I want to talk briefly about ableism specifically focused on intellectual capacity, as someone who is often praised for being "smart." This is a personal perspective and is not meant to be an exhaustive discussion

It's not just about idle praise I've received as an adult; my elders, not knowing any better, not only singled out my "intelligence" as an important trait, but often went as far as to imply that it was the only type of value I could provide to the world

My identity was bound up in being perceived as smarter than anyone else. I was an Asian boy so after about my third birthday I was no longer handsome; intellect alone would have to secure me a good working life and love life

Even before I started really understanding the harm of intellectual ableism, I began to understand how destructive it was to my self-understanding to need to be smarter than anyone else at all times

I was a hair breadth's away from MRAism in some ways, which makes sense because this is exactly the line MRAs feed to recruits: you may not be attractive, but you are intellectually dominant, so you are entitled to women

The common thread here is dominance. Every part of the anecdotes I'm relating further a narrative that encourages intellect as a means to dominate

It almost made me deeply sick, and being MRA-adjacent in high school certainly means that I harmed women specifically

The point is that you may not think it's a big deal, but this sort of domination quest has played a central role in some of the most well-known crimes against humanity. Slavery justification, Holocaust litmus test. Theories of intellectual dominance were there for all of it

Imo, something that so obviously undergirds and is essential to so many things we already recognize as harmful should therefore obviously not be something we should be into

It shouldn't be this controversial, but your Trump hatred manifested as intellectual superiority might be masking some shit you need to deal with to get healthy. In the meantime, not being openly ableist would probably be helpful too

I'm going to say a few things and then I'm going to mute this thread. My disabled friends have privately told me that it's helpful so even though I kind of want to delete it, I'm going to leave it up, but with some additional commentary.

I have no right to speak for any community that I'm a part of, and I know that. I wrote these tweets carefully, and I believe that I noted sufficiently that this is an outside-of-the-community perspective, and I don't believe I'm silencing or talking over anyone.

I shared personal details here that I am not all the way comfortable with sharing, but I did so because I felt like they were not only useful, but necessary to get my point across. Please respect my vulnerability and consider it in tandem with your reading of the words.

Even some of the non-negative reactions to this thread have left me feeling consumed rather than heard. Please take a moment to consider how you conduct conversations with obviously vulnerable strangers, for everyone's sake. Thank you.