Thread by @SarahLerner

“The Trump administration has been quietly working on a proposal to use social media like Facebook and Twitter to help identify people who claim Social Security disability benefits without actually being disabled.”

This is horrendous. nytimes.com/2019/03/10/us/…

1) Just because you’re disabled, it doesn’t mean you can’t be active in any way?

2) God forbid disabled people have fun or show themselves having any semblance of quality of life on social media.

3) Guess what...it might be a low pain day or not. You don’t know!

This is what Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s acting WH Chief of Staff (then Budget Director) thinks of disability insurance, btw. That it’s not *really* part of Social Security + that it’s “a very wasteful program”:

I applied for SSDI last summer + was expecting to be rejected on my first application because it’s apparently very hard to get approved with chronic migraine. So my expectation at the outset was that the disability insurance system was set up to not believe me.

When I got approved for SSDI in December, I was honestly shocked. I should’ve just been happy/relieved, but I had so prepared myself to have to fight it that I couldn’t let myself relax or celebrate. That’s how much institutionalized ableism can fuck with your head.

Getting SSDI is huge because the looming question that has been the biggest stressor for me is: how will I support myself long-term if I can never work again?

And my biggest fear after I had finally processed my SSDI approval was that the government would go through my social media posts, decide that I’m actually “faking it”, and take away my disability insurance. This NYT story terrifies me.