#this isn't in response to any particularly recent discourse (that i've seen in my curated bubble)

[anistarrose]

I can't speak for everyone who's ever said some variation of "Disabilities will still exist under communism," and I'm sure that peeling back the intent of every such person to say it would reveal plenty of capitalist shills, true. But when disabled anti-capitalists such as myself say "Disabilities will still exist under communism," I cannot stress enough that a lot of us actually mean:

Accommodation and societal attitudes may play significant roles in the construction of disability, but are not a systemic "disability on/off switch" — I will remain chronically ill no matter how many sick days and how much free healthcare I have, for example.

An end to capitalism is a necessary condition, but not nearly sufficient condition, for the average disabled person to live with their best possible quality of life.

Corollary to 2: Communism (or any post-capitalist leftist system of your choice) is not necessarily mutually exclusive with systemic ableism.

A world where the hard work of dismantling capitalism is complete is not necessarily a world where the hard work of accommodating disabled people is complete by default.

Notice that none of these are arguments against the benefits, or urgency, of dismantling capitalism. But they are a frankly desperate plea for people to start imagining disabled people existing in their idealized post-capitalist utopias — and start seriously considering what disabled people's lives will look like in that world.

Sure, no one is forced to work a 9-to-5 to survive, and that's genuinely great. Five stars! But are the walkable cities and public transit accessible to wheelchairs and other assistive devices? Are people with allergies to all the environmentally friendly plant proteins still able to eat meat without jumping through hoops to find it, or having to "prove" their dietary need for it? Have medical ableism (and racism, and misogyny, and all other intersections) really been dismantled? Are people allowed to use single-use plastic, in forms that range from straws to syringes?

Are we, the disabled, just the acceptable collateral damage of your environmentally sustainable solarpunk utopia? Or is disabled liberation at least a consideration, but merely as a sidequest?

When I say "Disabilities will still exist under communism," it is not a defense of capitalism. It's a desperate plea for people to understand that overthrowing capitalism isn't the only thing on our plates here. It follows years of realizing the sheer magnitude to which so many leftist movements exclude me and my disabled siblings. It's a plea to start envisioning a future that includes us — a better future, that also gets better for people continuing to have disabilities.