#this is an unrelated rant where i got mad over people saying autism pride was stupid

[spoonyruncible]

I genuinely do think of myself as a very chill unbothered person, and that’s at least mostly true but I get deeply frustrated when I see people failing to grasp simple concepts and then dismissing those concepts as ‘stupid’ instead of maybe trying even one percent harder.

Since it’s June one I’ve seen a lot is either willful misunderstanding of Pride or an outright refusal to accept that a word can contain nuance and multiple definitions. “What have they got to be proud about? They didn’t do anything.” I’ve seen the same complete nonsense said about every pride movement, disability pride, black pride, AAPI pride. And the absolutely lukewarm takes I’ve seen are so stomach-churningly shitty that I have the common sense to just disengage and walk away and complain on my own blog.

My least favorite take is “Well, they just want to feel special.” Ah, yes, feeling special, the very reason that motivates me every morning to wake up. I feel so special I’m estranged from my family. Countless frightened people have confessed their truth to loved ones and heard exactly that, “You just want to be special. You want to make everything about you.” I was fortunate enough to hear, “For fucks sake, we know you’re autistic but can you stop telling people?”

The reality of it is so simple, so easy, that it’s bizarre this keeps needing to be said. Pride doesn’t mean the the immutable nature of your body, your history, or at times your very soul is an accomplishment in and of itself, it means that you’re not ashamed even though other people say you ought to be. Like, I could explain this to a small child with zero difficulty. Good Lord, I grew up hearing “Rebel Pride” from people living in Kentucky which was a Union state. If anyone anywhere just ‘wants to feel special’ it’s Kentuckians with uglyass Confederate battle flags.