#fake claiming is ableist

[mxmorbidmidnight]

To the people who see someone with a mobility aid or other accessibility tool and think they can tell if the persons faking, please shut the fuck up. Often these people’s “LOOK THEYRE FAKING” moment is when they see something such a wheelchair stand up or move their leg, they see someone with a cane not using it for a moment or holding it, a deaf person who can speak, a blind person whose eyes don’t “look” blind, someone with a service dog who is not visibly disabled.

The truth is you can’t tell if someone’s faking needing a mobility aid or tool by looking at them, how can you when you don’t know what they use it for?

With my cane some days I rely on it heavily, I use it for every step and cannot walk without it. Some days my body is fully paralysed, numb, weak, fatigued and in pain. However some days I can run and jump and walk just fine. Whenever I’m in public I bring my cane with me for safety, in case I have a sudden issue. If you see me carrying my cane and not using it, that doesn’t mean that I’m faking. If I’m walking through a narrow space and I pick up my cane, that doesn’t mean that I don’t actually need it.

Same goes for any other disability. Tics manifest in different ways, not seeing me tic for a while doesn’t mean I’m faking it. I have tics and not even I could tell if someone’s tics are fake. If I can’t tell then you, a person who knows very little about tics most definitely cannot.

Perhaps you meet autistic person who enjoys social settings or makes eye contact, a person with adhd that seems like they have everything under control, someone with depression who looks “fine”, a person with any neurodivergence who doesn’t act like your mums friends sisters brothers sons hamsters beauticians gynaecologists nephew who also has said diagnosis.

Disabilities affect people in unique ways, you cannot know someone’s experiences and medical history just by looking at them.

Fake claiming is ableism disguised as disability advocacy.

[crazycatsiren]

I honestly can't think of where some of y'all are getting this idea from, that people faking being disabled is a huge problem. In my close to 37 years of life now I've yet to run into a single case of an actual person faking a disability.

I can come up with at least a dozen reasons off the top of my head at any given moment for why disabled people are so often not believed, and disability fakers ain't one of them.

[satellites-halo]

Hot(?) take in the cripplepunk community but people faking disabilities does cause actual harm, along with fakeclaiming. It isn't black and white.

I've met people who caused me to be unable to get taken seriously because they faked a disability for so long that people believed that person over me when it came to needs I had. It caused me to be seen as trying to be worse than them, as someone trying to win the 'disability olympics', when in reality I was just actually fucking disabled. (Before you get on me over saying they faked, this person admitted it a few years later)

Watching them trivialize my disability and turn it into something 'fun' was absolutely soul crushing. It hurt me and many other disabled people who knew them so badly. Y'know what also hurt us? The influx of people fakeclaiming us after this faker admitted to having been lying.

Idk I feel like the amount of "fake claiming always does more harm" posts isn't necessarily accurate, or are made by people who haven't had to interact with a genuine faker in person

[poolboyservice]

no full offense, but why the fuck is r/fakedisordercringe still a thing?

[ganja-hq]

This probably relates to a post I made earlier but genuinely do not understand ppl that r like "ough my ed isn't valid cuz I'm fat" girl?? Is ur cancer not valid cuz ur not bald too?? Is ur MS not valid cuz u can kinda walk???? Normal ppl don't think about if their deadly illness is valid or not I think. I diagnose you with Not Normal Disease/Food Subtype/Valid Subtype ICD code F69420

[hermitcraftx]

the only reason dream everrrr had a platform or was popular is bc everyone made thirst traps of. his blond fake sona for years (he has fucking BROWN HAIR???) and then when he revealed he was a pedophile creepy weirdo right after he revealed his face everyone that made a career making daddy dream manhunt NSFW didn't stop blogging because some people would fuck steaming piles of human garbage if it was white and had abs. like every dream stan I've ever met is perpetually living in 2021 and dream is too and if that's not the biggest sign of the world's most colossal fumble I don't know what is. genuinely the only talent dream has is being uncannily manipulative and vague to try and get away with everything and play the victim later on after he says genuine rancid dogshit but he's not even the best at that. genuinely he's the definition of a career made by other people and if he thinks for a second his little white suburban fake redneck yuppy mr beast wannabe that he's going to successfully be a right wing grifter after being known as the gogy wogy uwu yaoi queerbait streamer (and yes I do think he's genuinely the ONLY real person that word applies to) then he's fucking insane. ain't nobody fucks with him. he's a footnote in Minecraft history. the worst people alive in the community don't fuck with him. tommyinnit is having tea with jacksepticeye and doing comedy shows and having fun with all the remaining good internet ogs and regularly pulling lots of views meanwhile the only way dream stays relevant out of his cesspool wretch infested pedophile apologist echo chamber that is his fanbase is regularly triggering dsmp drama to feel sorry for himself. can't do manhunt without cheating and it wasn't even an original idea another abuser took that from him can't do an smp tommyinnit made that for him it really seems to me on a psychological level that to a degree some of that cdream shit wasn't roleplay because dream knew the most memorable part of the biggest part of his career would be tommyinnit forever and always. and now he has to fight for tommyinnit beef scraps saying slurs and shit when he's not even involved getting way too comfortable after Trump gets elected when tommy barely pays him more mind than he paid Logan Paul when he WORKED with dream for YEARS. tommyinnit gets to be known as the man who fostered love and care for his fan base, an all around good person and joy to be around and a ray of light in the dark space that is the mcyt space, and a guy never backed down on his morals and ethics whereas dreams only claim to fame now are being a cheating bigoted ableist creepy pedophile-esque freak with no concept of proper boss/employee conduct or creator/fan conduct with a Republican bastard and a sexual assaulter as friends who was seen as mildly hot by teenagers in 2021 without y'know being able to comprehend you're not supposed to reciprocate. and I know it keeps him up at night because otherwise he wouldn't try and regain relevancy by starting shit with Tommy every 6 months. is it because tommy is an adult now, clay??? when people look back on fond memories of fandom in 20-30 years not a single person will be able to look at anything dream has been apart of without grimacing not even his fans because I know all those arguments on behalf of a nasty ass pervert will not be fond memories. the only original thing he's done is say the r slur- oh wait. I mean groom minors- oh wait. I mean be a bigoted racist- oh wait. I mean have gross misconduct with a fan- oh wait. I mean start drama a lot in hopes of getting attention- oh wait. genuinely the most pathetic shadow nothingburger ass of a man I've ever seen in my life may dogs eat his face off in the middle of the night.

[wis-art]

about salem from my twitter

here are my thoughts, me and salem have been talking a lot in private about everything that has happened to him over the years, and just how much people act entitled to dehumanize salem as a person over rumors of him being a weird groomer pedophile, which he isn't and never has been, and I would not be defending a pedophile on my platform 👍

Salem is NOT faking any of his disabilities (another claim people love to make as if he is a psychotic person just for the fun of it and just to get out of this hot water, which you know is EXTREMELY ableist) and any time any of this would come up in the conversation he would just freak out and have a mental breakdown reliving these horrible fucking memories of being harassed by all his peers and friends. It is debilitating, not just funny haha neurospicy mental illness. But actually required to take medicine to function and struggling with not being delusional. Hearing all these things people said about him on the internet made him believe it and he has ended up in psych ward due to this harassment many times, not to mention countless nights i spent calming him down and keeping him company just so he isn't alone with these thoughts. When people we have never heard of claim he is some kind of machiavellian evil person who orchestrated all this shit just to manipulate people into liking him and somehow tricked his friends into liking him, it really is disheartening and disgusting thing to say about a disabled black queer person in need of support and help from his community. And believe me people tried their best to sever him from any kind of support over the years, doxxing, harassment, trying to shame his friends for helping him you name it he has went through this.

This isn't just a cautionary tale, this is life ruining controversy that the internet put the random irresponsible 19 year old he was through. He is not what people claim him to be, and i am sick and tired of just how people hijack queer ocmmunities against themselves to fight their representation in media and art online. A lot of these rumors spread from lots of right wing spaces through the queer community and people just ate this fascist meal up.

I am glad he is still here and kicking, if it was anybody else put through this shit i am afraid they wouldn't have made it. But salem is strong and awesome and an amazing person, who has survived and is thriving too.

anyways, fuck twitter and everyone who has harassed him

[mxmorbidmidnight]

Use the mobility aid. Pay no heed to that terrible voice in your head dear. Your lovely self does not deserve this, does not deserve be to be told they do not have the right to make their life easier. Just because you do not always need a mobility aid, or because your disability is not as severe as others does not mean you should not use it. If a mobility aid assists you then you are who it was made for. All I want you to worry about dear is how you can help yourself. I am so proud of you, those who fake claim you or dismiss your disabilities are ableists. They will claim to be disability advocates however it is entirely clear all they do to our communities is harm. They do not speak for the disabled community. We stand behind you, you do not deserve such mistreatment.

What you do deserve is to take care of yourself. You deserve the the independence a mobility aid gives, the stability and the confidence. You do not deserve to rot away, you do not desrve to ache in pain, nor do you deserve to stumble and fall.

You have a right to mobility aids and disability support. I love you so much, I know I do not know many of you but I can assure now that you’ve got a friend on your side who has a lot of experience in cursing ableists.

[lemony-ink]

Maybe if you type in all caps someone will listen to your desperate cries for attention

Not this time though, boo womp ❌

so many introjects in our system don't want to make their source known because people are so weird to them when they find out.

fictives are not your chance to roleplay or force us into your fanfic fantasies

[hope-on-syscourse]

(Thanks to the Howling Wolves Systems from our userbox blog for bringing this up to us btw)

The way people try to defend non traumagenic plurality is fucking insane

“If you collect things but don’t claim to be autistic you’re ableist”

COLLECTING THINGS ISNT EXCLUSIVE TO AUTISM WTF??? 😭😭

“If you have a runny nose but say you don’t have a cold then you’re faking”

A runny nose? Is that really the best example you could think of? A runny nose isn’t exclusive to colds you numbat

Mod J then asked for sources and they answered…

For starters, Tulpamancy is closed Tibetan practice. Anyone who is doing Tulpamancy and isn’t and Tibetan Monk or whatever they’re called IS BEING CULTURALLY APPROPRIATIVE.

The third link has Psychosis in its link, which is more than enough for me to call bullshit on this persons sources.

YOU CANNOT BE A SYSTEM WITHOUT TRAUMA. BEING PLURAL IS INHERENTLY DISORDERED. YOU CAN ONLY BE PLURAL IF YOU HAVE A CDD.

ENDOS AND THEIR SUPPORTERS NEED TO FUCKING TOUCH GRASS AND STOP BEING SO CHRONICALLY ONLINE

[ilikekidsshows]

did you see the spoilers for ml season 6 where there’s a new girl with a prosthetic leg and that leg ends up broken and marinette’s involved somehow? honestly i’m gonna give marinette the benefit of the doubt for now and just assume this is either a huge misunderstanding/accident or extremely misleading spoiler just because this is a serious thing, like I was super disappointed with how her character’s written in season 4 and 5 but I just don’t want to believe the writers would come up with something like this when this would easily be one of the worst things she’s ever done (if she’s actually responsible). I saw the spoiler on TikTok and there’s several explanations I’ve seen in the comments:

the new girl (idr her name) is lila/cerise in disguise and she wants to ruin marinette’s reputation (iirc the writers said she’s nice and not a villain but maybe they just don’t want to spoil the plot for obvious reasons)

marinette didn’t have bad intentions/it was an accident/misunderstanding/spoilers are too misleading/not enough information yet

and my least favorite explanation…the new girl was trying to get with adrien (some fans are saying this to say this is all part of her scheme to get adrien to break up with marinette and date her instead but some are saying this to justify marinette if she was actually at fault for this)

I think my main concern is how the writers are going to address this. What if they try to justify it if marinette really was at fault? Or what if it’s all a misunderstanding but then they put the new girl to the side to focus on how sad this is for marinette? Are they going to be able to address this in a way that doesn’t come across as ableist while also not making their protagonist look like a bad person? What do you think?

---

I just saw the leak, but at first I couldn't find it, so I’d already written a response before that, so here's me describing the possible nightmare scenarios before the writers proved me right about their priorities:

Like, hot take, but it doesn’t matter what the new girl is doing, messing with her mobility aid would still be absolutely unforgivable. Even if it’s Lila in disguise, Marinette has already exhibited so much ableism in trying to prove her disabilities aren’t real that I would just say that the writers shouldn’t be allowed to as much as mention any disability ever again. “A person claiming they’re disabled could be lying to get special considerations, so make sure to check any claims of disability, no matter how awful you come across for doing it,” is not a lesson that has any place in a children’s cartoon, even accidentally. And that’s exactly what any scenario with a girl faking a disability / using their disability to get closer to Adrien would entail as well, the idea that we should be suspicious of disabled people trying to “cheat” their way to things that “belong” to us.

But, like, even if it actually is going to be aiming to be an actual lesson in disabilities where it’s all a misunderstanding/mistake, the thing is that, lately, I’ve been looking back at the “lessons” in this show, even in the earlier seasons, and I just don’t have faith in these writers’ ability to deliver any kind of moral to kids in a consistent way, unless they’re going to have a character directly talk to the screen to explain what the moral is.

Let’s use ‘The Mime’ as an example. The scenario in this episode is that Marinette, through her clumsiness, deletes the most important video Alya had filmed so far, and then spends the rest of the episode trying to recreate the video in order to cover up for her mistake. In the end, it turns out there was no problem because Alya had already saved a copy of the video because she expected something like Marinette deleting it to happen, so she was never even mad or disappointed, but Marinette still sets up Alya to get a one-on-one interview with Ladybug. What did Marinette learn in this episode exactly?

The most good faith interpretation of the episode is that the point is that you own up and make up for your mistakes, hence Marinette setting Alya up to get an interview with Ladybug. But this message is muddled up by the fact that, even before the retool, the writers didn’t want Marinette suffering any real consequences for messing up, or to show her messing up in a way that couldn’t be “fixed”, so the video was actually safe and no irreparable damage was done. Alya had foreseen that Marinette would mess up and planned accordingly. This takes the wind out of the sails of the lesson because of course Marinette would do something nice for Alya, who’s such a considerate friend who never gets mad at her and plans around Marinette’s flaws. It’s a pretty different thing to go out of your way to apologise or make things up to someone who is actually mad at you for a good reason, and it requires a lot more courage. The situation in ‘The Mime’ is the easiest version of this situation imaginable for Marinette, but completely unrealistic for anyone facing this kind of situation in real life.

So, with this kind of previous showing back when I still had faith in this show, how would I expect them to deal with Marinette accidentally messing with someone’s mobility aid post-retool? I’d expect a lot of focus on how upsette Marinette is, because that’s the show’s number one priority outside of the love quest, with the show going out of it’s way to make it very clear that Marinette didn’t mean to, she feels really bad about it and she’s scared of how the new girl will react. At the end of the episode she would gather her courage and face the music, and it turns out the new girl was actually getting a new mobility aid that very same day and she wouldn’t have needed the old one any longer anyway. And then Marinette will maybe make some gesture of friendship that the new girl gladly accepts, no hard feelings. Any normal person would still be pissed about their expensive mobility aid being messed with, but the writers of this show never have characters react normally when the normal thing to do is not instantly forgive Marinette. So this scenario would be making things easy for Marinette, but completely unrealistic for the viewing audience.

Simply put, I really, really really hope the sneak preview is purposefully misleading, as they tend to be, and the crew doesn’t try to tackle the topic of physical disabilities with their tendency to favor the perspective of their coddled, able-bodied protagonist.

—

After seeing the leak:

So, like, fucking hell, way to further sully the idea that Marinette ever took her job as Ladybug seriously. Just to make herself look like the victim when she’s caught stalking someone (something she insisted last season she’d stopped doing), she goes so far as faking being Akumatized, transforming into Ladybug and jumping right in the middle of the field, of this girl's path, to scream about an Akuma attack. Like, the reveal that Sublime knew there was actually no Akuma and that Tomoe apparently made the leg less sturdy on purpose doesn’t make it better when Marinette got Sublime slippery and then startled her enough to make her slip. People break perfectly fine legs from slipping, it's why anti-skid devices sell so well in winter. All of this being an accident doesn’t make it okay, and Marinette sure as hell didn’t have anything close to those “good intentions” her stans love to attribute to her.

But, of course, her victim is going to be a perfect flawless angel who wasn't even upset about the stalking, instead defending Marinette to Ladybug, just in case saying: “this girl I know pretended to be Akumatized because she was caught stalking me” might make Marinette look bad to the audience. She also instantly reassures Ladybug, the one who actually caused her to slip, who hasn't done anything more than stare at her slack-jawed, because god forbid anyone ever say anything about Marinette that isn't validation or praise while she's too busy freaking out about herself.

Like, Marinette causes Sublime to break her leg, and we instantly see the victim in this situation go: “I’m okay, I’m not hurt”, while Marinette just stands there having her personal little panic attack. Like, a girl lost her leg, and the writers still try to sell Marinette as the injured party by having the victim insist she's okay while Marinette is having another one of her manipulative, please-feel-sorry-for-me-audience emotional breakdowns. The writers seriously made Marinette’s victim prioritize reassuring her over anything else.

I knew the writers were going to have Marinette be instantly forgiven, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so instant that she didn’t even get to finish processing her fuck-up. Or to go so out of their way to make Marinette seem less at fault because, like, Tomoe messing with the leg on purpose isn't a villain scheme, it was just to make Marinette look better in comparison.

The writers have this ability where, when I write down what I think would be a very likely way for one of their stories to go very badly, they do just that while still managing to make it worse.

[piosplayhouse]

It's kind of funny how the dj crazytimes thing isnt just a spot on representation of eurodance but also the Tumblr community as a whole on a meta level.

Exhibit A. TikTok meme the entire site becomes obsessed with overnight to the point that some people think it's just fake and they're being goncharoved again.

Exhibit B. People already complaining about it being overdone 3 days after it was created

Exhibit C. Multiple anon messages in the tag whistleblowing that the guy is ableist for making young sheldon-esque skits about "annoying and unaccomodating kids", followed by an array of both posts claiming "something felt off about him all along" and that "posts claiming something felt off about him all along are full of shit they just didn't like the meme"

Exhibit D. Americans debating whether or not the song is racist

[talking-tics]

Fake claiming people who had tics in 2020/21 needs to stop and here's why:

first of all. I'm against fake claiming in general. you have no idea what people's situations or lives look like. you have no right to tell them what medical conditions they do or don't have. but. let's lay out some reasons why you may have seen a lot more people with tics then vs now.

***

- firstly. it was 'trending'. if you were seeking out people with tics to gawk at. you were going to see them.

- talking about tics brings them out. people were making videos and content about their ts/tics, and so naturally, they were ticcing in those videos. that does not mean that they must tic all of the time in order for them to have tics.

- I spent years trying medications, waiting to see a neurologist. getting on different doses, etc. before I found something that works. when I'm on my meds, I usually don't tic hardly at all. that very well could be the case for some of these people as well.

- tic disorders wax and wane. it's a well known part of the disorders. tics can be bad for a while, and then almost non-existent for a while. and then come back. it's normal.

- tics also tend to get worse in times of high stress and anxiety (global pandemic??!)

- tourettes is not the only tic disorder. the options aren't only. tourettes or faker. there is such thing as transient/provisional tic disorder, which is a very real tic disorder that lasts for less than a year. there are also other causes of tics such as fnd.

- it's a well known phenomenon that people's tics sometimes improve in adulthood. it doesn't mean that they were faking before. it just means that they got a lucky break.

***

fake claiming is gross, and this mindset only does harm to the tic disorder community. it's ableist and ignorant to assume someone is faking just because you're uneducated and think that you know more than the person who actually has the disorder.

please try to support the people you know, and the people in your community with tics. it's rough out here for us.

[anti-terf-posts]

In the comment section of a post about plurality (person in the screenshot is a self claimed terf)

[Image ID 1: A Tumblr textpost that reads "The block button is right there. You're actively spreading mental illness on the internet on a site full of impressionable children. /end ID 1]

[Image ID 2: A Tumblr texpost htat reads "You're just you. There is no we. The rest of it is demons. Please get help" /end ID 2]

Oh my god ??? That's such an awful thing to say to someone :(( I'm tired of people (cough cough ableists) telling people that they're faking their mental illnesses. YOU DON'T GET TO DECIDE WHO HAS WHAT.

Anyways, to my systems, you're all valid. Just because some random stranger on the internet is deciding to be a piece of shit, it doesn't mean that you're faking it. 🫂

[khloethecatsworld]

I honestly just want to get this off my chest. So this person on YouTube just went under one of my community posts about my cancer treatment and started judging me for turning to YouTube as a way of support.my treatment goals. They were all like ‘I have 10k subscribers and barely make any money. I honestly don’t know if this is even a legitimate claim.’ I have a lot to say about this because I’m literally one step away from committing myself to the hospital under the stress of being terminal. Anyways..

First and foremost, not everyone, actually not most, who say they’re terminally ill and/or disabled are faking it. Most people who say they have a disability/illness, wait for it…. are in fact telling the truth. This whole being suspicious of other people’s disabilities is inherently ableist. Believing that other people can’t possibly have that comes from a place of being uncomfortable around these ailments. I get that there have been cases where people have scammed, and that’s created public panic, but that’s not the norm.

Secondly, I wouldn’t just be creating a YouTube that’s literally free for everyone to subscribe and share if I wanted to capitalize off an illness. I’d likely have a GoFubdMe setup and already asking for donations but I DON’T. I’m trying to think of free ways for people to help me get to my treatment in the U’S.

I’m literally losing subscribers on YouTube because people are buying what she’s saying. I’m currently applying to the provincial government to have the treatment portion of our expenses covered. Now she’s created a panic and people are becoming unwilling to help me.

People need to stop being suspicious of disabled people. It’s inherently ableist and disgusting actually. Start supporting us now because one day you’ll be us in one capacity or another.

[endosys-culture-is]

endo sys culture is *us, existing happily as a system* *fakeclaimers arrive* "ABLEIST" "i mean we dont personally call sysmeds ableist..." "STOP FAKING DID" "we dont have DID we aren't disordered" "YOU CANT BACK UP YOUR CLAIMS" "i read part of the icd-11. it literally says in the DID section 'the presence of two or more distinct personality states does not always indicate the presence of a mental disorder. in certain circumstances the presence of multiple personality states is not experienced as aversive and is not associated with impairment in functioning. a diagnosis of DID should not be assigned in these cases.' additionally, 'onset of DID can occur across the lifespan.' "ENDOS JUST LINK TO PLURALPEDIA AND CARRDS AND SHIT!" "i don't link to pluralpedia as a source for medical evidence of non-disordered plurality, and i only do with carrds when they have reputable sources." "YOU GIVE US HARMFUL STEREOTYPES AND MAKE PEOPLE TAKE DID LESS SERIOUSLY! Oh, and it annoys me so much that all endos are radqueers and every endo system has a DSMP fictive." "..." (Not to say that you can't have dsmp fictives, just using that as an example lol)

GENIUNELY!!! like someone telling us were faking wont stop us from existing lol, sorry

-🩶💚