Ableism describes the expression, perpetuation or enforcement of systems, structures or sentiments that give an advantage to or favor people considered “able” (bodied or minded), or discriminates against those that are not. Topics relevant to the field of Ableism range far and wide asking some genuinely useful questions, starting at “stairs”, going over things like career prospects of disabled people (ie. “disability discrimination”) and ending at philosophy, a delightfully explosive minefield of semantics. Is there such a thing as an “able” person? Are we really meant to have two legs? Don't say a person with just one leg is at a disadvantage, that is ableist and discriminatory as it raises people with two legs over people with just one! A person with one leg is different-abled, because while you can do things they can't, they can do things that you can't.

Basically, if you like the occasional discussion and dabble in philosophical questions, but don't want things to get too heated, this is your cue to turn around. You are staring at a dark, all-consuming abyss, and it is reaching out to you. Many before you have fallen and became a victim of the hate cycle that is the aggressive injection of exclusionarily inclusiveness into otherwise reasonable and goal-oriented discussions, under the guise of “inclusiveness” so that one can get “rightfully” pissed at people for not being un-uninclusive enough.

Still, odds are that once society has developed beyond the current trans people moral panic, ableism will be the next big wedge issue used by conservatives to point at the liberals who try to ruin our society all the time. Movement of the Overton Window.

There is a very important distinction - ableism is a real thing and it needs to be combatted. But the useful discussion about “giving disabled people as much quality of life as everyone else, because they too deserve to live a fulfilled existence with control and agency” definitely ends where semantics begin, where it is no longer about the interests (“I want to help disabled people”, “I want to design X in a way to make it very accessible”) but rather about words (“Saying that people are normally born with two arms is ableist!”).

Things the movement wanted to go to:

• Bullying, Abuse, etc.
• Systemic ableism, for example limited career options, reduced pay (or no pay at all, hello USA)
• Neglect
• Infantilization

On a map, it would read “You are here”. Probably. Hopefully. And ableism is a more real issue than one would expect. Many forms of discrimination exist that would fall into the umbrella of ableism. Discrimination against overweight, discrimination against/denial of mental illness like ADHD, autism, tourette, classical depression and subjects like substance abuse disorders are all valid examples. “Just go to work”, and “anyone can do it if they just want it” are real, ableist sentiments blaming the victim for consequences of their disability, essentially being privileged and mostly uninformed attacks minimizing the disability in one way or another, in this case, for example, reducing the disabled person to a “they just didn't want it enough”. On the other end, however, there lies in wait a Singularity involving seeing ableism in everything and weaponizing it to selectively attack people one doesn't like. Similarly to Survival of the Fittest or Anti-Capitalism, Ableism will break down eventually.