(related to https://plural.cafe/@fidgetcetera/104955242168609785 LB)

Foundational to ableism as it is practiced is the act of declaring some people to be pervasively inferior and incapable. This is used to dismiss what they say out of hand, strip them of dignity, respect, and accommodation, justify their murder as 'a drain on resources', and otherwise perpetuate evils upon their persons.

This act is often justified by pointing to medical differences - for example, a parent of an autistic child pointing to this developmental difference as proof that the child is incapable of understanding social norms and therefore proof that they are justified in forcing the child into distressing situations and ignoring their complaints.

To dismiss someone's complaints by attributing them to an underdeveloped or damaged brain is to first claim that such behavior cannot be reasonable, second claim that such behavior must come from an inferiority in the person making it, and third claim that the difference being painted as an inferiority /is/ an inferiority and makes the person with the difference unworthy of consideration and respect.

That's severely ableist. It's ableist to say someone is wrong because they are pervasively bad and it's ableist to say that medical difference makes one pervasively bad. It's not okay and it's not something people should do.

- Packfox 🦊