Dear so-called progressives: I hate you

[trouble]

Hey so-called Progressives: Disability is not your fucking punch line and I hate you.

Wherein Wonkette dedicates a whole fucking post to mocking Trig Palin for being "r#tarded", because it's very progressive to mock children with disabilities! Seriously, it's a disgusting article. Read this description at adage instead.

(Oh, but see, they're mocking SARAH PALIN for "using her son as a political prop". Which is why they put up a post that implies that Trig is the product of incest between his father and sister, say that children with intellectual disabilities don't dream, and implied that he was born disabled because his mother drank while she was pregnant. Not, you know, just saying "This shit where Palin uses her son as a political prop is wrong." No no, they're mocking her by making him - and all children with disabilities by extension - the butt of the joke. Ha ha ha ha. ha ha. So creative. Gosh, those progressive sure are on the side of people with disabilities, right?)

And, of course:
Lady Gaga Calls Madonna Plagiarism charges r#tarded.

GOSH I'M SO GLAD THAT I HAVE PROGRESSIVES ON MY SIDE. It's been mere hours since I was last told that ableism wasn't a real thing because people with disabilities are treated with "kid gloves".

Comments

[codeman38]

The Lady Gaga link is broken, just for the record.

Still... URGH. Can I just keep my head in the sand already? >_<

[trouble]

I have fixed it, thank you.

I am so angry I keep chewing nails and spitting out tacks.

[codeman38]

...And I was already irritated today, after the PBS NewsHour discussion panel on autism which was carried out as a text chat-- an amazingly accessible format that would've been perfect for participation by an autistic panelist or two-- and which, of course, had absolutely zero representation from actual autistic people.

Of course, my question about why there was so little autistic representation in NewsHour's series on autism didn't get moderated through. Of course.

[ginny_t]

Why do people do this to me?! I get my rage levels down and think maybe I don't hate them, and then they go and do this shit.

I hate people. (I should just make an icon that says that and save myself keystrokes.)

[trouble]

I should make an icon that says "Disability is not your punch line and I hate you", and just make GIPs. FOREVER. ARG.

[trouble]

(Which is to say, yes, exactly as you say. It's just so common I can barely think.)

[allies_person]

GACK, this is so enraging. Fuck Wonkette. So glad that I never frequented that cesspool, not that many other "progressive" sites are much better.

[allies_person]

It also occurs to me that a lot of the ableism that's directed towards Trig is completely illogical. I mean, Trig is a two-year old (I think). And he's being mocked for...doing things which many young children do. But since he's seen as "defective" he becomes a target for shit like this.

[meloukhia]

Oh, Wonkette. Never change.

By which I mean 'go away.'

[trouble]

Apparently most Liberals Kate Harding knows hate ableism.

mel, can I move to Kate's world? I bet it is awesome.

[capriuni]

It really is quite painful to think of yourself as "proudly Progressive" on topics like women's rights, and the environment, and religious freedom and the economy, and all those other good things, and then, to discover, in your late 40s, that other Progressives hate you, and want you to die.

I meean, where's my Tribe? I can't hang out with the Libertarians, the Conservatives are just as bad (if not worse), here in the States...

I just... It makes me want to cry. My mother was a Progressive, and so were all the other cool adults around me, growing up. Did the "movement" (party, whatever) change when I wasn't looking? Or did everyone hate me, all along?

[trouble]

Oh Ann. :( I'm sorry. I wish I had an answer for you.

[slave2tehtink]

I meean, where's my Tribe? I can't hang out with the Libertarians, the Conservatives are just as bad (if not worse), here in the States...

This, so much this. That's what has pretty much been running through my head watching the Obama presidency and the progressive movement these past couple of years.

The nine years and change I was in the military, I made a point of casting an absentee ballot any time an election for anything came up; since getting out I've voted at every opportunity, but now I kind of...wonder why. Because no matter who we elect, it seems like Republicans take over.

[bcholmes]

Sabotabby got me listening to Phil Ochs and, in particular, his song, "Love me, I'm a Liberal". And as a result I've been thinking, a lot, about between radicals and liberals. Ochs is one of many places that I've been exposed to this antipathy that self-identified radicals have historically had for "liberals".

More and more I've found myself in conversations where the assumption that anyone vaguely left of centre holds similar values about issues (such as ablism) is a big part of why the conversation seems to be a big disappointment. I'm increasingly convinced that we need language to distinguish different types of people who might otherwise be lumped under the banner of "progressive". 'Cause I don't think that they're all holding the same values.

[trouble]

*nodnod* I can see that. I can also see how what progressive/liberal/leftist means changes depending on what country you're in.

[codeman38]

Oh, yes, something else that is irritating me muchly about the Wonkette thing. I've noticed this on both sides of the political spectrum. I've noticed it in feminism. I've noticed it in other alliances I've tried to get involved in. And it's irritating regardless of the particular context.

Basically, the general pattern goes like this: If you're a member of X, you're not allowed to criticize anyone else in X, even for non-X-related reasons. And as a corollary, if you're a member of X and you do criticize something done by another member of X, you're suddenly no longer considered a true member of X.

[trouble]

This is why I was kicked out of Feminism, and out of my political party.

[megaptera]

Dear Gaga: some people were just BORN THIS WAY, sweetie.

Yuck. Pop-culture heroes, yuck.

[codeman38]

YES. That's pretty much what I was thinking on that...

Baby, I was born this way!*
*May not apply to all ways one was born

[trouble]

Some people on twitter were tweeting that at her. I don't expect her to respond.

[lauredhel]

wow. Having looked at/listened to some of some of the videos and audio they also posted on that page also, this is such a foul, foul stew of ableism, misogyny, child hate, and enraged loathing of mothering in public spaces.

What a combo.

[trouble]

Oh dear lord, of course it is. /o\ I didn't listen or watch any of that because I enjoy not screaming in public.

[torachan]

I saw a bit of that Lady Gaga interview on Tumblr. After she says that, she starts crying about her lyrics were inspired by God or something. It's really horrible all around. DDD:

[trouble]

.... Why?

[sami]

So, Huggies and Papa John's pulled advertising from Wonkette over this.

Wonkette responded by calling Papa John's homophobic (apparently) and calling for people to boycott them because their food is so unhealthy.

Which was apparently fine when they were paying them for ad space.

Stay classy, Wonkette. Stay classy.

[trouble]

I saw those comments on twitter. *siiiiiiigh*

Since I posted this the author's apologized... for calling Trig "r#tarded". Not for anything else. And then insists it's still all about critiquing Sarah Palin's use of her child as a political prop. Uh huh.

[kaz]

NOT CLICKING NOT CLICKING OH GOD.

And. Yeah. :/ I has an instinctive mistrust of anyone who uses political affiliation in their arguments for why they are totally not ableist because in my experience the left doesn't really tend to be much better. This? Case in point.

[trouble]

I also wonder, honestly, how people define "ableism" and what they mean when they say they're not ableist. "I don't make jokes where disability is the punch line" should be the bare minimum of expectation, and yet so many people seem to think that's enough.