The world may sometimes outpace our ability to keep up with it, but we are still here, and we are all catching up on the things we need to. Wishing you all another two weeks of the ability to rest, and - if possible - to catch up on the things that are important to you. Love you all <3

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Mask up, love one another, and stay alive for one more week.

Not me feeling sorry for my car because it's covered in dents

I hope this week treats you gently and all your needs are met.

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"For centuries, community builders, social justice engineers and freedom fighters--most of whom are multiply marginalized--have been doing exhausting and traumatizing life-changing & life-saving work with and for no money; with no sleep, health or mental health care; and with no institutional support. Our work is done for advancement not accolades; for freedom, not financing; for liberation, not to be lauded. Our work is not trackable, billable, fungible, settlement negotiable. Our work is invaluable. Our work is deeply rooted in love. I honor you."

• Talila A. Lewis, Fighting for Freedom & the Expense of Erasure

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The Social Security Administration has instructed employees newly assigned to answering phones to tell callers expressing suicidal thoughts that suicide is “one option,” raising concerns from employees and experts in the field who called the approach unorthodox.

SSA recently began shifting new swaths of its workforce to phone answering duty, including those who normally receive and process retirement and disability claims, manage the agency’s technology and work in the agency's finances unit. Those employees received brief, three-hour training before they began answering calls.

As part of that training, they were warned some callers may express suicidal ideation and presented with examples using a theoretical employee named Fiona.

“It's important for Fiona to keep the caller engaged and to remind her that suicide is only one option,” the animated trainer told employees in the video, a copy of which was obtained by Government Executive, “and that there is no urgency to make any decisions.”

Employees at the training, which occurred on Jan. 26 for benefits authorizers and post-entitlement technical experts, were taken aback by the comment and asked their supervisors for clarity. One employee at the training said there was “disbelief that it was just said” among those in the room.

Caitlin Thompson, a clinical psychologist who spent eight years at the Veterans Affairs Department as a clinical care coordinator on the Veterans Crisis Line and later as the department’s national director of suicide prevention, said SSA's approach did not follow commonly accepted best practices.

“It’s not a normal thing to say,” Thompson said. “No. That’s not the thing you say to somebody who might be suicidal.”

Instead, SSA would be better suited telling employees to ask callers if they feel safe in the immediate term and if they say no, to tell the caller that they will work with their supervisor to get them in touch with a crisis line.

“It’s a very specific thing to be able to talk to people,” Thompson said, noting that employees were not hired or properly trained to handle issues that arise on phone calls like those SSA processes. Of potentially suicidal callers, she added, “It can’t just be a ‘sorry to hear that.’”

"Disability doesn't make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does."

• Remembering Stella Young, Ted Talk "I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much"

A transcript of the video is available on the Ted Talk Website in 35 languages

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cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/42391352

My thoughts these days go to the medical professionals who, despite the pressures and stress they're facing, are putting in the effort and time to understand our struggles, take them seriously, and try to help to the best of their ability, sometimes even beyond. All medical professionals should be like this; I'm glad there's at least some who are.

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Asking here because search engines push a lot of AI slop sites that can give misleading information.

I want to know what the signs of a bad therapist are. Some red flags. I've heard horror stories about therapy so I just want to know what to look out for.

"...our society is only pro-disability until you scratch the surface...[making] it inevitable that many people with disability become cornered and tired and silenced. From then on, it's a matter of applying common sense; people who are cornered and tired and silenced are often riddled with self doubt or self hatred. It takes time and a conscious effort of will to overcome those things...Without pride in ourselves we cannot create pride in those around us...Like becoming that person with multiple labels, goals and ambitions, becoming a better society for people with disability is not a one-shot process. It's going to take a long time and a lot of thought. The first step is to recognise all our contradictions, traumas and mistakes. The second step is to stop hating them."

• A Journey Towards Pride, Leah Hobson, Ramp Up, 11 June 2014

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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/17696

Since Donald Trump marched back into the White House in January 2025, his administration has waged an all-out war on disabled people. Trump has issued executive orders rolling back civil rights protections, slashed funding for vital services and support, and advocated for legislation that would ramp up institutionalization.

The administration’s actions reflect the cruel and dehumanizing language it uses to speak about disabled people, who comprise more than a quarter of the nation’s population: One February 2025 executive order characterized children being diagnosed with autism or ADD/ADHD as “a dire threat to the American people and our way of life,” while, according to a memoir by Trump’s nephew, the president thinks some disabled people “should just die.”

Trump’s second-term assault on the disability community comes as many continue to shoulder the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately killed disabled and aging Americans, worsened the nation’s care worker shortage, and left at least 20 million people ill or disabled with long COVID. Rather than commit to plugging gaps in the nation’s public health system and preparing for future crises, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is implementing an extremist anti-science agenda that public health experts have warned “endanger[s] every American’s health.”

Truthout asked several disability justice advocates and organizers from across the U.S. to explain what’s at stake for disabled people in Trump’s attacks on voting rights, education, the climate and Indigenous land stewardship, health care, and trans rights. They also shared where they’re finding hope and how you can join the struggle for disability rights and justice as it continues into the second year of Trump 2.0.

Source

From Truthout via This RSS Feed.

"Interpersonal Systemic Shame makes it easy to see people's laziness, sloppiness, or apathy as the source of the problem rather than a consequence of repeated structural failures. Interpersonal Systemic Shame often involves blaming and shaming people who share identities or experiences with us, because they reflect the qualities we've been conditioned to hate in ourselves."

• Unlearning Shame, Devon Price, PhD

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Short vent post, but I've noticed a tendency for some people to think that any meta-discussion of issues on the site is automatically a struggle session, or that the person starting the discussion is trying to "wreck" or create drama.

I find this frankly a bit hurtful. I think the extreme irony and refusal to engage seriously you sometimes see on the site are much more harmful than sincere discussions about topics some people consider controversial, and I think that deploying "drama" or "wrecker" accusations against sincerity is at least partially a symptom of that culture of irony (the idea that people can't be sincere online, I guess).

I think mistaken "wrecker" accusations also, on average, probably end up pointed at marginalized users a lot more because they perceive issues or perspectives that others might not and sometimes (especially ND users) have different communication styles. I'm not saying people who call others "wreckers" are bigots, just that they might not realize they're just looking at someone with a different perspective who is being sincere. I think this site is one of the better spaces online (by far), but we could all benefit from just engaging sincerely a bit more and not assuming someone is being malicious just because we perceive things or communicate differently (I have done this myself as well).

Anyway, thank you for coming to my Hex Talk, please let me know your thoughts. Please do not let me know you think this post is "wrecking", I will very sternly shake my finger at you and grumble.

Ableism is both necessary for and dependent on white supremacy, imperialism and colonialism, capitalism, queermisia and transmisia, and misogyny.

-'What I do know about COVID-19', Autistic Hoya Blog by Lydia X.Z. Brown, dated March 26, 2020

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We're in for another two weeks of struggling, yet we are also never alone in these struggles. I hope that all of you find some respite despite the issues you're facing, and that you know you are appreciated, loved, and respected here.

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[Intro]
Yes, I know it is convenient
But you know it's not your place
So don't park your car in that
Handicapped parking space

[Verse 1]
'Cause you can drive your car
A couple of times around the lot
And if you do your affirmations
A spot just might open up so
Unless you are disabled
Go find your car another stable

[Chorus]
And don't go parking in that
Handicapped parking space
Don't go parking in that
Handicapped parking space

[Verse 2]
Yes, I know it is convenient
But it's also inconsiderate
And you could get a ticket
So don't park there
Come on, let's be fair

[Chorus]
Don't park in that
Handicapped parking space
No no no
Don't go parking in that
Handicapped parking space

[Outro]
Don't park there

Phranc

Same article in Japanese can be found here: https://www.dinf.ne.jp/doc/japanese/daw/wz_rakugo.html#%3A%7E%3Atext=%E6%89%8B%E8%A9%B1%E8%90%BD%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%AF%E3%80%811979%E5%B9%B4%E9%A0%83%2C%E3%81%AF%E3%81%82%E3%82%8B%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AB%E6%B0%97%E3%81%8C%E3%81%A4%E3%81%8F%E3%80%82

The rakugoka that this article is mainly about goes by the stage name Deaf Ippuku (デフ{一福|いっぷく}) but I unfortunately can't find any videos of his performances.

I have always been fond of music, especially when I'm feeling down. Now, I don't think there's enough popular songs about disability and how we struggle each day. But I stumbled across a song the other day that, while it's not about disability, I've been listening to quite often when I feel like I failed somehow. When all that's happening is really just me struggling and making it through another day, for better or for worse, I like to remind myself that I am perfectly incomplete, but I am good the way I am. I hope that maybe it helps you too.

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You deserve to be acknowledged, taken care of, held, and loved in abundance.

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May you find time this week to heal, to feel, to breathe, and to rest.

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Disability is indeed a burden, yet I hope for a world where we don't have to carry our individual burdens all alone. Let the mega continue to a be a place where all of us can at least listen and make the burden somewhat lighter.

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Mask up, love one another, and stay alive for one more week.