#pretty sure i've related all of sgfg to this *broad concept* and maybe bloodhound as well by

[edge-oftheworld]

you know i don't really talk about it on this acc much, but i find myself in a lot of various neurodivergent spaces. hearing stories of people desperately trying to communicate their needs, being invalidated, or forced to jump through hurdles they're unable to in order to get help they need. thinking about how as humans we have so many differences in communication, yet so many people are silenced when using theirs, struggling and invisible, blamed for their own difficulties, for not measuring up. people's experiences being pitted against finite resources, victimised by systems many of us can't thrive in, burdened with more than some can keep up with, it's the nature of being disabled, unable to empower themselves. and there's only so much legislation and that can do, as good as it is. good systems need to be put in place, but those systems need to be backed by the support of people--not just those who are vulnerable but a whole tribe of us in solidarity. we need that love, and to build it, we need connection and understanding that simply being told 'these are people with needs' isn't going to evoke.

and for that reason i really love writers and artists. i think as humanity we owe a lot to them. i love a talented writer who can get into someone's head, be they real (with consent) or a fictional amalgamation of the characteristics of people, and share their writing far and wide, so people can feel and learn something from it and be a little more understanding. you don't need buckets of empathy necessarily, just a perspective, that window into how someone or a group of people experience life. and to use that new information to choose to be an ally. i love you, fanfic writers, for doing this and building the skill to take beyond fanfic if you choose. i love artists who create art that give us insights into perspectives, that capture moments and feelings and really make us question how we do things. it's very punk. artists of all kinds, i love you.

and this is a music blog. i have to mention songwriters especially. because i've spent my life looking for songs that convey experience in the most real way possible. i've chased perspectives and representations of my own in artists' music. you can learn to see things a thousand, a billion ways through music, both in the lyrics when they are present, and in every musical element put together. it all creates a picture. it presents something. it communicates on a much more primal and validating way than just using words, facts, demands. it allows us to see much more intimately and intricately ourselves and each other. it is absolutely necessary in our activism for vulnerable people, invisible for one reason or another, disabled, neurodivergent--you name it. and it is a really beautiful statistic for me to see, that so many songwriters are neurodivergent. this allows a kind of communication that might be difficult to have otherwise. it is something people of all neurotypes accept. we all, to some degree, love music. and we can (and do, often without realising) use it to do just this! to communicate, as songwriters, our own experiences or those of whoever inspires us. we see souls and we see lives through it. and music has no real categories and labels, just a new piece for us to connect with, maybe deeply, or maybe just witness for a moment, and see something we usually wouldn't.

and so i have a dream. a dream where we can channel the often accidental (but also, often so purposeful) activism of music into the causes we care about, thinking about which voices are centred, and making sure whoever is sidelined gets a chance to be heard sometimes. a dream where we don't just have lists of how to be better allies and legislations we vote yes or no to, but we can educate ourselves on all these diverse and different experiences through music as well as specific, measurable, often emotionless data. because i've spent the last six years trying to figure out how i exist in the world. why i am the way that I am. if that sounds familiar. i've come across an encyclopedia's worth of knowledge on diversity. on neurodivergence. that I had to sift through to see what fits me. but in the process i can see the experiences of so many people, all of whom I see a little bit of myself in, and I've learned how accommodations work and sensory profiles and how there is so much injustice in the world most of us aren't even aware of because people's pain is invisible. and they're often not given the tools, the labels, the words to use to describe it because people simply don't think about it. they don't know. they don't know how to see it in someone until they're told. until that person has nowhere else to go, if they're lucky they'll find the blueprint for their life and their brain before living without it destroys them. and work back from there.

isn't it good that scientists and those experiencing these things have put together categories of human for the kinds of specific blueprints we might need? yes I know there is problematic history of exclusion and many other things--that still influence stigma today and why we don't ever think of neurodivergence or disability when someone is what we class as successful--but we've figured some things out!! we can help people with them!! we can combine our winnings!! science and labels and lists of accommodations that come with them, with personal art about experience from people who are in some of these categories, people who aren't, every kind of unique experience you can think of. imagine it. a world of people with so many resources they need to feel better. some of them make art. some of them enact legislation. all of this goes back to helping each other!!

i could probably look at every artist i know well and have a guess at how their brain and nervous system would be categorised. i have the confidence by now to say that i would for the most part, be right. or at least very close. if i had the chance to do this i could tell them i love them and i desperately want them to be okay and of the impact of their art. i could be part of distributing that validating or experientially educational art to those who most need it. I already do that, to the extent I am able at the moment. and i try to be a good activist. i've seen a lot more awareness of things i've been talking about over the last 2-3 years. we're getting better. but sometimes I do feel like i'm posting bits and pieces of information through the entire internet with part of my goal being hopes that this person i care about whose art i've consumed and loved and benefitted so much from, might put the pieces together and figure these things out for themselves. we're getting better. i still feel helpless when i encounter some content some artists i love put out.

i don't think it's respectful to be like 'i hc this person as this' all over the internet, so i'm not gonna do that, and i ask that you also think of the implications of what you theorise as well--99% of the time it's fine. i know that. but i also know the stigma around neurodivergence that exists still is there, and also what labels people use publicly are their own choice and this should never be taken away from them. but we don't have to be detectives without filters to simply talk about our own experiences with neurodivergence, with whatever things we struggle with, to each other in the fandom, and build a culture of creating awareness. we can do that. without taking away anyone's autonomy or anything like that. so talk to me about this stuff!! please. always. i always want to hear it. and i wanna hear what songs you relate to because of it!! that's what i'm here in the fandom for. i love you guys. i'm being vague on purpose but if you catch what triggered this spiel (and it's a recurring pattern. every time something new comes out) i salute you. we can bond over it. please bond over it with me. i try to be an activist, yes, but really, i need connection and validation of my experience just like I think all of us do, and deserve to have. small conversations are part of creating this vision <3