“The truth may be out there, but the lies are inside your head.” – Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
If people aren’t referring to our neurological disorders as super powers (power of running into things I have over thee), they’re waxing poetic about the possibility we’re the descendants of fairies. Sure, it’s all very cute and whimsical (if akin to fetishism), unless you have a greater familiarity with historical precedent, and realize these people are coming at the lore backwards.
Here’s the deal…
Suggesting those of us with neurological differences like ADHD or autism might be the descendants of fairies is not some new revelation, just as the disorders aren’t new simply because people hadn’t given them those names yet. People have always noticed some people were different from other people, be it mentally, physically, or both. Before we gained scientific insight, people made up stories about fairy changelings or demonic possession, and used them to justify mistreatment.
It’s not cute.
It’s not whimsical.
It’s literally dehumanizing. While children are no longer cast out or killed as fairy changelings, and exorcism is at least frowned upon in polite society, we still have parents who so fear their children being atypical, they are willing to endanger the lives of their children and others by forgoing vaccinations for non-medical reasons.
In many ways, we’re in a new dark ages as people reject science in favor of believing whatever makes them feel good. I actually started this post months ago when I saw a cutesy meme that irked me, but then the pandemic happened. And with the pandemic came pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, and self-serving politicians, culminating in an incident this week that advances the viewpoints of a “doctor” who links medical problems with…demons and witches. Yeah, that old gem.
Previously, a conspiracy video that was really just a commercial for a book referring to people with autism as a plague (apparently protection from hate speech does not extend to neurological conditions) went viral. And these viewpoints are accepted and spread by the same people who preemptively reject a vaccine that doesn’t exist yet (if ever) because they think Bill Gates wants to use it to implant a chip in them…something something…George Soros.
Oh, and by the way, either CEOs and the politicians who empower them want good little worker bees who don’t ask questions or threaten the status quo, or they want people who are neurologically divergent. They can’t have both.
We can’t be both.
Even amongst ourselves we are unique individuals with our own strengths and weaknesses, but what none of us are is predictable and easy to peg. People in authority don’t like that.
I’m so exhausted by people trying to link anything and everything to a big evil plot that falls apart under a modicum of scrutiny. Life is complicated and messy, not a tidy little narrative that fits on a meme. Maybe it’s comforting to believe everything that hurts us comes from an alien entity seeking power over us, and all we have to do is take out the “queen” to save the day, but human beings are capable of all sorts of bad things without the influence of demonic forces or space lizards.
The worst part is we use our minds, the one thing that supposedly separates us from other animals, to invent excuses or rationales for behaving like them. Why can’t people use their overactive imaginations for something benign like writing fiction (as fiction)?
And while people with neurological differences may want to entertain the belief we’re otherworldly beings ourselves, but as a positive to overcompensate for ridicule, we don’t need to be romanticized to be treated with basic human decency.
We’re human.
That’s reason enough.