The US Right Is Coming for Disabled People, Dismantling Disability Rights, Education. Threat to All Civil Liberties

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Mon Mar 31, 2025, 11:09 AM - Edit history (2)

'The US right is coming for disabled people. Here’s why that threatens everyone,' The Guardian, by Sara Novic, March 30, 2025.

‘Historically, the way a government treats disabled people can be an early indicator of its broader social policy intentions.’ IMAGE: Trump’s administration is dismantling disability rights and education. History has shown this can be a warning sign for all civil liberties.
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Twelve days before Donald Trump took office, Charlie Kirk, media personality and rightwing activist, complained on his eponymous show about the presence of American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters at emergency press briefings for the Los Angeles fires. Another rightwing activist, Christopher Rufo, took his cue on X, calling interpreters “wild human gesticulators” who turned briefings into a “farce”. The rightwing theorist and Origins of Woke author Richard Hanania, quote-tweeting Rufo, declared ASL interpretation an “absurdity”.

Around this time, Elon Musk was skulking around the platform, campaigning to bring back the R-word. Use of the slur tripled on X after his post.

To those with less knowledge of disability history, these attacks might read as gross, but ultimately toothless. Activists, though, quickly sounded the alarm: the incoming administration would be coming for disabled people.

“To the deaf community, the fight for accessibility is nothing new,” said Sara Miller, deaf educator and community advocate. However, Miller said she had seen a burgeoning movement against accessibility from conservatives with large platforms, including during the first Trump administration, when the National Association of the Deaf had to sue to have ASL interpreters during 2020 Covid briefings. “But when looking at the history of the first term of [the Trump] administration, and currently how diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) is being targeted, it’s not hard to see the correlation.”

Manufacturing cultural outrage to justify policy that would have previously been considered too cruel or damaging is a staple of the far-right playbook: most recently, the US has seen the move used to bolster book bans and outlaw Black history and gender-affirming care. The play-by-play is always the same: social media followers take their marching orders, hurling discontent at the specified targets and regurgitating talking points. Eventually, the ideas become so ubiquitous they are adopted by politicians who use them to engage their base.

Finally, the talking point becomes the policy itself, and politicians claim they have a mandate from the people to justify stripping away the rights of the marginalized. Fast forward to 21 January 2025, when the accessibility page and all ASL content were removed from the White House website. Then, real-life interpreters were removed from the White House and across multiple federal agencies whose accommodations divisions were dismantled under Trump’s anti-DEIA orders. Alongside “diversity” and “women”, words like “accessibility” and “disability” have also been listed as grounds to flag or reject grant applications at the National Science Foundation, sparking concerns at other federal agencies and research institutions. And last week, the Department of Justice, which is charged with enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), began to rescind key guidance, justifying the move by suggesting that accessibility is the reason for cost-of-living increases... - READ MORE,
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2025/mar/27/us-disability-rights-trump

'Useless Eater' rhetoric returns: Trump and Musk Attack Disabled Children, March 30, 2025. (10 mins).

[multigraincracker]

1. Evil.

[Linda ladeewolf]

2. This is 1930s Germany all over again.

The part where they began murdering the disabled and the elderly as well as the imperfect. This is Eugenics.

This is one of my favorite YouTubers. She has a lot of good information on her channel, some of it for gardening.

[appalachiablue]

3. The similarities to the Nazi horrors are unmistakeable, and unbelievable in this age.

Very well done video, I wasn't familiar with the YouTuber. Thanx, I'll watch for her gardening shows.

[Linda ladeewolf]

4. To watch her gardening videos,

You’ll have to klick on the oldest, so it put them up top. The last few months she has been researching politics and doing all she can do to mitigate the horrors about to unfold.

Yes this is the fourth reich whether we like it or not. Our only options are to surrender or fight or flee. Most of us can’t flee so that leaves the other two.

[appalachiablue]

5. Got it and thanks again. The 4th Reich, what hell. My parents and

relatives endured that original nightmare and fought in WW2 like many others.

[ReRe]

21. That's what we have here:

An evil that is equal to the greatest evil known in the modern world: The one that the world fought off in WWII!!. The evil that discriminates, exterminates, exasperates, manipulates, disseminates, deregulates, terminates, annihilates, liquidates, exterminates, decimates, humiliates, deteriorates, eliminates and on and on and on. It's the most evil of all evils. It must be resoundingly defeated once again. And it's names are Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Congress Republicans, at least 3 members of the SC and all of their followers. They are a danger to all mankind.

[wordstroken]

19. Yes, Parkrose Permaculture is one of my fave YouTubers, too.

[Linda ladeewolf]

23. When I'm upset, the Norm for me some days,

I go back and watch her videos on permaculture and gardening and I feel an instant sense of peace. I’m unable to garden at the moment, but when the weather clears a bit I’m getting out and setting it up. Will have to fight the deer, but I think, I may have that figured out. 🙏🏻

[wordstroken]

26. I know what you mean. Some of her videos are very calming and peaceful.

[SheltieLover]

6. Like SS, pukes have hated the ADA

I think they actually have dreams about rendering it dead.

[hlthe2b]

7. Trump has a severely disabled nephew who he has tried to rob of the $$ and care laid out in his father's will.

This is the son of Mary Trump's brother, Fred Trump and they have had to fight constantly for his basic care. So, Trump has nothing but contempt (see his comments about appearing with soldiers missing limbs or otherwise severely injured) for those who may have disabilities or serious illnesses.

His attitudes, along with the eugenics-promoting members of his own MAGAT movement and administration, are no better than Hitler's ilk. They just aren't at the public discussion of intentional harm or worse, "removal." But for those still arguing the political strategies we should adopt from the LAST election--this could well be on the horizon. Trump believes himself to be the consequence-unencumbered dictator he claimed he would be and which Robert's SCOTUS has promised him.

As hysterical as this sounds, reading it back, we can't afford to assume the BEST when he openly discusses the WORST.

[Hope22]

8. Too stupid to know that we are all only temporarily able bodied.

Lived through it with my sister who was a strong horse woman with a high paying job. It all went to hell in her mid forties and soon she was being pushed in a wheelchair. People looked at us like she was a freak and had been in a chair her whole life. We could read it on their faces. The whole experience was an eye opener to all of us! It ended but it did not end well!

[appalachiablue]

15. For sure, all of us can experience a disability, from age if not more. Sorry

about the experiences regarding your sister. People can be ignorant and ugly unfortunately, but there are some kind understanding ones out there. We need more of them. TC.

[Hope22]

22. Thank you for the kind words.

We met caring people along the way and the entire experience was life altering. I was the sister that was the odd man out growing up but when she chose who she wanted to be in her corner she picked me and I was by her side and fought her fights when she couldn’t speak. My promise to her was to ‘have some fun’ every day..it wasn’t going to be the whole day but at some point we would have a good long laugh!! ! She was brave and taught me so much. Peace and love to you! 💗

[chowder66]

9. Forcing women to give birth to disabled babies while these people make sure that the suffering will be maximized.

[Historic NY]

10. It all part of the "Let them Die Crowd"

part of the Ron Paul revolution.

[appalachiablue]

16. Yes and cruel Ayn Rand's views and libertarianism.

[progressoid]

11. I always flash back to Rush Limbaugh mocking Michael J Fox

[appalachiablue]

17. Ugly, nasty Rush, shame on him.

[AllaN01Bear]

12. why do we always have to go backwards?

more on the street and i can hear them whine "
but what about the meless" i fear we all may be on the street exxcept for the uber rich. this , i throw i nmy usual snork.

[MLWR]

13. Like the nazis before them, they are such a great bunch of christians. (NOT)

[generalbetrayus]

14. The early birth control movement in the US was fueled by eugenicists, including Margaret Sanger.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/11/06/lesser-known-history-birth-control/

NOTE: I am pro-birth control; this is just posted to give some insight into the history of the war against disability in the US.

[Linda ladeewolf]

24. Margaret Sanger has been used against all of us.

No woman, of any race should be forced to give birth. Sangers motives were not pure, but no one should be forced to have children they don’t want, can’t afford, or are incapable of caring for.

The only reason they want so many born, I believe is so they can kill them off in wars, and use the best for breeding. We are like livestock to the elites.

[geardaddy]

18. So what is TSF going to do with Hot Wheels Abbott? nt

[Crowman2009]

20. Wow, that's so Christ-like of them!

Of course Al Franken said it best when stating that rethugs worshipped supply-sidre Jesus.

[generalbetrayus]

25. Republican Jesus

[Granny Blue]

27. 0ne fact lost in the whirlwind

is that many disabled people, especially women and children, aquired their injuries as a result of abuse. As bodies age, the disabilities become more pronounced, but the widespread misogyny among society has contaminated the medical field, meaning that many people seeking care are treated as liars, or hysterics, even after their injuries are diagnosed on MRIs. The insurers don’t want to be bothered, therefore the doctors don’t either. I was injured at 4 years old, but managed to struggle through the first 37 years of my life before the loss of function in my hands and upper body knocked me out of the work force. The spine damage was diagnosed 6 years ago when I was 64. I am on Medicare and Medicaid in a major metropolitan area and I am still looking for care that will allow me to retain some measure of independence as I age. I think that Trump and Musk will end that quest and leave me no option but suicide. I know that many people of all races and genders are in the same position. I fear that the cruelty and hatred fostered and revealed by the Trump regime will create many more victims of abuse and condemn us all to ives that are “brutal, nasty and short”. I have no solutions to offer. I fear for my autistic grandson.