The more we’ve grown into activism, the more we’ve felt the coldest take is “X person/group of people are making stigma worse” when X is not in positions of power. Even more so when X is part of the very community that “stigma” is directed against.

If every person “faking DID” dissapeared, stigma would not go away. If every system “spreading misinformation” disappeared, stigma would not go away. If every plural system that doesn’t fit a perfect medical model/norm or is “too weird” disappeared, stigma would not go away.

Because none of those people - the “fakers,” weird systems, folks who may have wrong information, people who fall outside the medical model, systems with experiences outside of community norms- none of these groups are the root cause of “stigma.”

There is only one group who enforces, perpetuates, and increases violence against our plural/multiple community. They are singlets and neurotypical folks who hold positions of power, and seek to gain from the continued oppression of mentally ill, neurodivergent, and plural folks.

Until institutions founded upon ableism and sanism are toppled, stigma and violence will not cease to affect our community.

Until people with lived experience are helping make decisions in our community’s care and treatment plans, until research is led by us, until forced hospitalization and irresponsible use of force and restraint is ended, violence and stigma will continue to be perpetuated.

Until movie producers earning literally billions off selling DID horror stories stop being paid to produce them, until psychs stop being paid to write pop pieces about how DID is controversial, until our community starts getting paid to tell our own stories, stigma will continue.

In this way, going on crusades *within our community* to stop systems who spread “misinformation,” call out “fakers,” or police people’s existence/experiences/system presentation with the intent to fully eliminate stigma is not much more than a waste of time.

We are not our oppressors.

We are stronger together.

Name the institutions that cause harm, people in power who profit off our community, those who discredit our community from positions of power, and those who benefit from our oppression.

And then focus on them.