Thread by @autisticats

This is a great example of what autistic & disabled people are talking about when we say eugenics is alive and well.

This paper, published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders in 2021, calls for the “prevention of autism” in order to… save the U.S. economy. 🤦🏼

https://twitter.com/autismcrisis/status/1416925401562198027

The article uses fearmongering language, framing autistic people as “burdens” to our families and society.

Even the title alone is extremely negative:

“Autism Tsunami: the Impact of Rising Prevalence on the Societal Cost of Autism in the United States.”

Tsunami? Really?

And here’s the thing.

Within a capitalist framework, in an economic system where extraction and accumulation of wealth are the goal, what the authors wrote is semi-logical.

But it doesn’t fit the logic of morality and human rights.

So there’s an inherent contradiction.

Disabled people don’t fit into an economy that is predicated on infinite growth, and constant labor to continue that growth.

A lot of us can’t work. And most of us can’t work in the ways demanded by capitalism.

So we’re seen as a drain on the system, eating up resources.

The “solution” to the issue of disability under capitalism, starting in an organized way in the 1900s, has been eugenics.

Eugenics means “improving” the genetics of humanity by getting rid of disabled people, people of color, poor people, etc.

So we can’t “burden society.”

In Nazi Germany, disabled people were referred to as “Lebensunwertes Leben” which translates to “life unworthy of life.”

They were systematically murdered because they were not “productive.”

A person’s inherent value was determined by their ability to generate profit.

Aktion T4, the Nazi “euthanasia” program for disabled people (which killed up to 300,000 people), was modeled after the eugenics movement in the United States.

One of the primary motivations was “saving money” (whatever that means).

Clearly, that logic is still present today.

An economy centered around eternal growth and accumulation, which can only be achieved via the constant undervalued labor of workers, is not compatible with human or environmental welfare.

All people’s lives are inherently valuable.

This economic model needs to die.

What would it mean for disabled people to live in a world where the economy is centered around human and environmental welfare?

Where growth is not the goal, but happiness and fulfillment is?

Where everyone’s needs are met and everyone’s life is inherently important?

You might think that’s impossible, but I want to leave you with a quote from Murray Bookchin:

“The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.”

In order for things to change, we have to believe in change.