Found here. My comments in bold.
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As I read this I thought it was a parody. Every single leftist talking point, rhetorical technique, characterization, and tedious trope is contained therein.
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This is an emergency plea to those upset about a pending Trump presidency. I’d like to especially address intersectional feminists, radicals, anarchists, socialists, and others in the USA who are able-bodied and drawn towards systems-level analysis and organizing for radical change. (This sentence seems to be composed of words that are strung together in attempt to sound intellectual. I had to look up "intersectional," and discovered that it is a descriptor of supposed divergent groups that have an overlapping interest in the author's cause. I suppose this means that feminists, radicals, anarchists, and socialists who are not intersectional [as if there are such people] are not being addressed by the author and therefore should ignore her call to action.
What I also find interesting is that the author calls for radical change, which is represented by Trumps ascendancy. Apparently the election of Hillary, which would not have represented radical change, would have been preferable to the author. We therefore conclude that the author is not actually in favor of radical change, but is in favor of more of the same kinds of policies that have characterized the governance of the country for the past 8 years.
Also, I had to laugh out loud at the idea of anarchists organizing...)
People with disabilities and chronic illnesses will die under a Trump presidency. Full stop. We will die because of him. This is an emergency situation and we need emergency solidarity, immediately, from every single one of you. Right now, many of us feel like you do not understand the horror of this situation. (The disabled will die! Trump himself will kill them!
The author will gop to write hundreds of words, but will never get around to telling us how this will happen.)
Social justice activists, why is ableism (Ableism is neologism which describes the discrimination of the able-bodied against the disabled. Again, the author pukes out a word as if it was a self-evident situation.)
so often relegated to the periphery of your analysis? (Translation: Why don't you care enough?)
Many disabled people feel right now that they desperately need you and can’t find you. (You're not intersectional enough.)
Maybe it’s the cultural lineage of eugenics (An unintentional nod to Margret Sanger's pogrom against "human weeds" [Sanger's name for blacks], a legacy ironically inherited by her Planned Parenthood organization.)
and Social Darwinism which has created an ableist norm, a veil of neutrality over what is actually a system of domination. Maybe it has to do with an association between disability awareness campaigns and a vague sense of apolitical softness or even conservatism, as if caring about disability is not the job of radicals, but the job of celebrity doctors, colored ribbon campaigns, and concerned suburban moms. Or maybe it has something to do with a sense of not being personally affected by disability. (Or maybe it's a product of the author's fevered imagination. She seems to think there is a systematic, systemic plot to deprive the disabled of something, a something she never describes or provides evidence for.)
You shouldn’t have to be personally affected by something to care about it, but if helps, here’s a reminder: Every single one of you could become disabled or chronically ill at the drop of a hat, and you’re going to be living under Trump, too. (Actually, dying under Trump...)
Donald Trump, in addition to being one of the most racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, classist, capitalist, all-around hateful and terrifying US presidents in history, is also on track to be the most ableist president. (More verbal diarrhea. This is a typical rhetorical technique for the Left, an endless spew of negative descriptors taking the place of conversation and analysis. It is a distinctly nonintellectual approach that negates reasoned discourse.)
His oft-stated goal of virtually dismantling Medicaid and Obamacare is perhaps the most brazen way in which he will boot-stomp and kill disabled and sick folks. (The author has certainly done her homework on leftist agitprop.)
(And this is not to mention other healthcare-related questions: What is going to happen to reproductive rights? (Irony alert: Apparently the value she ascribes to the disabled doesn't not extend to the unborn.)
What is going to happen to transfolk who use hormones?) (Don't shut off the money supply! We deserve free stuff!)
But Trump’s nasty ableist ideology doesn’t end at healthcare. Trump has contributed to an ableist cultural psychology by openly mocking disabled people (Here is Trump supposedly mocking a disabled reporter. It remains to be seen from the video that he was actually mocking the reporter's disability versus mocking the reporter himself.
In any case, we might wonder why certain people ought to be insulated from mocking and on what basis, while others can be mocked with impunity, including the disabled.)
and he has been charged with consistent ADA violations in his business ventures. This includes cases so egregious that the Department of Justice had to get involved . Trump believes capitalists are “oppressed” by the imposition of the Americans with Disabilities Act and has repeatedly spoken of supporting legislation that would seriously limit the seminal act’s powers. (The Left loves forcing people to do things, and some of the provisions of the ADA do just that. Apparently it is beyond the pale for Trump to complain about this.)
Immediately addressing this emergency also requires immediately addressing ableism’s intersection with other oppressive systems. For example, Black folks are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than whites and a full half of people killed by police are disabled. This means that Trump’s potential Department of Justice policies, which will leave police even more unaccountable and militarized than already are, will have drastic effects on disabled people in general, and disabled people of color in particular. (We note for the record that these things are already happening, and Trump is not yet president. Yet for some reason the author has no name-calling or obfuscating rhetoric to direct at the man currently at the helm.)
Indeed, the disabled people who are most at risk for harm and death will be those already suffering other injustices. Many will be people of color and women who are already discriminated against in emergency rooms. (Another unsupported assertion.)
Many will be immigrants and migrant workers. Many will be single mothers. Many will be LGBTQ folks. Many will be people who do not speak English, the US’s dominant language. Many will be Native Americans. Many will be severely disabled people needing total care and living in group homes, which are at risk of losing funding. Many will be disabled children in underfunded schools who risk losing their already minimal accommodations. Many will be people who are isolated, without friends or family. Almost all will be working class and poor.
I care about the difference between radical and liberal US politics, between politics as usual and actual systemic change. I care about the similarities between Republicans and Democrats and how capitalism, imperialism, sexism, racism, police states, and war have been fostered by both parties. (The agitprop never ends...)
I was even stubborn about supporting Bernie, a lesser of three evils candidate whose seriously problematic pro-war voting record left me deeply conflicted. But there is nothing more privileged than being able to comfortably intellectualize and debate about a utopian future without having to worry about your physical or emotional survival in the present. Without having to wade through the resultant muck after systems of oppression pit your survival against your ethical purity.
This is the first time in my life I have not voted third party. (Good. I am very, very glad she did not vote.)
Significantly reduced risk to disabled people in the United States is but one way in which a Clinton presidency would have had immediate, physical, survival-level differences from a Trump one. And always, always, always the complications of ableism get exacerbated by elements like gender, race, class, immigration status, being a member of a persecuted religion, age, veteran status, and being LGBTQ. With Clinton and all of her profound flaws, we could have at least maintained a status quo (A tacit admission that progressivism is not progressive at all.)
and kept fighting from there. We could have at least minimized deaths of, and harm against, disabled people. Now we’re moving backwards and many disabled people are going to die. (Her original assertion, which she has not taken the time to establish or document.)
Full stop.
So here we are. We have elected a textbook authoritarian. (Unsupported assertion.)
We are in uncharted waters, even for the USA. And right now, more than ever, if you are an ally, then you need to say the word “ableism.” Look at the reality of what Trump might do and say “that is ableist and horrifying.” Say “ableism” in the lists of oppressive “isms” you’ve been making lately in your articles, Tweets, posts, lesson plans, protest signs, and conversations. Look at the terrifying history of what other authoritarians have done to disabled people, then say “ableism” loudly, forcefully, whenever necessary, and mean it with all of your heart and mind. If you want to be an ally, if you want to stand in solidarity in any manner that could be considered feminist, intersectional, radical, or otherwise enlightened, it is required that you develop a sense of passionate injustice about ableism. (And make it shrill, make it an appeal to the emotions, and make sure you use all the right negative descriptors against your enemies. The more buzz words the better. Overwhelm your adversaries with endless accusations, suppositions, speculations, negative characterizations, and factoids. Make it so long and endless that your enemies cannot even get a word in edgewise.)
Able-bodied people, I don’t know how to say it more clearly. This is a literal emergency, as in: Actual emergency rooms will be overflowing. As in: Death and levels of physical and psychological suffering you cannot comprehend. As in: Disabled people don’t historically fare well under authoritarian governments. (Gawd, this woman never stops. I can imagine her typing away with tears in her eyes as she considers all the death and misery she conjures up. Her life is defined by her bogeymen, and she wants those who might be sympathetic to take up the rallying cry for action.)
You need to use whatever platforms you can access to raise awareness, organize, and make constant connections between ableism and its intersections with other injustices and political cruelties. If you have money, you need to donate to disability rights organizations, as well as organizations like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. You need to write these articles so disabled and sick people don’t have to. You need to learn about issues like rampant physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse of disabled people. You need to learn about things like invisible disabilities, the obstacles that keep disabled folks from voting, the internalized ableism that makes disabled people hate themselves, and disabled people’s remarkable resistance movements. You need to teach yourself and others about the horrifying history, both in the US and abroad, of human societies’ various attempts to kill and stomp disabled people into the ground. You need to do all kinds of things I can’t think of right now because I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and PTSD and the stress of this election is making me physically ill. (She wears her various memberships in "disadvantaged" groups like a badge of pride. "This is me," she says, and she is among the most oppressed of the oppressed. She is special. Listen to here, because she is a victim, and is looking for pity, special favors, and an elevated position in the debate simply because she can list on her resume a number of statuses that entitle her to a spot at the table. As long as you don't question here or dare to disagree.)
The bottom line: You need to act and be sneaky and crafty and smart and do the work. None of us can be free until all of us are free. So say “ableism” and mean it. We really, really need you.
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