No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings. →
On October 18, millions of us are rising again to show the world: America has no kings, and the power belongs to the people.
Put A Burden On It
Someone over on Bluesky mentioned that they dislike “support needs” language—somewhat in vogue amongst the neurodivergent as an alternative to “functioning” labels, which are unpopular due to their divisiveness—because they view it as defining us as a burden.
While I understand what they’re saying, the answer seems to me to be to destigmatize the need for support. They weren’t wrong, per se, that a techbro who can’t cook for themselves has support needs that don’t register as such to normative society, but again the answer there is destigmatization.
(Although, and not for nothing, I’d wager that there are few techbros who can’t cook or clean for themselves but rather that they have various self-rationalizations for not doing so and for hiring other people, whom they likely view as lesser, to do it for them.)
For me, the language of support needs is the only language I have to make the demands I need to make, because support is exactly what I need. It’s not the language that’s the problem but its limited, discriminatory, and ableist usage.
What I also realized was that it’s possible I don’t object to “support needs” language on the basis of an objection that it frames me as a burden precisely because, in fact, I am a burden. It burdens my family, and it burdens local, state, and federal governments, to keep me alive, fed, healthy, and housed. That’s just the way it is, and I guess I’d find it weirdly unseemly to pretend otherwise.
I’ve established the realization that my life is a waste and my growing acceptance of that fact. What else is supporting a waste but a burden.