Can we acknowledge that certain shit isn’t ableism? That the term has become this catchall for anyone losing an argument on the internet? That an otherwise valid concept has been hijacked by self-diagnosed preteens who split their time between complaining about how oppressed they are for having ADHD and spending hours writing Dr. Who fan fiction? 

Can we acknowledge that simply identifying disabilities as less desirable than normal functionality isn’t ableism? That thinking that way would effectively demonize the development of a cure for those disabilities in certain circles? That because I don’t want to be blind or deaf doesn’t inherently create a systematic oppression of those who are by somehow inherently reducing a person with a disability to that disability?

Can we acknowledge that calling someone stupid is merely the recognition of a person’s mental limit and not in itself a handicap like mental retardation or Down syndrome? That by calling someone without a disability stupid because they’re saying something stupid isn’t insensitive in the same way that using the term “retard” pejoratively is? That words like “idiot” are not derived from any ancient word historically used to describe a kind of disability? That otherwise fully capable people being idiots isn’t a protected subject in the same way that someone with an actual disability is? That disagreeing with that last sentence is, by that logic, ableist because it directly assaults my ability to understand the subject in the way you’d prefer I did?

Can we please acknowledge that?