I’m a crazy person. I’m also affected by a motor disorder that makes me a very obviously crazy person.
Before I went nuts, I was a neuroscientist. Before then, I worked in rehab, mostly focused on adults with traumatic brain injury. Disability is a field I’m familiar with.
I’m not in America; I’m on the other side of the world. But we live in an interconnected, viral reality, and my country is particularly prone to echoing American trends. Australian fascism is already obviously gaining momentum, drawing both inspiration and funding from the USA.
My motion disorder is mostly Tourettic, although there’s a touch of Parkinsonism to it as well. I twitch, and squeak, and my limbs fly about of their own volition.
The exact effects move around over time, but there are two consistent features.
I have poor control over my left arm, and very poor control over my right hand.
The left hand is fine, but the arm flies about all over the place. The right arm isn’t fine, but it usually binds itself to my chest rather than flying about. Even when that arm is working, I only have feeling and full function in a thumb and one finger of that hand. My right leg tends to lose coordination at awkward moments, too.
The summary version of that paragraph of whinging is: I can’t fight worth shit these days. I can’t even make a proper fist.
The first victims of fascism are often the most vulnerable. The activists of ADAPT know their history, and they are fighting as hard as they can to stop it from happening again.
Don’t make them do it alone.
