Links

[nihilistech]

Liberals and Disability Rights (from museumfreak. This gets *EXACTLY* what my (and the other disabled woman's) difficulties at Antioch were. And I've seen it so many times, that for a while I almost disowned my use of the word progressive for myself.

From somewhere on a friend's friendslist (I don't remember where, I'm sorry), one of the betert attempts at

Comments

[gordonzola]

I found that article you linked really interesting if also incredibly frustrating. It goes to great pains to explain the difference between liberals and leftists, then goes back to using them interchangeably in the next paragraph. I do think that the concept of missing the idea of a disability rights movement (and folding those issues into, say, universal health care and state disability benefits) is food for thought. I do think the discussion of where the Disability Rights movement comes from is worth exploring more because the examples given of '60s feminism and '70s Gay Liberation did both come out of specifically left movements. I don't know the history of Disability Rights in the same way. and that says something in and of itself.

I finally left debunking_white after arguing with someone about RAR. funny.

[nihilistech]

Heh. Yeah, the mixed terminology was frustrating. I forgave it some because, in my experience, it's an area where only the most microscopic part of ANYTHING that even leans leftward (even if only in relation to what currently passes for the center) differs from the overall PoV. So, you know, in terms of disability rights, it can all look the same, even if, intellectually, you know that there are differences in the terminology. In the end, whatever "they" call themselves, they don't really care about you.

Should I ask what the argument was about?

[gordonzola]

true. But I really need to read up on the history of the Disability Rights Movement to know why things are the way they are. The lefty groups I can think of that touch(ed) on disability issues were the Gray Panthers and ACT-UP (of the '80s/early '90s). Unfortunately what those groups have in common was that many of their members died

[nihilistech]

Ah. Gotcha circles are annoying

[the_new_perfect]

The simplistic place I go when I think of why people do or do not support certain groups' civil rights struggles is based on how much and why a population is feared. "The blacks might get violent. The women might not take care of the kids or have sex when it's handy. The gays might do something embarrassing or disgusting. What will the disabled people do to to me if I just ignore them?"

[nihilistech]

Run over you with their powerchairs and drool on you? Let their dogs poop on your shoes? Steel all your lightbulbs and then pull the fire alarm late at night?
Whine a lot?

[the_new_perfect]

Not the whining!

Although if we could focus that energy...

we'd need whinemills.