Thread by @crippledscholar

Why do so many ableds who want to seem progressive on the #strawban always seem to expect that their willingness to acknowledge that we have a right to exist and to have access to needed accessibility tools means that they can put the work of finding real solutions on us

"oh, I don't want disabled people to suffer, please tell me what we should do instead" is a pretty common "progressive" response and I'm sick of it

start by not expecting people who are just trying not to die to have to fix the problem particularly because the fucking #strawban won't even do anything for the environment anyway Y'all seem happy enough with lies instead of actual solutions

I don't know how many times I can say that straw bans will not reduce plastic

I don't know how more people haven'r clued in to that actually pretty obvious reality

seriously, @adriangrenier @lonelywhale I really need you to explain what you think a straw ban is actually going to do?

How is it going to benefit the environment when nothing about how the bans are rolling out actually reduces plastic at all?

How did you convince petroleum companies to leave that money making substance in the ground so that it couldn't simply be used to make other potential more dangerous plastic products?

How is it that you justify continuing to push this idea when you know the price is so high for many disabled people?

How do you not look at the utter hypocrisy of straw banning Vancouver handing out free bottles of water to people who knew perfectly well in advance that they might be spending hours outside in a hot day?

Why are you so insistent that the cost of saving the environment must be paid by those who can least afford it?

and to be clear I think @lonelywhale has absolutely used the outcry and controversy to falsely legitimize their campaign

@lonelywhale & other orgs pushing for straw bans absolutely benefit from framing this debate as being "disabled people vs. the environment" but that framing is a lie

because for it to be true straw bans would actually need to work, they won't

At this point the straw bans can only be explained by widespread cognitive dissonance

People were told that straw bans were good and would help the environment

celebrities like @adriangrenier helped make that idea viral

and unfortunately people sometimes like ideas not because they are good but because they are popular

People were sold the lie that straw ban would help the environment and that they wouldn't be a major sacrifice because no one really needs a straw after all

except no part of that statement is actually true

but people felt righteous about it and unfortunately righteousness trumps logic and critical think far to often

I have not actually had a single constructive conversation with someone who advocates for the straw ban

I'm not saying that no one's ideas on it have changed many people have

but people who strongly advocate for it, the people who constantly drop into my mentions to suggest inaccessible straw alternatives for the thousandth time that day, it doesn't matter what you say they won't actually engage with it

You can point out how little of all plastic pollution is straws

You can point out how straws are not a particularly dangerous form of plastic trash so removing straws without some corollary drop in the amount of plastic trash basically accomplishes nothing

You can point out the impact on disabled people

You can even point to other things that could be banned like party balloons (a particularly dangerous form of trash that is responsible for a lot of deaths on their own)

You know how people respond?

More often than not they will either reply with a screenshot or a link to the video of that turtle with a straw up its nose

Which proves more than anything that people's opinions on the straw ban are not reasoned, they are emotional

Don't get me wrong. That video is disturbing.

I just know that banning straws will not really help much because that video isn't of a trend of turtles snorting straws.

Turtles are threatened by plastic generally (though particularly by plastic bags and balloons. Bans of the latter have actually been rejected for some reason.

To effectively save those turtles you claim to love so much, we'd have to significantly cut down on microplastics in the ocean

a straw ban will not achieve this, it's not even a step in the right direction

a straw ban is nothing but environmental theater

The greatest accomplishment of the straw ban is genuinely the bigotry it has emboldened against disabled people

So, I beg people

If you actually care about the environment. Please make a viral campaign that will actually help it

and while you're designing that campaign remember that disabled do and will live in whatever greener solution you create and we deserve a seat at the table

not to be thrown out like the trash you are so afraid of

If you insist on useless piecemeal single use plastic bans

I promise you that you will fail but also be aware of the real cost of such bans on disabled people

here is what it would cost me

gofundme.com/ableismsucks