I Know Someone Who Calls Herself A Feminist, Puts Her Pronouns In Her Work Email Signature, Donates Money

i love you kind personification of death i love you compassionate anthropomorphism of loss i love you caring concept beyond our imagination i love you loneliest being in the universe i love you discworld death

Whenever I get a particularly nasty message, I always check to see if they're following me first. Nine times out of ten, they're not. But they're also, unfortunately, the same people who feel entitled to send me multiple messages in a row, most of them heavily steeped in the language of moralization and purity.

Like whenever I talk about painkillers or pain management, I always get a handful of well-meaning people who are maybe new to my blog or are just young, asking me if I've tried diet/exercise/meditation, etc.

Sometimes I'll respond to them. Other times I'll just ignore them because I get those kinds of messages so often it's like white noise, and maybe part of me hopes if they stick around on my blog, they'll learn it through exposure via my incessant bitching.

When you see me responding to someone offering that kind of advice, it's either because I'm at my fucking limit or because I'm hoping it's a teachable moment and an otherwise seemingly nice person might unlearn some harmful biases.

The people who don't follow me are not interested in any kind of conversation on the subject. They do, however, feel the most qualified to tell me, someone they didn't know existed until one of my posts crossed their dash, how to manage my life, everything I'm doing wrong, and why I'm a bad person.

And for them, my disability is proof that I am a bad person because they view health as a moral issue.

If you're sick, it's because you don't exercise enough, don't eat the right foods, don't pray enough, don't do enough. They genuinely believe that if they say and do all the right things, like a Good Person, they'll never get sick.

It's their security blanket against the harsh reality that anyone is one bad day away from disability. One faulty gene, one bad infection, one bad accident away from a life-long diagnosis. And if they do get sick, it's a test. A challenge to be overcome with Willpower as they learn the True Meaning of Life.

It can never just be a simple fact of life that sickness happens. That disability exists without a moral reason.

And it's suffocating.

Day in, day out. Folks who don't know me from fucking Eve telling me I'm being punished. Not always as outright as that. They don't always use that word. But sometimes I appreciate it when they do because at least then they're being honest. They're not couching it in the softer language of leftist circles. Not hiding it behind concern.

Because the truth is, there are just as many folks who think they're liberal and enlightened who'd be happy if disabled people just stopped existing. They don't like thinking about us because it makes them think about themselves. About their own fragility and mortality, and they hate that. They hate that there's something they can't control with their thoughts and actions. That they can't moralize their way out of.

Honestly, it's a relief when people are just cunts about it because I can hit the block button, safe in the knowledge that they were never the kind of person who would see me as a person. But when it's some 20yo kid with their pronouns, orientation, and "ACAB" in their profile spouting the same kind of moralization, sometimes even with the language of eugenics, it feels like such a betrayal. Like a loss.

And perhaps if I wasn't multiply disabled, I'd have the energy to pull them back. To tell them why they're wrong and hope like hell they realize what they're doing is harmful. But then, if I wasn't disabled, they wouldn't be messaging me, so I wouldn't be dealing with it.

I wouldn't be expected to use my existence as a teachable moment to spoon-feed them compassion. But I am, and I do. When I can. Not always with the grace that's warranted. Not always with the thought and compassion I ought to. (And I don't; I acknowledge that. I'm prone to anger and off-the-cuff remarks that are hurtful too. Though I try to keep most of it to myself or save it for therapy.)

Basically, if you've made it this far through the TED talk, don't be fucking cunts to disabled people. Don't tell chronically ill people to try yoga. Don't moralize pain relief. Suffering is not noble.

You need to kill the cop and the priest in your head telling you otherwise.

And also if you're the nice people sending me nice messages. Thank you. It helps cushion all of *gestures* this.

Detail of Portrait of Princess Sibylle of Cleve, 1526, by Lucas Cranach the Elder  (1472-1553)

headcanon: there’s a running gag in season 3 where people keep asking Muriel what happened to Mr Fell and after they tell everyone he’s in heaven the people keep offering their condolences, much to Muriel’s confusion.

Will I be okay ?

Will I ?

Fuck the meritocracy

Fascism is on the rise

I will not be the first target

but I'm scared I will be the second

I should fight like hell

For me, for my friends

But I'm tired and powerless

Things don't feel like

they're getting better

Help.

We're supposed to be one

of the best countries

when it comes to social rights

But they're slowly

Eroding

There's nowhere else to go

when it all comes to shit

I can't run

No flight only fight

or freeze

I don't get a second chance

I pray to any god that listens

Don't let it come to that.

I pray to my peers

Don't let it come to that.

I pray to the reader

Don't let it come to that.

But I might preach to the choir

Don't let it come to that.

And I pray to the ones that want me dead

Take pity, be human

Or I will have to fight to death

It's not too late

I will try to take you down with me

Make you suffer like you make me

Or maybe I won't

Maybe when the time comes

I will be weak

I don't wanna find out

Don't let it come to that.

GNU Terry Pratchett

GNU Terry Prachett

GNU Terry Pratchett

part of being an ally to trans men is not being a dick to cis men for their appearance btw

Cyrano de Bergerac is such a pathetic wet little meow meow, I love him so much. He's completely consumed by love. He's emotionnally stunted. He's never received physical affection ever. He has so much self-esteem issues. He doesn't want to cry because he thinks he is so ugly that it will ruin the beauty of tears. He is dirt poor and starving. He's a filthy liar. He's a soldier, a killer, but also a poet and damn good at both things. He's bisexual. He faces a hundred dudes at the same time and kills them all to save a friend. He spits in the eye of the social hierarchy. He's so angry. He gets mocked by his rival and says "nah, your insults are not good enough, let me do it myself" and then kills the dude. He then is mocked by another rival who does it a little better, and what does he do ? Ask him for a hug. He's so character.