Trigger Warning: Flyer targets people with disabilities

[veggiewolf]

People with disabilities are now the target of a hate group in the Portland area...

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[RandallS]

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::head desk::

[Aster Breo]

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That's terrifying.

[RandallS]

That's terrifying.

Unfortunately, it's something I can see the more rabid tea-party types coming up with.

[MadZealot]

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"Artemis of the wildland" has also done the same to shame food-stamp recipients.

Odd choice for a moniker, too.

[mlr52]

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Next up, if a person gets a tax refund or claim an exemption, they should not vote.

[Nyktipolos]

That's terrifying.

 
I had the exact same reaction. I can't understand the reasoning behind the thought process these people have to think this is okay. Maybe it's better that I don't.

[Dark Midnight]

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That is insane and truly frightening....

[Sophia C]

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Wow. Trigger warning is right. That frightens me something terrible.

Not entirely dissimiliar to stuff that's going on here, although it's more direct. I am honestly scared to leave the house some days - disability hate crime is on the rise, and I'm right in the line of fire (have a Motability car, get some financial assitance, have a variable condition that could easily be mistaken for 'faking'). I'm already getting more verbal abuse for parking in disabled bays (entirely legally) than I used to. I worry about being reported to the government's shop-a-faker hotline if I'm having a better day and can walk a bit further. Conversely, I worry about being in my wheelchair because I'm more visible. The fun never ends, in our disablist society where the media has made us scaepgoats...

[Dark Midnight]

Wow. Trigger warning is right. That frightens me something terrible.

Not entirely dissimiliar to stuff that's going on here, although it's more direct. I am honestly scared to leave the house some days - disability hate crime is on the rise, and I'm right in the line of fire (have a Motability car, get some financial assitance, have a variable condition that could easily be mistaken for 'faking'). I'm already getting more verbal abuse for parking in disabled bays (entirely legally) than I used to. I worry about being reported to the government's shop-a-faker hotline if I'm having a better day and can walk a bit further. Conversely, I worry about being in my wheelchair because I'm more visible. The fun never ends, in our disablist society where the media has made us scaepgoats...

 
I have to admit that I'm having a lot more issues with this recently. I'm on crutches but my condition isn't exactly visible to most people and the amount of arguments I've had over parking don't even bear thinking about. Like you, Naomi, I'm on certain benefits due to the fact that I can't work anymore and we have a limited income and I too worry about being reported. I shouldn't because I've done nothing wrong and I've been given these benefits legitimately, but for some reason it still worries me.

[Sophia C]

I shouldn't because I've done nothing wrong and I've been given these benefits legitimately, but for some reason it still worries me.

For me it's hearing about the things that are happening - always to legitimately disabled people, as you say. I have a friend who uses crutches and has been kicked off them several times for being a 'faker' by passers-by. I have wheelchair-using friends who have been screamed at in the street, and I know invisibly disabled people who have been reported to these shop-a-cheat hotlines and had their benefits removed. I've only had fairly mild verbal abuse, but I worry about what might come next.
 
But I feel like even the 'legitimately disabled' concept is designed to divide-and-conquer. I think would rather these things weren't happening at all and a few benefit cheats got away with it, than that the rest of us got caught up in this deeply harmful "scrounger" media discourse. (I once asked a government minister - from the DWP - directly about that. He said he was in favour of the media continuing to "expose benefit cheats" and use toxic language about disabled people, because it was important to catch people. I think the government is happy for the media to continue creating these problems, regardless of the wider consequences. If nothing else, it takes the pressure off them and their human rights abuses - cutting benefits, the 'bedroom tax', and all of that.)

[sailor]

Unfortunately, it's something I can see the more rabid tea-party types coming up with.

 
Same type that did the hate attacks against Blacks, Jews and gays at Oberlin recently?

[Dark Midnight]

But I feel like even the 'legitimately disabled' concept is designed to divide-and-conquer. I think would rather these things weren't happening at all and a few benefit cheats got away with it, than that the rest of us got caught up in this deeply harmful "scrounger" media discourse. (I once asked a government minister - from the DWP - directly about that. He said he was in favour of the media continuing to "expose benefit cheats" and use toxic language about disabled people, because it was important to catch people. I think the government is happy for the media to continue creating these problems, regardless of the wider consequences. If nothing else, it takes the pressure off them and their human rights abuses - cutting benefits, the 'bedroom tax', and all of that.)

 
You aren't wrong. It's much easier to focus on so called benefit cheats and upset a minority than focus on the really big issues and upset the bigger applecart.

[Viv]

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This is disgusting. It is so completely devoid of humanity/compassion its sickening.

[RandallS]

Same type that did the hate attacks against Blacks, Jews and gays at Oberlin recently?

I think it is pretty much the same mind-set. "We are better than group X for (generally nonsensical) reason Y, therefore X must be tormented until they go away -- or at least accept that their place in the world is well below us."