ArchmageBrian

14 Followers
1 Following
140 Posts

He/him, 37. ADHD diagnosed way too late in life, polyamorous, cat parent. Some flavor of leftist.

Interests are spread across geekdom; sci-fi/fantasy, tabletop role-playing, video games, and medical stuff.

Pharmacist by night, amateur game developer by day.

Current main project: Stolen/Future
https://archmage-brian.itch.io/stolen-future

the mad max movies tell the story of a beautiful future where you can actually repair the technology you rely on.
The Thinker by Auguste Rodin #masterStudy #paintStudy #ocean #MastoArt
Do not sit in the sun. Remain at least ninety million miles away from it at all times

A lot of people seem to view ableism as just not saying certain words, and this is tremendously over-simplified.

Ableism won't be stopped by climbing the euphemism treadmill and searching for "replacement words". Just like calling someone an "idiot" isn't really an improvement over calling someone the R-slur, calling someone a "dipshit" isn't really an improvement over calling someone an "idiot".

Actually put thought into what the ableist language you're using means. A lot of the time the answer isn't to find a "replacement", it's to stop using that language at all and say something else. This is especially true because most ableism isn't actually saying anything substantive, but just expressing a kind of vapid dismissiveness.

Consider: have you ever actually thought about why "stupid" is ableist? It's certainly not from its etymology; the origin of the word "stupid" is just "in a stupor", as in, unresponsive or dazed. It morphed into an ableist term because of an ableist idea that people are unresponsive because they're "unintelligent" or otherwise lesser.

If you replace "stupid" and "idiot" with "foolish" and "dipshit" now, guess what will happen a few decades from now? They'll just take on the exact same meaning, because you're using them exactly the same.

There's some nuance with ableist metaphors (like calling situations "crazy" because they're extreme or out of the ordinary), but even those uses just getting replaced with a different word can easily turn into just yet another euphemism train. Today, referring to someone as "wild" to mean that they're unusual or mentally ill wouldn't register, but that can easily change if people transfer over this replacement "wild" metaphor to people.

Words matter, but you can't solve ableism just by playing whack-a-mole with designated "ableist words", and cutting off what you consider to be ableism at "idiot" and "stupid" is no better than what most people do, which is to cut off what they consider to be ableism at the R-slur. You need to consider your language holistically and actually deconstruct what you're saying. There is no immediate, easy fix to ableism, and until people accept this, it will continue to be ubiquitous.

🦇

If you’re white and have free time, disposable income, and the desire to end militarized racism, the path is straight through your municipality’s police budget. You can testify. You can write letters. You can join up with others and organize tactics. You can push for funding the things we need: non-cop first responders, housing, social services, help for those managing addiction or trauma. The patterns are pretty much the same in every town - please be part of the solution if you can.
Why does this random flamingo have 500 BST!?

The neurodivergent urge to put half of your statements in brackets* (because you want to give additional content)

*and pseudo-footnotes to everything you say

“under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. We have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. we have never seen a totally sane human being.”
― Robert Anton Wilson

The tragedy of the commons is a pernicious myth.

The demise of the commons of Britain and Europe wasn't the result of misuse by commoners, but enclosing by the landowners. The original hypothetical was made up for storytelling purposes, and the term was popularized by an ecologist with anti-immigrant and racist views.

Here is my recommended reading for heading into 2023:

https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth

The tragedy of the commons is a false and dangerous myth | Aeon Essays

Far from being profoundly destructive, we humans have deep capacities for sharing resources with generosity and foresight

Retrospective analysis of early MMORPG design is fascinating. Many things that were deemed "overpowered" or considered exploits would be considered baseline quality of life features in modern games--like fast travel. Probably in part because the gameplay was so shallow that without time-sinks like making players spend 25 minutes running someplace they would progress "too quickly" and get bored.