Look what happened in Texas. No power due to capitalism nonsense, asked for federal assistance, got it, and continued to screw over their constituents because of capitalism nonsense. Same thing.

I was born in AB and moved away finally a decade ago. The willful ignorance and hatred of most of the white people living there towards anything that had a shred of “liberalism” finally became too much. It’s hard to care about people that just want to punish others. Smith could look at this and say, “Yes, this is it, this is now the catalyst for truly doing something about climate change” and the cowboys would vote her out and find someone else to support their hate.

It’s not about committing money to climate change. It’s about not committing money to oil, drilling, and fracking. It’s about not ignoring scientists and Indigenous people about best practices around fire stewardship. I mean, for crying out loud, how much money have oil companies made off of oil, and how much have they saved on not cleaning up their wells, just for example? The oil companies could step in and rebuild Jasper several times over, but they’re not going to, because it’s all about $$$, and the Smith govt isn’t interested in holding their feet to the fire because that’s their retirement plan (oil exec advisors).

Smh.

Let’s see some commitments to dealing with climate change first. It sounds heartless, but I’d rather not slap some bandages on a severed limb.

What you’re teaching them to do is trust “experts” on the internet to give them unbiased sources. (And we know that there’s no such thing.) You might be an expert, I’ll grant you, but what happens the next time they ask about COVID and the only person who replies sends them a link about bleach light treatments?

There’s nothing wrong with answering questions, but I’d much rather answer the question “Is this link/source legit?” than “What’s the answer?” I think that’s more ethical, and more critical thinking can come into play by explaining why a source is or isn’t good.

Okay.

Neither my nationality (I’m not American) nor my politics (I’m not liberal) have anything to do with this. The fact that I’m disabled means that this is a matter near and dear to my heart, and I can indeed be worried about more than one thing at a time (the eroding of trans rights in my own country, for example). It’s not privileged to want to discuss the impact of language.

Language changes. We’ve stopped using some expressions because we’ve realized how hurtful they are — the n word, all sorts of slurs related to being LGBTQ2S+, etc. Here’s one more. Doubling down on this is exactly like arguing that you should still be allowed to use the n word because it’s been used as an “expression” for more than half a century.

I just don’t get it. If someone tells me that a word or phrase I’m using is offensive, I’m going to apologize and stop using it. Why is this so hard? Why would people double down on wanting to offend others?

Why is it hard for you to believe? If someone is telling you that the language you’re using is harmful, is your reaction really to say, basically, that you don’t care and you’re going to continue using it?

I think that people who are unvaxed shouldn’t get priority for transplants.

Even so, it’s not inappropriate to call out ableism in any topic. If somebody was racist, or sexist, or discriminatory in any other form, would you say, “Hey, we’re not talking about racism — stop hijacking the conversation”?

EDIT: For everyone else reading this: This is what people do when they feel uncomfortable with being called out. They deflect, refuse to admit they could be wrong, and stop engaging. That’s actually a fairly normal response. It’s hard to admit that, for example, ableist comments can be as harmful as racist comments. It’s okay to stop talking as long as one doesn’t stop thinking.

I wonder if you’d be able to take a step backward and consider that the linked article was written in earnest because it reflects a valid way of looking at the world that you may never have considered before. People disagreeing with you may not actually be trolling, but presenting their own valid beliefs. Look up disability studies, disability justice, and/or crip theory.

I am. Disabled people are. People who work with disabled people are. I understand that this topic doesn’t interest you, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fucking important for a lot of us.