#actuallyautistic #catlover

assorted bullshit and occasionally pictures of my cat

[natalieironside]

Shout out to trans women who aren’t computer scientists or musicians or avant-garde artists or whatever.

Shout-out to tgirls who work at Taco Bell. Thank u queen, society would collapse without you

[snkrfnd]

Over twenty years ago my big brother got me a job at a Taco Bell in the St. Louis suburbs-West County. He warned me that it was the “gay Taco Bell”, but since I was coming from the “gay Howard Johnson’s” I wasn’t shocked. It turns out it was the black trans women Taco Bell complete with black trans women in management. And they’d worked out an arrangement with the local teen Narcotics Anonymous group so that twice a week we would shut down the drive thru and the dining room and exclusively serve 60+ teens in various stages of recovery. And many of the women I worked with were in various stages of being out or transitioning and they were from all generations from teens to over 50. One woman I worked with had a regular corporate job presenting as a man 9-5 Mon-Fri and then came to Taco Bell and worked 6pm -2am Friday and Saturday night so she could be herself surrounded by other black transwomen in those stolen weekends. And we had customers come from all over the metro area because they knew they could be themselves in the dining room. I only worked there from 1999-2001 but for young me, this was a vital, formative experience. Some of the girls came from north city all the way out to the “gay Taco Bell” on Manchester in west county because they heard it was safe to work there. Like- I know times have changed but they haven’t changed much in 20 years. I’m still convinced that for lgbt youth, finding a job at your city’s version of the “gay Taco Bell” is key to survival.

[natalieironside]

Thank u for sharing this with us

[scooplery]

"it's just growing pains" -> "you're too young for that to hurt that bad" -> "you just need to get in better shape" -> "welcome to being old, everyone is in pain"

[sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog]

there's literally nothing more radical in 2026 than believing that humanity can become good news for each other and the only world we'll ever share.

[jaydenskyle]

You’re watching a YouTuber that discusses online radicalization, at some point they get radicalized in the opposite direction. You sigh and move on. You’re watching a YouTuber that discusses online radicalization. At some point they get radicalized in the opposite direction. They show no self awareness that this has happened. You move on. You’re watching a YouTuber that discusses online radicalization. They have excellent insight into how distrust and misinformation lead to conspiratorial thinking and how the internet as we know it today is designed to feed these impulses. At some point they get radicalized themselves. You’re watching a YouTuber.

[taibhsearachd]

[orisnitsa]

[thetragicallynerdy]

[ID: the Bugs Bunny in a tux meme, edited to say “I wish all LGBT+ folk who live in countries where pride is banned, illegal, or unwelcomed a very I love you, stay safe, Happy Pride (red, orange, yellow, green, blue heart emoji). The edited text is in all caps, with LGBT+ in rainbow lettering. End ID.]

[theconcealedweapon]

[official-linguistics-post]

uh oh

"etymologynerd" is at it again and this time i do feel i have to say something. the disability advocates have it covered on addressing the impact, but there's also a serious problem with the linguistics.

in a video shared on may 16, adam aleksic begins by saying: "i think we have to accept the fact that the 'r-word' [retard/retarded] is permanently coming back and it's functionally changed meanings to no longer directly refer to disabled people."

this first sentence alone betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of language change in several points.

this word never went away. what we're seeing now is an attempt at re-normalization by people who sense that they will not be socially punished by openly using this term.

we actually don't have to "accept" its return to mainstream use. for decades, disability advocates have worked to inform the public of the harm caused by casual use of this term. the harm has not disappeared, and neither will this advocacy and its impacts.

now i'm just mad. how tf does it NOT refer to disabled people? the entire point of a pejorative term is that it negatively invokes comparison to a person, group, etc. the assertion that the r-word has changed meanings is categorically false. at most, its primary context has changed from clinical to casually pejorative, but the insult fundamentally rests upon the original reference.

he goes on to refer to the "euphemism treadmill," another concept he misrepresents by extending the metaphor to say that terms which have been sufficiently distanced from their original reference are no longer pejorative. to quote: "...once we sufficiently distance a word from its historical usage, it stops taking on the same offensive power and just becomes colloquial instead."

which... what? what the fuck is he talking about? the words he uses as examples – idiot, imbecile, and moron – are definitely still offensive, if perhaps less impactful. "just becomes colloquial instead" is a nonsense phrase. are offensive words not colloquial? the only english word that comes to mind as having changed so much in definition as to no longer be offensive is "nice," which has been shifting in meaning for more than 700 years and was never a weaponized clinical term.

he ends by saying, "it is undeniably true that the people who are afraid to say the r-word right now are going to get old and die out, while younger generations keep saying it with no knowledge of where it came from." again, fundamentally misunderstanding language change in society over time. it rests on the assumption that we're all going to start or re-start using this slur and never have a conversation about its harms, which just completely ignores both the abovementioned disability advocacy and the fact that people tell each other not to use offensive words. you think i'm just not gonna teach my kids that using slurs is bad??

the whole video is devoid of both empathy and an understanding of long-term semantic change.

tl;dr etymologynerd is wrong, we do NOT "have to accept that the 'r-word' is coming back," and we all need to read more crip linguistics.

[official-linguistics-post]

after continuing to stew about this during my lunch break, i'd also like to point out that framing this sort of thing as "inevitable" is some fascist bullshit.

don't fall for it.

[danikriatura]

The FBI cut the phone lines during the 1977 disability rights sit-in. Then they turned off the hot water.

They locked the doors from the outside. One hundred and fifty people were trapped on the fourth floor. Half of them used wheelchairs. The government assumed they would leave.

Kitty Cone was thirty-three. She had muscular dystrophy. Her muscles were failing, but her logistics were flawless. She knew how to organize people.

The federal government had promised to sign regulations protecting disabled Americans from discrimination. The policy was known as Section 504. They printed the promise on paper. Then they stalled. Without a signature, it was just typography.

The protesters entered the regional Health, Education, and Welfare building in San Francisco on a Tuesday morning. They took the elevators to the director's office. They brought sleeping bags and catheters. They informed the staff they were not leaving until the law was signed.

By sunset, the police surrounded the exits. Kitty sat near the windows. She organized the floor plan. She assigned committees for security and sanitation. She kept her medication in a small cooler.

According to federal memorandums released decades later, the strategy to end the occupation relied on medical attrition. The building was not equipped for long-term habitation. The FBI calculated that a population requiring ventilators, specialized diets, and daily medical aides would voluntarily evacuate if the environment became sufficiently hostile. They instituted a blockade.

The blockade went into effect immediately. No food deliveries allowed. No medical supplies permitted through the lobby. Guards stood at the main doors checking identification.

Kitty's muscles deteriorated faster under the physical strain. She couldn't walk. When the phone lines went dead, the fourth floor lost contact with the press. The government waited for the quiet.

Kitty dropped to the floor. She realized the barricades were designed for standing adults. The police had blocked the hallways at waist height. They hadn't blocked the linoleum.

The floors were covered in cigarette ash and spilled coffee. She dragged her body through it. She crawled under the barricades to reach the restricted elevator shafts and unguarded offices.

She carried notes in her pockets. She found a single working payphone the FBI missed. She called the local news desks. She called the mayor's office.

She crawled back. When her arms failed, someone pulled her by her ankles. The Black Panthers heard the news reports. They crossed the police lines with hot meals. The FBI could not stop them without a riot.

They shut off the elevators, so she crawled.

The occupation lasted twenty-five days. It remains the longest non-violent occupation of a federal building in American history. On April 28, the Secretary of HEW signed the regulations without a single alteration.

The protesters left the building the next morning. They went back to their apartments. The Rehabilitation Act regulations laid the groundwork for every accessibility law that followed. The HEW building still stands on United Nations Plaza. The elevators run on a schedule. The doors are heavy glass.

Kitty Cone: the woman who crawled under the barricades.

Source: Kitty Cone's oral history, Bancroft Library.

Verified via: National Museum of American History.

(Some details summarized for brevity.)

[malcolm-f-tucker]

after seeing that poll about whether usamericans will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of their country, I have to ask: are they aware they are hosting the football world cup this summer

[malcolm-f-tucker]

the 2026 football world cup is being hosted by the usa, mexico and canada

usamerican, I knew this

usamerican, I did not know this

not usamerican, I knew this

not usamerican, I did not know this

Remaining time: 3 days 6 hours

[exitwound]

mutuals

[the-valiant-valkyrie]

Which is prev?

Unmarried girl

Apologist

Craftsman who works with a wheel

Archivist

Dying person

Educator

Girl

Jurist

Knife sharpener

Lawyer

Librarian

Remaining time: 4 days 4 hours

[romancenjoyer]

“the possibility of rejection is essential to forming deep relationships with people” - chanté joseph for british vogue

[romancenjoyer]

[copperbadge]

You Must Remember This - The American Scholar

On the nature of autobiographical memory

I hesitate to call this piece meandering because I understand why it's structured the way it is -- it's a personal essay that happens to be about brothers who are at opposite ends of a specific neurological spectrum. The author has Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory and his brother has Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory -- along with their frequent companion conditions, Hyperphantasia and Aphantasia.

I know these conditions are of interest to readers -- to me too, as someone with aphantasia/SDAM. It's a useful read in that it talks about the history of the study of these conditions and describes various people's experiences with them. It just also has a bunch of personal reflection that while expressive and well-written is not very interesting to someone wanting to read more about this fairly young field of study.

I say all this to recommend it to those interested in HSAM/SDAM, but also to let you know that you can skim a lot of the family stuff. :D

[souvenirs]

[spitfaggot]

happy birthday, gilbert baker. (june 2, 1951 — march 31, 2017)

[quasi-normalcy]

I don't know who needs to be told this, but you don't need to unpack your shit in public. Like, yeah, you can reach out to people undergoing a similar crisis in worldview in private or anonymous channels, but if you do it all on TikTok or whatever, you're just making a spectacle of yourself and you should expect people to react as they would to any spectacle

[quasi-normalcy]

Thinking of this viral TikTok of a 3× Trump voter who's now deconstructing her support for MAGA and who is breaking down because commentators are saying they'll never forgive her for her past and it's just like...girl, you don't need to vlog this. You don't need to stand in the village square loudly declaiming your sins for all to hear. You don't need to be in public on camera all of the time. There must be an ex-Trumper reddit or something if you don't have a support group in real life, but This Is Not the Way.

[quasi-normalcy]

Deconversion is a very personal process that you do need to go through alone, but you also very much do not need to go through it with a billion anonymous strangers on the Internet watching you and judging.

[quasi-normalcy]

#there is no less sympathetic audience than the internet folks#do NOT confess your sins to a bunch of strangers that specifically revel#in the opportunity to indulge in their impulsive responses

[ruffboi-mags]

I firmly believe at least part of the reason people do this is rooted in the very puritanical prioritization of punitive justice rather than restorative, and the hyperfocus on deserving forgiveness rather than acknowledging that you are never owed it and you will not always receive it, but that you should be better anyway. The only way they feel like they can move forward is if they've publicly self-flagellated enough, if they've been repentant enough and done the right painful things to atone, and "earned" their forgiveness. For it to be real, they have to SUFFER and that suffering must be WITNESSED and then their wrongs must be ABSOLVED BY THE WITNESSES otherwise it DOESN"T COUNT.

And the people commenting similarly, in a lot of cases, are witnessing that suffering and saying, quite fairly, "that's great and all but I'm not forgiving you." And that's fine, and honestly in some ways they shouldn't because this is not the sort of thing you can get absolution or meaningful forgiveness for from randos on the internet.

But forgiveness and absolution are not something you earn. There is nothing you can do that will guarantee you forgiveness. The people you hurt may or may not ever choose to forgive you, and you need to be okay with that. That shouldn't have any bearing on whether you try to be a better person.

Turn off the camera and keep working on yourself for your own sake, rather than trying to earn or guarantee forgiveness from people who have no reason or obligation to forgive you, and maybe try to deconstruct your ideas of atonement, redemption, forgiveness, and justice while you're at it, because I think they're all waaaay more caught up in that harmful perspective than you think.

[taibhsearachd]

Can the people in my social circles stop being so fucking ableist? I have so few spaces left.

"Jobless behavior". Yeah, for sure, a job is definitely the metric of whose voice should be heard, you're so cool and progressive for saying so. Nevermind the number of people who think they get to say the r-slur like it's normal. Reevaluate the way you talk about people you dislike or shut the fuck up forever pls.

[neroushalvaus]

Trevor Noah interviewing Judith “Badass” Heumann

x

[neroushalvaus]

I’m glad so many people have discovered Judith “Judy” Heumann through this silly little gif set. I am sorry to say she has died at the age of 75. She was known as the mother of disability rights. In 1970 she sued the Board of Education to become a licensed teacher and she won. In 1977 she was one of the organizers of the 504 Sit-in, a 24 day protest for disability rights. You can learn more about her story from her book Being Heumann, the picture book Fighting for YES! or the documentary Crip Camp.

Judy Heumann believed in the inherent value of each disabled individual and would never back down on what she thought was right. Her friends and fellow activists remember her as a strong leader.

Judy Heumann

December 18, 1947 - March 4, 2023

May her memory be for a blessing.

[labmousegirl]

one of the things that makes autism a disability (and why some of us choose to label it as such rather than an “alternate neurotype”) is the stress. 

part of autism is just being incredibly stressed. overstimulation? stress. holding a conversation? stress. something happening to our schedule? stress. people talk about how often autism is recognized and diagnosed via our stress responses (like meltdowns) because it is just so common to see autistic people stressed because of lack of accommodations to how our brains work.

and this matters because stress kills. stress causes a lot of health issues, or it can trigger pre-existing ones by making certain chronic conditions flare up. i once had a psychiatrist very unhelpfully tell me i “just need to manage my stress” when the stress i was describing was things i could not avoid in neurotypical society and can’t “just get over”. i can do “self care” all i like but i cannot at the very base level change the way my brain inputs information and reacts accordingly.

[roach-works]

i only learned this year that loud noises aren’t physically painful for other people. i have lived 34 years in a world in which my friends and family regularly physically hurt me at random just by shouting, and i thought everyone else just thought i was kind of a wimp for not dealing with the pain as well as they did.

like. loud noises physically hurt. it’s like a static shock from my ears to my spine that doesn’t stop until the volume goes back down. i thought we all agreed that ‘that’s too loud!’ and covering our ears meant ‘ouch!’. turns out i’ve been dealing with a stressor almost no one else has, my whole life, alone.

autistic people have to keep functioning through debilitating levels of stress that no one else in their life acknowledges or helps them with. it’s no wonder that their most visible ‘tells’ are breakdowns.