The Sia stuff has led to having people in my mentions over the last twenty four hours telling me it would be kinder on myself, an autistic person, to not be alive.

Sia isn't answerable for every shitty fan of hers, but her power and reach comes with responsibility.

I've been bombarded with ableist slurs and functioning labels. I've been mocked for reacting in such an 'autistic' way, that of course I can't understand nuance enough to 'get' why Sia is right, whilst also being told I can't comment on this because I'm NOT autistic enough.

There will always be shitty people, but people who have power and reach and influence, like Sia, have to mitigate those responses by reacting in a non-shitty way. Sia's responses have all but confirmed for her fans that they CAN talk to us like this, that it's justified.

Autistic people, with nowhere near even a single gram of the clout and power that Sia has, are being harassed and attacked over this. Something that many of us struggle to handle, and that is putting us into severe emotional and sensory overload. This is not okay.

Sia's responses have absolutely inflamed the harrassment that we are facing, and have pushed narratives about autism and autistic people out amongst her fans for them to weaponise.

Sia is disabled, maybe even neurodivergent, but she is also powerful. This is lateral ableism.

Honestly, her responding to an autistic actor with 'well, you're probably a shit actor' (or words to that effect) really set the fucking tone for all of this.

Why would her stans treat us with any kind of respect or basic human decency after that?

As a result of all this, there's a ton of people suddenly caring about autism who never gave a damn before. But the newly sparked reasons and manifestation of their 'caring' makes me wish they'd just go back to not caring at all.

And that's where I am right now.

This is after last month, when people were jumping on my criticisms of EE's portayal of disability with 'you should be grateful you got any rep at all!', so I'm not feeling particularly charitable or forgiving, and I don't suspect I will for quite some time.

Stay hydrated, take care, have a rest, hug an animal, and don't let anyone tell you your emotions are wrong.