You sat across from me as we discussed your disabled son’s employment prospects. Because your son will soon be considered an adult, funding options for his employment training were an issue that we needed to sort out. In the course of our discussion, you repeatedly made reference to the “paltry” thousands of dollars the government—we taxpayers—has given you every month for the last 20 years in the form of Social Security benefits and the like. You rolled your eyes as a sarcastic cue to the rest of us in attendance to sympathize with you, as you blurted something about Washington being “so cheap.” Dear Mrs. Fuckface: Fuck you. The havoc your egg and Mr. Fuckface’s sperm has visited upon you does not entitle you to more of my money and resources, does not entitle you to feel victimized because the tens of thousands of dollars you have already received are less than the thousands more you think you deserve for nothing more than piously squeezing out an autistic child two decades ago. By fucking, you and Mr. Fuckface took a gamble. By carrying your disabled child to term, you lost your gamble. Now you would have me and the state and our world believe that you are entitled to even more of our money and resources, and that we should feel sorry for you because the legislature won’t allocate ever more funds for your disabled child. And don’t get me started on all the homes, boats, and vacations you can’t stop talking about every time we meet, as your sweet but emotionally arrested son recites Dora the Explorer verbatim in the corner while his laptop babysits him. Your son is a good person with a disability who has great challenges ahead of him. You two, Mr. and Mrs. Fuckface, are totally fucking retarded.
—Anonymous
@85 FTW
I hope I never become disabled. It would be bad enough having to deal with all the pain and frustration that comes with the disablity, but knowing there are angry, judgemental people like IA out there in “helping” professions is truly terrifying.
IA, take the advice of the commenters and change careers. Perhaps ultimate fighting? That might help you get out some of the rage that you’re spewing all over The Stranger.
Glad to see responses blasting this fucker for spouting ablist crap while trying to just attack these ridiculous parents who are so horrible. (It’s nice to see, as the last public forum I saw disability discussed in was horribly depressing–people arguing vehemently that disabled parking privileges are unfair.)
Don’t be shocked that the anonymous post, so couched in ablism, has been attacked for implying eugenics is a good idea. Not what you meant? Fair enough, but if it sounds ablist…it’s fucking ablist. (This is how words work–being subject to interpretation. If you don’t want to be misinterpreted, be more careful and conscientious about what you say.)
This shit gets tiresome, you think it’s banal, but people who are aware of the history of treatment of people with disabilities can’t help but see shit like this in context.
It does sound like the parents had an entitlement issue that wasn’t really about their son’s quality of life, which is perhaps sad. (I can’t really comment on a situation I know nothing about.)
But what do you want, sacrifice? Should they live in the street and eat dirt to show how grateful they are because they get money from the government to help their son?
This is a common line of attack, not only for parents, but people with disabilities. I’m embellishing a bit, but it goes roughly: “You live off the government, so you shouldn’t buy/do things that I don’t think are worthwhile! Instead, you should live like a penitent, thankful that we give you anything because we own your life when you get our tax money!” It’s complete shit, and no more true than trying to claim you own the road because it was paid for with taxes. Public money becomes just that–public (not yours).
So don’t think it’s so innocent to attack the parents as if it’s not also reasonable to see it as an affront to their child.
I’ve deleted bits of my post aimed at defending the existence of disability benefits, etc, as that seems irrelevant and already covered.
I was pretty fucking annoyed by this one though.
Why you liberals at the stranger always have to hate on libertarians? We’re actually pretty damn similar, we just don’t trust the govt with our $$ as much as you do. Anyway…
the Anon clearly isn’t saying that there should be NO money for these people, just that they already have and are receiving quite a bit of money- enough for vacations and multiple homes! She’s not saying NO aid, she’s just saying not MORE than a few thousand a month. I think that’s reasonable, frankly. These adults surely have jobs and can pay some of their own expenses. Surely private charities can help out. Why I should be FORCED to give this woman more of my money so she can buy a third home (under the guise of taking care of her son) when I can barely afford new clothes (not to mention a laptop) is beyond me.
Seriously, I’m down with some welfare, hell I’m on foodstamps, but all good things in MODERATION, people!
It is near impossible for two adult human beings, making less than twice a median income level, to fully meet the needs of some children independently. WA needs to grow up and start taking disability and mental health seriously and prevent some of the more serious crimes and humanitarian disasters that are par for the course. SSI is distributed based on income. Medicaid and Medicare are also based on income. What this means is that parents who work hard to meet the needs of their children and exceed aid income guidelines are mostly strapped and unsupported by a system that doesn’t provide an adequate skills sector in the private market.
As long as disability is considered “that person’s problem” and not taken seriously by us, as a collective society, the needs of the more seriously disabled, and even probably dangerous, if not simply disruptive, will go unmet and society WILL suffer for it.
A single-payer health care system will go a long ways toward resolving many of the problems that are currently, unfortunately, barely managed. Once there is a consistent, productive health care system meeting the basic health and therapeutic intervention levels that are deemed necessary by society for the care of the disabled and mentally ill, talking about other practical levels of intervention can be better developed and standardized in ways that make sense to the wholistic benefit of the whole individual.
Consistent, practical care and intervention for those in need of it benefits us, as a society. The sooner we figure this out, the better…and the quicker we can get rid of parents *abusing the system* if need be, and make sure the benefits are going to the person in need, i.e., the disabled person…and the sooner people like Anon will have less to complain about.
Dear The Stranger,
Why have you posted this horrible article – and commissioned a graphic to boot??!! I have a child with disabilities and the fact is that people with disabilities are not eligible to receive Social Security benefits until they turn 18 years old. The suggestion that these parents have been living it up on their child’s Social Security checks for 20 years is just stupid and mean.
Yuck.
I love listening to people of unbelievable privilege bitching about how they’re subjugated by the incredibly underprivileged. My favorite is where half of the commenters are 15 year-olds who don’t even pay taxes.
Hey IA, have fun living off the grid! Let us know if you need toilet paper.
Anybody got any toilet paper? It’s getting shitty up in here!