I fucking knew it, I SAID it: they’re making ADHD people the next culture war targets. They will ‘just ask questions’ until we lose every scrap of ground we’ve gained in the last decade and more. We may not quite inspire the same level of hatred as a sexual minority, but we can very easily be made to inspire disdain and that also works.
They will strip us of our accomodations and our medications and try to stifle any sense of shared identity, and if that kills some of us, oh well. So long as it fuels another outrage cycle, fine.
So many of the tropes they’ve been using on trans people work extremely well on ADHD people too! “There are too many of these people suddenly! It must be a fad! It spreads through friend groups! And online! People are going private for diagnoses and that’s bad! They are using pOwERfUl medical interventions and we think it’s freaky!”
I saw the first ripples of this in terf circles about two years ago. And of course it’s spread.
6% of British ADHD people lost their jobs in the last year thanks to the meds shortage. SIX PER CENT! And that just made these ghouls go “ooh, tasty, what else can we do?”
Recently an 'expert’ was on the BBC saying people see ADHD diagnosis as a “golden ticket.” Laurence Fox has been ranting that the condition doesn’t exist and threatening “'you won’t poison my child’s body [with ADHD meds] against my consent”
People need to be aware this is going to get worse. Maybe, if we’re lucky, it won’t get really bad. But it’s going to get worse than it is now.
I really need everyone, no matter where you are on the political spectrum you are on, to understand one thing:
What happens to the most marginalised in society will eventually happen to all of us who aren’t part of the ruling class!
Please get this through your head! Obscenely wealthy and power people do not care about you! Do not making the mistake of assuming they see you as human, they absolutely fucking don’t. Like I am begging you all to use your damn brains and stop falling for this divide and conquer shit!
For anyone who thinks: None of these people in power could actually believe any of this is sustainable… right? Then you’re incorrect, they absolutely do believe that because these people are addicted to greed, they are incapable of thinking rationally. They simply do not give a single shit what destruction happens so long as it doesn’t affect them! And it does not help at all that most of society has been letting this shit happen to those they were told were “beneath” them for fucking decades! The lack of action and even the vocal or monetary support of their actions fucking told them that this shit is okay! That it won’t piss people off enough to affect their power or their bottom line!
Conservatism and far right political ideology doesn’t just stop and go “oh no, you’re part of the Good Group, don’t worry, this won’t affect you! You’re special!” No! That’s not remotely how this shit works! Instead these people simply go: “okay, we’re gonna test this horrible thing on that group, because we tricked everyone into hating them, they’re the scapegoats, and we’ll convince the other people that they’re going to eventually benefit from this!” And then they keep pushing that boundary until they work it into everything and everyone else until we’re all so powerless that we’re unable to stop the progression!
And this bullshit with adhd meds is a perfect example of this phenomenon! Today people are demonising “junkies” who rely on dangerously addictive substances to simply remain alive because that’s the only option they have. Tomorrow your colleague with adhd or narcolepsy who relies on taking stimulants in order to safely and effectively do their job can’t get their meds anymore that they need to literally function. They now have no choice but to self medicate via illegal and dangerous means or watch their entire life fall apart and be blamed for it.
And it’s not like they can go on disability because society let the same thing happen to disability benefits and unemployment thinking it wouldn’t affect them! What a horrible massive chain reaction!
Black activists during the Jim Crow era in the US had a saying (and black activists still do): “If you can convince the poorest white man that he’s better than the richest black man, then he won’t notice you picking his pocket.” I really need people to remember this and keep it in mind before they start fighting with people in their own socioeconomic class.
I just… I’m so tired and angry and I barely talk about stuff like this despite really caring about it because each day that goes by it feels more and more impossible to get through to these people. The things leftists fight for are things that will at some point personally benefit you and the people you know! Trying to get people to understand this is like talking to a solid concrete block! What about that is not clicking for you exactly? Like… how am I supposed to tell these bastards that they’re supposed to care about people other than themselves?
I have ADHD and I’m very worried that I won’t be able to afford medication soon. In the past few months the price of my ADHD meds in the United States has spiked dramatically. It used to cost me between 20-60 dollars. Now it costs hundreds of dollars even with insurance. Furthermore, it is taking longer for my pharmacy to refill my prescriptions. The last time I needed my meds refilled I had to wait TWO WEEKS between putting in the request and actually getting my meds, all while trying to prep for exams (which was impossible without them). I am not optimistic about how I’ll be treated because of my disability in the future.
ALT