Thread by @erikaheidewald

something a lot of neurodivergent people would do well to remember is that not everyone can thrive in this society even with accommodations, & not everyone can live in their brain if they hate it. it’s not a coincidence that most people i see opposed to the social model are white

the specific kind of opposition i’m talking about is white people who see any argument in favor of the social model of disability and any argument for systemic change and shout it down or dismiss it as toxic positivity. systemic change is needed to end white supremacy.

white supremacy is inextricably tied to ableism. ableism is the justification for other kinds of oppression like racism, misogyny, and classism. calling people incapable and inferior makes oppression look natural and unavoidable. do not mock the need for systemic change.

many people who have been socialized to feel incapable and inferior need to change their narrative about themselves in order to survive in this world. they deserve that. requiring neurodivergent people to see themselves as disordered is oppressive and cruel.

the main culprits of this devotion to the medical model are white people with ADHD who want their experiences taken seriously and want their meds so they can keep up with the demands of modern capitalist society. i get that. but white people aren’t the arbiters of the truth.

i see a lot of white people who can’t tell the difference between toxic positivity and radical liberationist disability activism. that’s fucked up. that means you have only ever listened when white people talk. do not dismiss disability justice bc of white ADHD TikTok coaches.

to insist on keeping society the same - or at least not prioritizing systemic change to create a universally accessible world - so you don’t lose your accommodations leaves out all the people who NEED systemic change. meds and extra time on deadlines aren’t enough for everyone

reclaiming the right to define your own mind and love yourself is important to a lot of marginalized people and if it isn’t important to you, that doesn’t give you the right to dismiss it all as toxic positivity. negativity can be pretty fucking toxic. it can be fucking fatal.

there are many pride and self-love-centered movements that show the political and personal power of reframing a narrative. gay pride, Black power, fat acceptance - all movements that have created change and made people’s lives better and faced furious opposition.

for me - i cannot hate my brain and survive. when i have wished it were different and tried to change it, my brain and body literally, physically started breaking down. i can’t survive being suicidal. i don’t owe you that. refusing to hate my brain is me asserting my humanity

when i see people shitting on the social model of disability, i see people who are happy to let this society kill me because they think given the right accommodations, it won’t kill them. fuck you for that.

toxic positivity is when people tell you to just go on a run, to just make yourself overcome executive dysfunction with willpower, to decide to not have mental illness & cure yourself with a positive attitude, to see your divergence as a superpower & magically succeed in society

toxic positivity is not the social model of disability, neurodiversity theory, or disability justice. someone expressing love for their brain the way it is and wanting society to change so this world is made for them too is not toxic positivity. come on. how is this difficult?

the arguments you are hearing disabled people make that come from traditions of disability activism are not the same as arguments you’re hearing from neurotypical people and ADHD coaching grifters. it is your responsibility to be able to tell the difference. you should want to.

the backlash against the social model of disability & neurodiversity theory is disappointing because it’s steeped in prejudice and it’s establishing a terrifying precedent. white people are insisting that questioning bad science is in itself anti-science. this is white supremacy.

i got into neurodiversity because i am pro-science and the extraordinarily bad science the medical model of autism rests on horrified me. being pro-science does not mean unquestioningly accepting racist, ableist, sexist research. that’s being pro-white supremacy & patriarchy.

stop thinking in a binary. there is no rule that you can believe in one model of disability only. if you think that - you have not been listening to disability activists. you haven’t. changing society doesn’t mean disabled people should not get medicine anymore. what the fuck?

if you think people who advocate for systemic change in line with the social model of disability believe that means the need for healthcare will be over, you have only been listening to very ignorant white people co-opting an idea that clearly none of you bothered to research.

dismissing an idea because people who don’t really understand co-opted it and started to use it in an ignorant way is fucking ridiculous. we will not get anywhere this way. two arguments that use a few of the same words aren’t the same argument.

The ADHD subreddit banning all criticism of the medical model says that science based on the biases and research of and on cishet white men is science and anything that has not been validated by white neurotypical men isn’t science. Criticizing biased research is anti-science.

You know who advocated for systemic change using the social model of disability? The disability activists whose work in the 70s, 80s, and 90s made the ADA happen - any accommodations we get, we owe to them. We are part of a history here. We need to respect that.

Is the ADA toxic positivity? Were ADHD TikTok influencers the ones protesting in the streets to make sidewalks & public transportation accessible? Can you see how fucking ridiculous this conflation is?

Start being able to tell the difference. Stop obstructing disability rights.