The Left, Ableism and a conversation we need to have

 Content Warning: Discussions of Ableism, some criticism of left wing groups

Intersectionality is the theory and framework by which we explain how a person's social and political identities combine, to measure the different modes of discrimination and privilege. This means that many forms of discrimination(and privilege) will often cross each other on an axis. We can use this analytical framework to measure the ways in which many people are disenfranchised and it has spread from it's origin in academia, to left wing praxis on the streets.

Without intersectionality, civil rights issues and labor issues would still be separated from each other. Without intersectionality, queer rights would at best still be limited to decriminalization of homosexuality. Without intersectionality left wing groups in the US would have never grown after the 2016 elections and would have been completely crushed under the boot of Fascism, Capitalism and the American State. 

Intersectionality is one of the best things that has ever happened to left wing movements across the globe but I feel that we still have a long way to go. Not every leftist supports civil rights, or cares about marginalized groups. There still exists a great deal of class reductionism, where civil rights and issues like racism and queerphobia are swept under the rug under the banner of "class unity". With that said the general consensus(as far as I can see) is that you cannot support fighting against one form of oppression without also fighting the other forms.

However there are still groups of people that feel left behind or neglected by many leftists. Groups of people who need their support desperately. People that are often not talked about in left wing discourse and whose cause is neglected.

In my opinion exists there a great deal of ableism in the left, both online and in real life

There, I've ripped the band-aid off. 

Today I am going to write about my experiences moving around in left wing groups both online and in real life. Full disclosure: I am an Autistic white non binary person from a western European country and as such will my viewpoints be colored as such. It is not my intention to draw any equivalences between my experiences and the experiences of people who are worse off then me. I am fully aware of the fact that I still live a relatively privileged life. Furthermore not every disabled, Neurodivergent or even Autistic person is gonna run into the same problems as I did. Some people will never have heard of the things that I am about to mention and that is fine. Everyone lives their life differently and we are all gonna have a different experience moving about in life.

With that said, I do have experienced a great deal of ableism moving around in left wing circles and I have often run into people who were either unwilling or unable to understand or support the root nature of ableism. Many left wingers have expectations of each other that I personally think is either unrealistic or only serves to antagonize each other. There exists this tendency among many left wing people to have a certain elevated sense of moral superiority and thus we often feud with each other about the smallest of things. 

There is nothing wrong with having a good faith discussion of course and emotionally speaking I get it. We want the world where we live in to improve and we think that we have the theoretical backing to make this happen so whenever we encounter someone with an opinion that is slightly unorthodox in our eyes then we go into an almost instinctive defensive mode. This is of-course not helped by the algorithms of social media like twitter, facebook and YouTube which rewards and stimulates this kind of aggressive discourse since it is more profitable for them to do so. However it has reached the point where there exists a lot of toxicity and quite frankly a lot of misinformation that is being spread around. 

This is not unique to disabled and Neurodivergent people. There have been more then a few cases of people of color feeling alienated and offended by this aggressive method of discourse leveled to them by white people. The same also applies to queer people. However there is one major difference here. People of color and queer people usually have their own activist groups to fall back to whenever things go south, disabled and Neurodivergent people, not so much. The main success of the rise of the left in the American world has been the strength of civil rights movements like Black lives matter and the increased visibility of queer people. However there exists no such movement for disability justice or support for Neurodiversity.

Due to the very nature of being disabled or Neurodiverse we are often unable to communicate our needs and our wants to the outside world, which means that in many cases our only support comes from able bodied Neurotypical people. This is not necessarily a bad thing of-course, I am very grateful for the help and support from allies that have their hearts in the right place and want to help but having a mass movement for disability justice and Neurodiverse acceptance is vital for if we want to make any progress in this regard.

The lack of a mass movement has also means that it is a lot easier for people to get away with ableism as well. A shitty debatebro streamer can make a racist remarks or use slurs but they usually get at least some backlash from it(though being debatebros they do not care about this usually). While ableist comments or opinions are far less likely to get a backlash, and when we do give some criticism the people who take issue with the ableism are often ridiculed or called scabs or accused of being "counterrevolutionary". 

This is not just an online issue. In my personal experience I have found activist groups in real life to be unable to really work with disabled or neurodiverse people(though not without trying mind you). Although many activists really want to help us, they simply lack the knowledge or motivation to really grasp and understand that a lot of activism is quite simply not viable for us. The sad truth of the matter is that a lot of grassroots activist work is work that is unsuitable for many disabled and Neurodivergent people. Grassroots activist work is difficult, often dangerous and can cause mental health problems without a strong mental health safety to aid people. 

Online content creators are often eager to tell people to do activism in real life but what they fail to realize that it is simply not always viable for someone to do something like this. Someone with sensory input problems like myself is gonna run into major issues with a demonstration or a protest, same with someone who has mobility problems. Not everyone is suitable for this kind of activism and I think that shaming people who point that out is not a good way to deal with this. That is not to say that we cannot do any kind of activism at all(personally I think that we are way more suitable for things like sharing awareness about direct action or social issues) but to expect the more vulnerable people among us to plunge themselves into the same dangerous situations with law enforcement and fascist thugs as those who are more able to do so is not only irresponsible but also counterproductive and dangerous for everyone involved. Law enforcement will often target those they perceive to be more vulnerable and they will not hesitate to put pressure on those who are susceptible to this. This is not only dangerous towards the disabled and Neurodivergent activists but also towards the people around them. 

In my personal opinion is this a major failing for the left. If we really want to improve the world for everyone then this is a conversation we need to have at some point. We need to realize at some point that ableism is just as rooted in our thinking and our reasoning as things like racism and queer phobia are. Asking some questions about whether an action is harmful for disabled and Neurodivergent people does not make me a scab or a "counterrevolutionary". It simply means that I have some concerns about the way many people in the left conduct their business and that I do not trust many of them to have my back when things will gain momentum. 

We are(at the moment of writing) in the late stages of Capitalism. More and more people are realizing that our current systems of economics and political organizing are both unsustainable and undemocratic. There might be a point in the near future where we will reach a tipping point and when that happens thing will go fast. However as it currently stands I do not have enough confidence in the left to say that they will support me and people like me. That is not to say that I am "abandoning the left" or anything dramatic like that, I will still do my part wherever I can however I think that this is a clear signal that we seriously need to shake things up and evaluate our norms and values if we want to go anywhere with this. 

Only through clear conversation, an open mind and understanding can we overcome this hurdle so I urge everyone to listen to each other and not try to stab each other with word shivs whenever someone raises a question.