I have Crohn’s and severe ADHD.
I have days I could climb Mt. Everest, then days that I can barely crawl to my kitchen.
Everyone in this capitalist shithole, EVEN SO-CALLED LEFTISTS!, is so ableist and I can’t stand it.
People assume that you’re either utterly incapacitated and someone must be taking care of you—the government if not your parents—or that you’re just dramatizing how bad off you are. Your good days are used as this benchmark you must always live up to.
Between my chronic conditions, rebellious nature, and welp, the fact that people are now expected to spend months or years job-hunting because these picky bastards don’t give anyone a chance while they waffle forever hoping their “purple squirrel” candidate arrives—solopreneurship was always for me. I will happily take it over a normal job. I always wanted my own business and don’t care to own some massive multimillion dollar company.
But it’s exhausting in a different way. No paid time off. No sick leave. A client who needs something right now can find a million other writers and marketers, so I can lose business if a flareup or burnout lasts too long.
If this society didn’t force me to constantly hustle, I would ironically be able to contribute more because I could get some fucking rest! And subsequently have more good days.
If we had universal basic income and I wasn’t forced to give my time and health to yet another marketing agency or SaaS company, I could produce so much more and contribute to my community. Take better care of myself during flare ups. But that would be considered unproductive, luxurious, and not adhering to the outdated bullshit 40-hour work week model.
It’s 2023. 15-20 hours a week is all some of us can handle, but it’s also all some companies and industries need.
Anyway, think about how ableism factors into why we don’t have nice things. Make disability justice part of your anti-work credo: we all deserve some goddamn rest, but some of us need more just to function.