A large number of humans are one virus away from permanent disability.
A lot of ableism stems from the fact that this is terrifying. I get it. It’s scary.
Coming to terms with this earlier will help you avoid becoming a total asshole if you are lucky enough to become old.
Being a vegetarian who grew up eating very little candy and no soda won’t save you.
Yoga won’t save you.
Being able to do 37 pushups in a minute and over 100 sit-ups in a minute won’t save you.
Tracking macros won’t save you.
Fibre won’t save you.
Turmeric won’t save you.
You don’t want a boosted immune system and in any case it won’t save you.
You will need solidarity.
You will need doctors who aren’t ableist wankers.
You will need a social safety net.
Fight now.
Acknowledging that being disabled can suck, be painful, be uncomfortable, and be frustrating isn't ableist.
Being nauseated every day isn't something you can just learn to love about yourself.
I don't exist to be inspiration porn for anyone, not even other disabled people.
I want robot limbs, and ramps. Not everyone will want to be a cyborg, and that is fine.
I want a cure for autoimmune diseases, and I want modern HVAC and masks.
I want a cure for ME/CFS, and I want schools to stop expecting perfect attendance.
I want better pain meds, and I want doctors to stop accusing people with chronic illnesses of chasing a high. I want addiction to be treated like an illness, not a moral failing.
Energy-limiting chronic illnesses SUCK. Yes, I am going to recommend avoiding them! Yes, I am going to demand research! In the meantime, the social safety net must account for post-viral illnesses resulting from the most recent pandemic.
My life has value even if I don't want my friends and family to go through what I go through. Come on now.
You get to feel what you want to feel about your body. I get to have my feelings about mine.
The last time my immune system was "boosted", it tried to consume my intestine (celiac).
Which is to say: Yes, to all of what you have written.
Immune systems are such jerks.
For another example of truly absurd quackery:
I once explained to someone that I have celiac; only for them to react with "Eat einkorn! It's paleo!".
That einkorn contains gluten, like all wheat that has ever existed, did not seem to concern them.
Maybe they're part of the "magic European gluten" club. As if people with celiac don't exist in European countries.
@akareilly you're entirely right, I myself became disabled because of a simple seasonal flu. That was in 2020, at the height of covid, and no, it wasn't covid that did it for me it really was a seasonal flu, they tested to make sure.
I had an "encephalomielitis" (if that's the right word in English, the virus attacked my brain and my spinal chord, so between the disability and the cognitive issues I can't really work anymore 😢)
So yeah, a virus as benign as the seasonal flu can disable you
@akareilly China is infamous for underreporting these kinds of results, so that westerners don't have a bad view of China, so let's behave like antichinese racists asshats and extrapolate like crazy and say in reality there were 200 cases.
200 over 30 years out of 1.4 billions is still ridiculously low.
With this kind of probabilities I could have won the lottery multiple times 😅
@akareilly overall, I'm lucky to live in France, where we have a social security system, with a long duration affliction I can benefit from, so I don't need to pay most treatments I need.
However, our fascist president (Macron) is hell bent on suppressing this because "it costs too much", so that might not be the case for very long. 😡
@mathieu It's just really bad luck sometimes.
I hope there is pushback against austerity, primarily as a human rights issue. It doesn't even make economic sense! Disability benefits end up being spent locally, unlike tax breaks for rich people.
@akareilly exactly.
But then they also want to suppress the state medical help ("Aide Médicale d'État") for undocumented migrants who arrive in France because the racists complain that we give too much to foreigners for free 🙄
That also makes no sense because migrants come with their diseases which the French people might not be immune against, so treating them quickly benefits even the "proper" French people, but racists aren't even consistent, let alone smart. 🤷
If politicians are spouting anti-immigrant rhetoric, they're planning some nonsense they need cover for. It boggles my mind that Europeans will wonder aloud why the US doesn't have social safety nets, get told it's because of racism, and won't think expensive privatised healthcare rationing can happen here.
The racists never want to hear how European rich people got rich. There wouldn't be so many people coming here if our governments hadn't robbed the whole world.
@akareilly the gouvernements from the world indeed robbed the whole world.
Problem is they didn't rob the other governments, they robbed the people. 😡
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