#Unless they're like... a nazi or something then punch em.

[northwest-cryptid]

Yes I agree, and I understand your frustration but have we considered polite education over vague dismissal? Genuine question.

"Thick water is gross and weird" sure to someone who doesn't suffer from dysphagia it might seem like a gross and weird way to drink water since you're not used to the texture. However people who do suffer from dysphagia, a disorder that makes swallowing thin liquids difficult; it can help them consume water which is necessary for everyday hydration and health.

"Why would you buy pre-cut vegetables when you can just cut your own?" Well, not everyone can simply cut their own; and if you can you should probably stick to buying your vegetables whole to leave pre-cut stuff for individuals who have problems with motor function, or who may be unable to safely hold and use a knife.

"I don't need a device to help me put my socks on, I'm not lazy!" It's not always a matter of being lazy, there are plenty of individuals who suffer from reduced motor function whether due to pain or muscle degradation. If you don't need the device then simply save your money and don't buy it, it's helpful for those who do need the aid in motor function or perhaps even simply the reach.

"Why drink liquid meals?" There are individuals in the world who unfortunately have difficulty chewing, or who simply cannot chew at all. This could be due to lack of teeth, jaw complications, or even matters surrounding oral surgery and the like. For those individuals it can be difficult to consume entire meals, or get the necessary nutrients needed to maintain a healthy body from the meals they can consume; so liquid meals are helpful for them.

Now I'd additionally like to draw your attention to the fact I likely missed something, there are probably far more reasons and points to be made here. However I, even as someone who does understand the use case for such products; have not ever been properly educated because we don't educate we dismiss and insult.

When it comes to matters like this, it's simply faster to throw a "it's not FUCKING for you" than it is to politely explain and actually answer the question of "why does this exist" and often it can change someone's perspective from "ew" to "oh" when they not only understand the reasons and needs for these things, but have been made to understand in a polite manner that doesn't point a finger at them and say "BAD PERSON! BAD PERSON! HOW DARE YOU HAVE A KNEE-JERK REACTION TO SOMETHING YOU DON'T REALIZE THE NEED FOR! THAT'S ABLEIST EVEN IN YOUR IGNORANCE!"

Too many people treat ignorant people as if they're evil because they didn't know to educate themselves on a problem they didn't even know existed. Someone can't, for example; be ableist if they don't understand there is a disability. They can't believe the "typical abilities" are superior if they don't even understand what the disability is in the first place. Now if I explain the need for something like thick water, and someone continues to feel like "that's stupid they should just get surgery for it, or learn to swallow better" then yea they're fucking ableist. However if they have a knee-jerk reaction to thick water being weird or kinda gross because they're not used to it...

Congratulations, you've essentially just called Markiplier ableist.

Now I want to point out that NOWHERE in the original post does OP ever use the word ableist, that is 100% extrapolation on my part and I do not want to in any way put words in his mouth. This is just the sort of thing I see thrown around a lot with people jumping from "you don't know about this thing and that's annoying" to "you're ableist without even knowing it" and I don't think that's really a fair way to assess things. If you accuse someone of being in the wrong they're going to get defensive, they're not going to listen; you're going to take someone who was simply uneducated and make them ableist because they will have a sort of distaste for people they associate with the likes of you.

To go back to what I was saying, I don't actually believe that Markiplier is in any way ableist, but during Unus Annus Mark and Ethan did try Thick Water, and had... a lot of things to say about it, nothing really offensive; they understood what it was for so I think that does go a ways to help the understanding of the need. However they did remark on it being weird should I be remembering correctly. That being said, of course it'd be weird; you're not someone who suffers from the disability/disorder, you're not going to need to consume liquid this way and as a result you're not going to be used to it.

I will as an additional note here take the time to say that during the Unus Annus Thick Water video they were never offensive about dysphagia and I do believe that it helped raise awareness for the disability and for thick water/thick it. That all being said the episode has been lost to time and I cannot find exact clips of it to explain my point here.

What I'm saying though is that when people who don't understand something come to face something they genuinely know nothing about, they might react to it in a way that seems offensive if not only for lack of understanding of why it's important or needed.

If we in turn react poorly we are setting them up to become the very thing we believe they are, by keeping them uneducated and by convincing them that we're an asshole who they shouldn't listen to; rather than by educating them and helping them understand the importance of these sorts of products.

I bring this up a LOT because I think it's a good comparison, and stick with me here because I know this might seem like a wild tangent at first. A lot of people really enjoy games like Genshin Impact, a game that literally referenced Native Americans for their design of the hilichurl, Genshin's main enemy type which the player will inevitably mow down thousands of while playing the game. The claim on the wiki is that they're actually modeled after Oni, despite the devs literally showing images and videos of Native American people dancing being referenced for the hilichurl and their animations.

Genshin's developers are outright racist against Native people; and their game promotes the depiction of slaughter against those very people. Which is very obvious to any Native who has seen it, Natives who; in America are facing real life murder on a daily basis. To the point we have a movement for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, or MMIW.

Most people I talk to about this subject simply were unaware of these things, they don't know the broader scope of Native issues outside of "landback" if they even really understand that. They don't know about Blood Quantum, they don't know about the problems we face with domestic abuse.

So then when I see someone who is clearly not Native making comments about Final Fantasy 14 having extremely Native clothing options such as:

and less recognized,

I am quick to educate people on why these things can be seen as offensive, or why I'd rather clothing like this not be regarded as "Ala Mhigan" since yes, those patterns are actually real Native patterns.

I can't immediately jump on someone for playing Genshin or FFXIV and call them racist for using these clothing options or not understanding the similarities of hilichurls and Native Americans.

Because these people are not taking these actions or making these comments out of malice. They don't hate Natives, they're not trying to be racist. They simply don't know, they're uneducated.

So I take the time to educate them, and wouldn't you know it the ones who are good people, learn.

We need to take this approach to things like education about disabilities and disorders or we're not going to actually make any progress towards solving the problem.

Now obviously what someone does with the knowledge we provide them is up to them. However, if we at least do our part in explaining why something matters, or why we're for/against something; then we've done what we can, the best we can.

If we simply yell at them and say "IT'S NOT FOR YOU" that doesn't tell them who it IS for, it doesn't tell them why it DOES matter, it doesn't explain anything to them. It just tells them "you're an outsider who doesn't understand and I'm not going to waste my time on you!"

and I get it I totally get it if someone reading this is saying "okay but we're just venting!" Okay that's totally fine, I'm not trying to say there's anything wrong with that; if that's the case and you do understand what I'm saying feel free to disregard my whole damn post (except the bit about Genshin and FFXIV that shit bugs me a lot, also don't disregard the more important part about MMIW because we gotta raise awareness about this shit)

However I've noticed we have the echo chamber problem of preaching to the choir, we scream about problems that most of us might not even face in our day to day life (like seriously I've never heard anyone other than Markiplier even talk about thick water and shit like this, I don't hear these things but it doesn't mean people don't say them. I'm merely saying that I don't know if every single person reblogging this ACTUALLY hears these things enough to where it's a problem, or if they simply BELIEVE people would say these things; which yea it's believable but I'm not gonna get up in arms about it unless I actually hear it.)

And we only scream about these things to other people who ALREADY agree with us, that's not really doing any good. If I go to my Native friends and go "man let me tell you about MMIW" they're just gonna sit there like "yea man that shit is important, but we already know" and sure getting to go to my friends who understand shit and say "that shit sucks this shit is good; we gotta do something about this." Hearing them parrot that all back to me can feel good, it's reassurance, it's validation; that's great. You know what it's not though? It's not raising any awareness, it's not helping educate people who DON'T already know.

Again, and really with everything I've said here I cannot overstate this enough; I'm not here to point fingers at everyone reblogging this and say "YOU'RE WRONG, I'M RIGHT; GET WITH THE PROGRAM FUCKER" that would just be rude and you wouldn't be very inclined to actually hear me out.

I'm not trying to accuse or blame or say that anyone is in the wrong, it's a general thing I've noticed. We blur the lines between venting to friends and actually stating a problem; and the way we approach those problems doesn't feel very productive to actually stopping the problem. We simply yell and scream and throw swear words around saying "THIS IS FUCKING BAD!!!" It doesn't explain why, it doesn't move us forward.

So I guess what I'm getting here is PLEASE, next time you see someone saying some STUPID shit, or doing some STUPID shit; consider for a moment that they may be literally uneducated. Just like how you may not have known about Genshin or FFXIV or MMIW or Blood Quantum (and if you don't know about Blood Quantum you still don't because did you notice I didn't explain it?) That doesn't make you a bad person, it doesn't mean I hate you or that you're racist or whatever. All it means is that we live different lives and face different problems, I'm more aware of the problems facing Native communities because I happen to be Native. Just like how if you're Black you'd have a MUCH better understanding of the issues surrounding Black communities than I would. Which is why I urge people to educate each other, because I don't know everything, and I want to understand more, I want to be educated; I want to better support people outside of my own communities and issues; I want to be aware of things like how to talk about curtain issues without accidentally being offensive. I want to be aware of what problems people face and the solutions that we as a human race can offer them via products and aid. I want to be well rounded because it means I can then by proxy; educate others and further progress towards a better future in which people don't feel this way (on either side, the confusion about products AND the anger of someone saying stupid shit about products that help improve the lives of others) by making sure everyone is on the same level when it comes to things they don't teach you in school.

I bring up the whole Native issue because every time I say this people tell me "well they should have looked it up!" Why? People live very busy lives, if they don't know why they should care they're not going to. Not to mention there's a lot of shit out there that just isn't true; or covers up and obscures the problem; like again how Genshin's wiki states the hilichurls are based on Oni when again, the developer interviews literally SHOW the images and videos of Native people being referenced. People aren't going to just know what online information to trust right off the bat, they're not going to even know to look things up. They're not going to even know there's a problem unless someone who DOES know helps explain it to them and educate them.

You have that knowledge, and by extension; you have the power to bring upon a more educated and better future. So please don't squander that, do not let your anger blind you to the power you possess. It's okay to be frustrated, how do you think I feel when people glorify Genshin or when I see someone selling "Ala Mhigan gowns" that are literally just Native patterns. It's frustrating, it's upsetting; you're more than allowed to be mad about it. However you can get mad and bring upon no change; or you can do your best to educate the masses and MAYBE they'll actually listen.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk :P

If you've made it this far and don't want to send me anon hate, I think you're pretty cool. If you somehow made it all the way here and do want to send me anon hate; well I mean damn okay I'm a flawed person like anyone else but I guess you did just sit through all that so I don't know man, I won't respond but I can't stop you either so I mean... you could educate me about why you're upset and then I could better myself for it or you could tell me I'm a waste of oxygen I'm not the boss of you I can't tell you what to do with your time.

As a final closing note, I do want to also say it's not your JOB to educate anyone, but I do think it'd do a lot more than being mad. We don't owe anyone anything; but believe me being mad at people isn't going to fix anything either.

“ew thick water gross and weird” ITS NOT FUCKING FOR YOU!!!!! “ew why buy pre-cut vegetables when you can cut your own” ITS NOT FUCKING FOR YOU!!!!!! “I don’t need a device to help me put my socks on I’m not lazy” ITS NOT FUCKING FOR YOU !!!!!!!!! “Why drink liquid meals when you can cook them” ITS!!!!! NOT!!!!!! FOR!!!!!! YOU!!!!!!!!