does anyone else remember when michaels (art supply company) accidentally made omegle again
when they What
michaels added a feature for a while in sept. 2020 where shoppers could ask questions that would be answered live by other shoppers anonymously. which led to some good michaels interactions.
i truly think that this recent trend of “if you relate to a post about a different identity than your own you are ~derailing~ and taking over the conversation” is incredibly harmful.
i recently experienced some pretty severe transphobic abuse in my workplace (children’s home) that included having food thrown at me, being called slurs, being told i was a pervert because i am trans. one of the managers talked with me afterwards and shared that he had had a similar experience as an Asian man. this wasn’t him derailing my experience, or talking over me, or making things about himself. he was communicating “hey, i know how it feels and how much it sucks. you’re not alone.”
THAT is what solidarity IS. i don’t know what it’s like to be Asian, he doesnt know what it’s like to be trans, but we both had a similar experience and we were able to turn a horrible experience into an opportunity for bonding and comfort.
stop looking at people’s attempts as solidarity as an attack. and hey, you never know - you could find an opportunity to grow closer to other people.
oh i might get canceled for saying this, but i feel like many in the disabled community, and the c-punk tags in particular, could really stand to read this closely.
i see a LOT of #disability and especially #physical disability posts complaining about people “derailing” in the reblogs by talking about neurodiversity and mental illness. a few points here:
you are not being “silenced” or “talked over"—you can still talk as much as you want in your own reblogs or make a new post about whatever you want.
if we apply some critical thinking, the hard, impassible line between "body” and “mind” can actually be pretty hard to draw so cleanly. where do physical symptoms of mental and neurological conditions come from? where do mental symptoms of physiological conditions come from?
these people are, as OP points out, your friends. they are showing you that your experience is echoed and mirrored across human existance. we do not need to be exactly the same as every other member of our communities—in fact, i think our communities would be weaker for it. just because someone is not exactly the same as you does not mean their experience is not alike or valuable to consider.
i consider myself a member of the mad community and the disabled community. what i know from being in the center of that venn diagram is that we need each other. saying “the social model tells us that people wearing glasses are not disabled” is a lot less useful to everyone than “what can the average glasses-wearer and the average cane-user learn from each other?” for example.
we NEED each other. all of us. we will not win without each other. quit bullying your allies away for a sense of superiority or special belonging in categories that barely separate us.
