas & nuances using mostly simple words and short sentences".

#neurodivergent #actually neurodivergent #accessibility #ableism #intellectual disability #developmental disabilities #learning disabilities #brain fog #actually autistic

[thecorvidforest]

just a reminder that insulting the way people speak because it’s “weird” (i.e. too fast, too slow, too monotone, too animated, slurred, etc) is ableist. many of us with intellectual disabilities, developmental disorders, autism, traumatic brain injuries, physical disabilities, and other conditions speak “weird” because of our conditions.

i see posts all the time like “POV you’re talking to that person who talks like they’re in an anime” or “people who speak monotone are so creepy, they’re like robots” or “people who slur their speech gross me out”. it’s ableist and dehumanizing. insulting the way “certain people” speak may seem harmless on the surface but under the surface those “certain people” are almost always disabled, and these traits are just traits of our disabilities.

#corvidforest #ableism #tw ableism #ableist language #autism #intellectual disability #developmental disability #physically disabled #cpunk

[uncanny-tranny]

I love you, trans people with intellectual disabilities. You deserve to have the same opportunities as everybody else, and that's because you are a person. You deserve to be happy. Intellectually disabled trans people deserve the exact same respect, recognition, and love that (should be) afforded to everybody else.

Intellectually disabled trans people, you deserve to make your own decisions about your transness. You are allowed to want for transition or to change your name, clothes, hair, pronouns, or anything else. You deserve support and understanding. I hope you are able to receive that. You belong in this world as your true self. Your transness and your disability/disabilities are not bad things - they are good, and they are important.

#trans #transgender #lgbt #lgbtq #ftm #mtf #nonbinary #intellectual disability #disability #disability positivity #trans positivity #absolutely *so* tired of people 'forgetting' that intellectually disabled trans people; 1) exist and 2) are autonomous human beings #absolutely hate hate hate the ableism of 'but we have to protect ID trans people from themselves :(' #no. YOU deserve to have a say in your life intellectually disabled trans person. you are a person first and foremost #you don't need to be 'saved' from the 'tragedy' of having an ID or from being trans... #...these things are neutral at worst. you deserve whatever support you want and/or need... #...but you aren't ever a bad person for that. you are loved. you are worthy. you are cherished. you deserve to be you

[calamityquellerei]

please don't say "you can ask me any questions" if there are questions you expect people to not need to ask. please don't say "it's okay to not know" if there's a baseline you expect people to know. you are making your spaces actively hostile and unsafe for intellectually disabled people if you do these things.

#intellectual disability #ableism #disability #disability justice

[elfgarlic]

don't complain about anti-intellectualism when people ask for simplified language, or ask you what something means. simplified language can help neurodivergent/intellectually disabled people, people without much formal education, and people who aren't fluent in whatever language you are using

anti-intellectualism is when governments and other powerful institutions try to silence teachers, scientists, artists, among others, because they don't want people to question their power or learn things that those in power disagree with

two very different things

#anti intellectualism #ableism #disability #okay to reblog #shadow.txt

[a-knight-in-shining-rainbows]

had an interaction a few days ago that i’m still thinking about. I was talking to two students about the Day of Silence protest coming up that friday, and both of them seemed interested but needed more information. Both of these students were disabled with relatively high support needs for communication, processing, and learning. At least one was intellectually disabled.

I explained the basic premise of Day of Silence, and one of the students asked me to repeat myself, explain again. I did this several times, and she was engaged with me, even if she wasn’t processing yet she clearly wanted to know more and was interested in what i was saying. Her para-educator then came over and said it wasn’t worth trying to explain anything to her because she wouldn’t understand.

The para-educator’s intentions were good, she wanted to save me time and believed i may not have known this student was disabled. But to say that, in front of the student, as though she couldn’t hear the comment, is rude at best and downright hostile at worst. Furthermore, to be in a position in which you are the one in charge of helping this person navigate the world, and to believe they only deserve information that you think they can digest, is such an awful way to view someone you are supposed to help. This student was asking me questions, she was listening, and honestly - who cares if in the end she didn’t understand? just because we don’t end up understanding something doesn’t mean we can’t engage with it.

Intellectually disabled individuals and disabled individuals in general are not infants, they’re not incapable of learning or connecting with others. Yes, they may need extra help, and yes, some topics may be too complex for them to tackle, but let the individual decide that for themselves.

TLDR: The person who was supposed to be helping an intellectually disabled student navigate the world decided for that student what they could understand. In doing so, she projected her beliefs about the students abilities and overshadowed the student’s ability to define her own boundaries. Intellectually disabled people deserve the autonomy to decide for themselves what they want to engage with at a given time, not told they are too dumb to understand.

#god that lady pissed me off #intellectually disabled #disability #disability rights #intellectual disability #intellectual disability rights #ableism #tw ableism #ask to tag #meep morp #meep rants

[zebulontheplanet]

Just your reminder that mental age isn’t real and hurts people with ID and developmental disabilities. Please stop saying it’s real.

#autism #zebrambles #medium support needs #actually autism #high support needs #borderline intellectual disability #intellectual disability #support needs #tw mental age #mental age #tw ableism #actually autistic #idd #developmental disabilities

[dyspunktional-revan]

Ppl on this site will go "iq shaming is bad because it only measures pattern thinking" like even if it measured objective intelligence it would still be bad? Intelligence shaming is bad full stop. - mentally disabled anon who's severe autism makes them "stupid" by most standards

! ! !

#I want to yell ‘yes’ in caps but i also want to keep the post accessible #ableism #intellectual ableism #anti norm #umbrella tag: norm #askbox #mentally disabled anon #anon dear you’re one of my favorite people on this site #all best wishes to you

[aacalienz]

if you’re autistic (even if you’re white, able to mask and fully speaking) you’re much closer to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities than you ever will be to neurotypical society. Include people with I/DD in your activism. Don’t separate yourself from us. I’d go as far as to say all autistic people have a developmental disability. You don’t have to identify that way, but really think hard about why you’re choosing not to. Autism is a Developmental Disability and and by separating yourself from intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) you are throwing autistics with higher support needs and autitistics with intellectual disabilities under the bus. (Signed developmentally disabled autistics without ID who are considered developmentally disabled by the state)

#actually autistic #autism #low support needs #medium support needs #ableism #developmentalal disability #i/dd #developmentally disabled #developmental disabilities #IDD #intellectual disability

[barbie-grrrlz]

The r slur is a nasty, nasty word and I do not understand how so many otherwise progressive people hurl it around like confetti. A lot of yall have zero solidarity with those who are intellectually disabled. You are not ""reclaiming"" it when you use it to insult someone. Be real, you just wanna use it cuz it gives you a little surge of catharsis whenever you are Big Mad. Fuck you.

#r slur #ableism #intellectual disability

[mannerfeind-moving]

can we stop using a legitimate fucking brain condition to mean stupid. “smoothbrain” is an actual fucking disorder, called lissencephaly.

the life expectancy for this disorder is extremely short, many people with it never reach ten years old, and the oldest only made it to thirty.

an intellectual disability does not equal stupid, and someone’s worth should not be determined by how “smart” they are to you or society. disabled people are not a joke.

#despost #about ableism #ableism tw #i’d encourage people to revlog this because it’s a legitimate fucking issue on this site #so many of you see people with intellectual disabilities as lower than you and it shows #no youre not a leftist. youre a piece of fucking shit

[hussyknee]

PSA: Please for the love of God stop using the word "cretin". It's a slur for people born with congenital hypothyroidism (CHT, that used to be called cretinism) that causes physical and intellectual disability.

I think it's unrealistic to expect a blanket moratorium on insults about intelligence, but words like "mong/mongoloid" (anti-Asian slur later applied to people with Down Syndrome), "spaz", "downie", "midget" and "cretin" refer to people born with specific developmental disorders. If you care enough not to use the "r–word", please steer clear of these as well.

#please reblog #looking at you RWRB fandom #one of the movie's many crimes is how often I now have to see this word in fics #I'll never forget a mother thanking me for tweeting this a few years ago because her daughter with CHT cries whenever she hears it #ableism #ableist slurs #ableist language #disability #congenital hypothyroidism #down syndrome #dwarfism #spasticity #cerebral palsy #disabled lives matter #intellectual disability #writing tips #rwarb #rwrb movie #knee of huss

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

why are autistics without intellectual disability so quick to distance themselves from those who do?

*unbolded version under the cut*

i see this most often in autistics who are (labeled) level 1/"high functioning"/"aspie" (yes i know the three don't always equal one another yes i know hans asperger nazi). this of course happens with all autistics without intellectual disability (ID) but see most with them.

this is largely rhetorical question.

see so many autistics without ID say things like "i'm autistic not STUPID" and get so offended when someone even imply or genuinely ask if they have ID.

"i'm autistic not [r word]," "i'm autistic but not like those kinds of autistic." all implying they're the "good" kind of autistic that deserve respect and rights and there is group of autistic who are "bad" (read: not palatable enough) who should be bullied and denied rights and locked away and mocked. often these are autistics with ID and autistics who are visibly stereotypically autistic who don't have ability to mask.

understand wanting to correct someone when they think wrong information of you, like you thought i have ID but i actually don't, just like you thought i have depression but i actually don't (just example not personal about me). but often when these autistics say "i'm autistic not STUPID" and variants, they often mean more than that. some autistic people without ID get so offended when people think they have ID. so offended at the idea of being associated with ID. like "how DARE you assume i have ID and are like those people."

so quick to separate self from people with ID. like they have the plague or something.

or. sometimes see autistics without ID talk about an autistic person with ID. talk about an "ugly" (unaccepted, not cute symptom) symptom and say "oh that's not the autism that's ID. autistics don't do that." and act as if there is a clear beginning and end to where the autism ends and where the ID begins. there is not.

or when autistic with ID gets mentioned. everyone focus on the autism and not the ID. or think they can speak about said autistic person with ID's experience just because they themselves are also autistic even though they don't have ID.

or "actually many autistic people have above average intelligence!" which is objectively true but 9/10 times this gets brought up to derail the conversation. yes many autistic people have high IQ (online autism space oversaturated with them), but what is left out is there is nothing wrong with having average IQ or low IQ/intellectual disability.

or. when bring up people w ID and/or autistics with ID, will say "IQ is a inaccurate/racist/colonial/ableist measure" and stuff like that. which is objectively also true! or "don't say you're stupid, you're actually very smart, there are many types of intelligence!" but the issue is when you are bringing these topics up. because yes IQ bad measure, intelligence subjective, BUT ALSO current society have specific types of intelligence they value (and this cannot be denied no matter how much you derail the conversation), AND there is nothing wrong with being "not smart" "stupid" "dumb" "unintelligent" etc. there is nothing wrong with having ID. admit that. why are you (general you) having such a hard time admitting that, to the point you will say everything else before admitting to that?

or say "[r word] is slur towards autistic people so i as an autistic person (without ID) are allowed to reclaim it." when no. r word is not slur towards autistic people. just because it has been used against you doesn't mean it means you. r word is an outdated medical term for intellectual disability, aka mental [r word]. not yours.

many many microaggressions (and macro aggressions tbh too)

autistics with ID are one of the more marginalized more vulnerable autistic population, more likely to be in bad conservatorship, more vulnerable to all kinds of abuse, less autonomy, no privacy, seen as completely incompetent, etc. particularly many have carers and are expected to fully trust and be completely vulnerable to other people and have no personal time no privacy.

autistics with intellectual disability are still autistic. they're not going anywhere.

i say this is rhetorical question because largely know why autistics without ID do this. especially level 1/"high functioning"/"aspie." because think are closest population to nondisabled neurotypical society, on the edge of nondisabled neurotypical society, expected to function well but do not. just "normal-looking" enough to be let in but not normal enough to be truly included, to thrive. many trouble. many trauma. and intelligence is one of the few things many feel proud to have feel positive to have. even feel superior to have. so have internalized ableism towards self but also internalized ableism towards intelligence.

BUT. your trauma or autism still don't justify your ableism. you are still responsible of educating self about ID and unpack ableism about intelligence and ID.

your trauma or autism doesn't justify your ableism you're just ableist

...

unbolded:

i see this most often in autistics who are (labeled) level 1/"high functioning"/"aspie" (yes i know the three don't always equal one another yes i know hans asperger nazi). this of course happens with all autistics without intellectual disability (ID) but see most with them.

this is largely rhetorical question.

see so many autistics without ID say things like "i'm autistic not STUPID" and get so offended when someone even imply or genuinely ask if they have ID.

"i'm autistic not [r word]," "i'm autistic but not like those kinds of autistic." all implying they're the "good" kind of autistic that deserve respect and rights and there is group of autistic who are "bad" (read: not palatable enough) who should be bullied and denied rights and locked away and mocked. often these are autistics with ID and autistics who are visibly stereotypically autistic who don't have ability to mask.

understand wanting to correct someone when they think wrong information of you, like you thought i have ID but i actually don't, just like you thought i have depression but i actually don't. but often when these autistics say "i'm autistic not STUPID" and variants, they often mean more than that. some autistic people without ID get so offended when people think they have ID. so offended at the idea of being associated with ID. like "how DARE you assume i have ID and are like those people."

so quick to separate self from people with ID. like they have the plague or something.

or. sometimes see autistics without ID talk about an autistic person with ID. talk about an "ugly" (unaccepted, not cute symptom) symptom and say "oh that's not the autism that's ID. autistics don't do that." and act as if there is a clear beginning and end to where the autism ends and where the ID begins. there is not.

or when autistic with ID gets mentioned. everyone focus on the autism and not the ID. or think they can speak about said autistic person with ID's experience just because they themselves are also autistic even though they don't have ID.

or "actually many autistic people have above average intelligence!" which is objectively true but 9/10 times this gets brought up to derail the conversation. yes many autistic people have high IQ (online autism space oversaturated with them), but what is left out is there is nothing wrong with having average IQ or low IQ/intellectual disability.

or. when bring up people w ID and/or autistics with ID, will say "IQ is a inaccurate/racist/colonial/ableist measure" and stuff like that. which is objectively also true! or "don't say you're stupid, you're actually very smart, there are many types of intelligence!" but the issue is when you are bringing these topics up. because yes IQ bad measure, intelligence subjective, BUT ALSO current society have specific types of intelligence they value (and this cannot be denied no matter how much you derail the conversation), AND there is nothing wrong with being "not smart" "stupid" "dumb" "unintelligent" etc. there is nothing wrong with having ID. admit that. why are you (general you) having such a hard time admitting that, to the point you will say everything else before admitting to that?

or say "[r word] is slur towards autistic people so i as an autistic person (without ID) are allowed to reclaim it." when no. r word is not slur towards autistic people. just because it has been used against you doesn't mean it means you. r word is an outdated medical term for intellectual disability, aka mental [r word]. not yours.

many many microaggressions (and macro aggressions tbh too)

autistics with ID are one of the more marginalized more vulnerable autistic population, more likely to be in conservatorship, more vulnerable to all kinds of abuse, less autonomy, no privacy, seen as completely incompetent, etc. particularly many have carers and are expected to fully trust and be completely vulnerable to other people and have no personal time no privacy.

autistics with intellectual disability are still autistic. they're not going anywhere.

i say this is rhetorical question because largely know why autistics without ID do this. especially level 1/"high functioning"/"aspie." because think are closest population to nondisabled neurotypical society, on the edge of nondisabled neurotypical society, expected to function well but do not. just "normal-looking" enough to be let in but not normal enough to be truly included, to thrive. many trouble. many trauma. and intelligence is one of the few things many feel proud to have feel positive to have. even feel superior to have. so have internalized ableism towards self but also internalized ableism towards intelligence.

BUT. your trauma or autism still don't justify your ableism. you are still responsible of educating self about ID and unpack ableism about intelligence and ID.

your trauma or autism doesn't justify your ableism you're just ableist

#actually autistic #actuallyautistic #intellectual disability #autism #level 1 autism #ableism tw #nd #asd #intellegence #IQ #loaf screm