Alejandro Ripley

 Several people in the disability rights movement are writing about the murder of Alejandro Ripley as yet another example of parents murdering their disabled children with impunity due to systemic ableism.

Several people in the racial justice movement are writing about how Alejandro's mother/killer, Patricia Ripley, blamed the crime on fictitious "Black men" as yet another example of racists scapegoating people of color with impunity due to systemic racism.

We should all be writing about both. Racism and ableism wind together into an ugly glob of hate and oppression. Our society sees disabled people as disposable, sees people of color as disposable, murders, abuses, incarcerates, disabled people and people of color and most especially disabled people of color. You can't talk about one without the other.

I don't have more to say about this, because it's already been said. Stop being ableist. Stop being racist. Start speaking out against the intersecting systems of oppression that devalue human lives. You should have been doing this already.

Public health: If you can, you should

 If you can get vaccinated against contagious diseases, you should.

If you can socially distance as much as possible, including wearing a mask in public, during a pandemic, you should.

If you can practice recommended public health hygiene as much as possible, you should.

If you can vote in every election, for the most non-fascist candidates and policies available, you should.

Some people, for various reasons beyond their control, cannot do these things. No one should judge or punish them for being unable to do these things.

However, the best way to protect the health and well-being of those who cannot do those things is for those of us who can do them, to do so.

People who cannot do these things are harmed, not helped, when people who can do them choose not to.

Abuse is about power, not about brains

 CN: sexual abuse

This is just your friendly reminder that pedophilia is not a "brain disease." People rape children because they lack social power. It's the same reason that people disproportionately rape prisoners, refugees, disabled people, and others who lack the social power to resist. Blaming it on a "brain disease" is just neurobigotry.

Freedom of information

 Cognitive liberty includes universal free access to information and ideas around the world. Everyone has the right to information. Everyone has the right to ideas. The right to know, to question, to think, and to form conclusions is an individual right, not a collective or familial one. Every individual person, everywhere around the world, deserves the right to freely receive information and ideas, and disseminate information and ideas. Technological innovations like the printing press and the internet have improved this, but are still not accessible to everyone, and are subject to restriction and censorship. Every individual deserves free access to information and communication, without the approval of their families, their governments, or anyone else purporting to know what is best for them.