Why is there a cohort of Americans on the lookout for people using wheelchairs just because they’re lazy. How did so many people come to believe that might be a thing
@christapeterso And then if someone was using a wheelchair just because they wanted to...so what??
I work in retail I had a lady that wanted me to track down a guy for using one of the smart carts because she believed he wasn't disabled. I tried to tell her that he could have an invisible disability, something that she's not going to tell by looking at him and sometimes people with certain disabilities may be able to walk and then pass out suddenly, you don't know. She didn't want to hear it. I had to stop myself from going off on her.
@christapeterso I need a wheelchair to be able to actually leave my house to do things because of my lymphoedema. I'm also fat - and lymphoedema isn't exactly a slimming condition. One of the things that stopped me from admitting that I need a chair is people mocking me for being fat in a chair.
@christapeterso I knew a senior and pretty well-known academic in my fiekd(s) who believes walking sticks are not real because: they had a leg injury and needed one for a bit, and of course then healed. Therefore, everybody else is just refusing to heal.
@christapeterso Ever seen them side eye people who can sometimes walk an amount but need a wheelchair for when they can't or distance is too far? Good lord any niceties go out the windows when they see them stand up for a little while
@christapeterso In the UK the sketch show Little Britain did incalculable damage to disabled people by depicting a character where the whole joke was he'd get out of his wheelchair when people weren't looking. You wouldn't believe it now but it was so popular at the time it was inescapable.
@christapeterso Americans greatest fear is that other people might not be suffering enough
@christapeterso I think it's the same people who get upset at employees like cashiers sitting down. Also have you ever met anyone who gets upset at Braille? As if people are refusing to use their eyes out of laziness rather than being blind
@christapeterso I'm convinced this, and other similar beliefs/actions, comes from how the US was formed. We have this mythos built from the romanticizing "backwoods/rural living".