So here is the thing I'm struggling with about antifa at the moment

[kaberett]

It is all very well to say "if you are not with the [explicitly violent] antifascists, you're with the fascists" but what these explanations do not seem to include is actual detailed discussion of how or why I can operate on the assumption that these people won't decide that I'm the next target. "Because you're not a fascist!" Okay, right, no, try again. Try again. I have been told, by people still substantively respected and liked in my geographically local community, that being visibly autistic in public is oppressive. I want to know what the fuck system of rules you're working with that means I won't be deemed unacceptable and I won't be deemed an appropriate target.

"Try not being a fascist!"

Yeah, thanks, see above about "me being visibly disabled in public is oppressive". See every interaction I've ever had where my disabilities are an inconvenience to The Cause.

Try again.

I'm really not comfortable with the extent to which people seem to want to shout me down on this one, using that well-known abusive tactic of telling me that if I don't unquestioningly support them in spite of grave reservations rooted in, like, bare minimum historical literacy plus personal experience, I am all that is Bad and Evil.

I am struggling to articulate this any better because of the sheer visceral horror I'm experiencing at a lot of the rhetoric that's happening. But, like, if you want to engage with me on this -- and I am, very definitely, open to being talked to -- please consider starting from a point of "I see your concerns and they're valid, here's why I'm convinced", not "you're a bad person for having doubts".

If, however, you want to ask me how Very Dare I tone-police you on this, I request that you sit this one out.

Comments

[recessional]

It's a very tough subject. My thoughts are mostly "do what you can with what you have and just flat realize that there will never, ever be a universally accessible space/plan/method, so you will always be adjusting, adapting and making the best of, and as best you can inform and empower people to make adjustments and choices to suit their needs". (And also that it's very, very important - as I realize in retrospect that often people use "do what you can with what you have" to mean "I'm not going to bother"; I don't, I use it to mean exactly what it says.)

Also that if people aren't genuinely approaching the whole thing with good faith then it's gonna get ugly real fast.

But I do feel that part of the unwillingness/failure of communities to try to integrate ability as an axis has to do with the fact that once you take it on you can't pretend this isn't a major issue, factor and consideration. And it complicates the whole landscape.