This is not a call-out post, this is merely me addressing baseless accusations in the only way I can. If this doesn’t look great for them, then fine.They seem content to smear mine and Amdis’ names behind a block, so I’m going to at least set the record straight on my own blog.
If they didn’t want this made public, they should have approached me privately on Discord where we were friends or even through messenger here on Tumblr.
First, I would like to address the cowardice it takes to not only build your entire platform in calling out ableism, just to react this way when a handful of other people with ADHD expressed discomfort with a certain word being used. To @ people, and then immediately block them so they had to have friends lurk on your blog to just see what was even said to us. Like that is super classy so A++.
I will only be addressing what was said to me, as I’m not here to fight Amdis’ battles or anything.
Now, just to keep my own thoughts organized, because I am ADHD, I’m just going to address this point by point.
(All quotes below pulled word-for-word from Dathen’s replies to me)
“I have ADHD and am autistic...”
I am aware of this, as ADHD especially is something Dathen and I have in common and have repeatedly had discussions about in the past together. We are both neurodivergent.
“... this is not derogatory and projecting that onto me is pretty gross.”
I didn’t project anything onto Dathen, and I didn’t call the post derogatory, and I didn’t even say that “zoomies” was derogatory. I only ever mentioned that it made me, and several others, uncomfortable because it veered a little bit too close to “spaz” and “spastic” which are derogatory terms.
“Also I’m baffled that you’d try to twist my words like this...”
I didn’t try to do anything. I actually said “While I get the spirit behind calling it ‘zoomies’, it also feels too close to ‘spaz’ or ‘spastic’ for my comfort” and simply requested that the behaviour in question be called what it is, which is “stimming.”
“...you’ve followed me long enough to know better.”
Yes, I did know better than to assume they said it with malicious intent and not once thought that they did, and nothing in my reply implies that I did. I followed Dathen for a long while, and given their near-constant discoursing about ableism, and given they are a grown adult about my age, I had figured they would be reasonable enough to have a discussion about how certain words might not be the greatest to use.
“There is so much anti-nd ableism in this fandom...”
I am aware of this. I am literally neurodivergent. Again, Dathen and I have discussed this very phenomena at length prior to this.
“...that coming to an nd person...”
They keep throwing this around as if I myself am not neurodivergent.
“... with ‘you’re projecting onto Jon with the WRONG WORDS’ is really your concern here?? really??”
That isn’t what I said, it wasn’t even the spirit of what I said, and no that isn’t my concern since that is not what I said at all. Like I find it incredibly rich that I was blocked and accused of twisting someone’s words and then my words were just, twisted left and right. And listen, if a word is hurtful to other neurodivergent people, which it was uncomfortable for myself and at least five other people, then yes! Maybe don’t use that word to project on a character. But then again, I didn’t really tell them to not use it. I requested that it be called “stimming” but in the end, I didn’t tell them to do anything.
Now, my request and my discomfort comes from a place of legitimate trauma, from a time where I was abused by caregivers and treated like a dog and threatened with leashes and shock collars for my untreated symptoms of ADHD. I should not have to disclose either my neurodivergence, nor my trauma for my opinion on the subject to be valid. Period.
Their aggression really comes off as them assuming I was neurotypical which really throws their entire platform of being anti-ableism into question. They will post for a month about how calling Jon stupid is ableist, but a handful of people with ADHD express discomfort with them calling stimming “zoomies” and they flip out, @ us, and then block us? Seems massively hypocritical and now I’m just really doubtful about everything they’ve ever discoursed over.
Being neurodivergent doesn’t give you a free pass, and even then, neither Amdis or I thought Dathen was being ableist and neither of us even said that or implied it. We merely presented a perspective they possibly didn’t consider.
But it appears that Dathen is only interested in being agreed with completely, or accusing people of attacking them if they don’t.