this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2024
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The issue is mostly the type of disability. You have to realize mental disability is not visible unless you know what to look for and even then you're dealing with some strange and often self-hated traits. So while physical disability is accounted for, mental illness and especially mental trauma (abandonment issues, PTSD in my case) are simply not even recognized as existing.
In most solarpunk I've seen, the issue of permanent differences in how a person functions is simply never addressed, and it feels like a gentrification of the problem. "Maybe we should push the mentally-handicapped somewhere else!"
It hurts even more when you get the handicap after you're born. Most mental issues are genetic and so they have no reference point. I didn't ask to be fucking beaten by a foster father who smoked in the house and refused to be questioned. I didn't ask or deserve to be stolen from my family by corrupt government officials. I didn't ask to be beaten by a bully so hard that he went to juvie for it and I was bedridden for a month. If you want to improve life, do it for people who have less than you without lowering anyone's standard of living. Otherwise you're asking for a world I cannot live in because I am a permanently-scarred psyche and I cannot support myself nor function in a community.
Don't get me wrong, inclusivity is bullshit. I only ask for a future I can rely on machines in, not one in which I would be doomed to die. I can see how being exposed to solarpunk via people first might make that something you didn't expect at least.
Damn, I’m sorry all that happened to you, I wish you the best in your life going forward. And I do have to say I don’t think anyone who is into solarpunk thinks those with mental disability should just be pushed aside and discarded. That would be almost antithetical to a concept so focused on improving the human condition.
That said, I could see where an emphasis on nature more in the goals could lead to people suggesting they want to take away the things you hold dear. However, I don’t think that’s the majority opinion of people into solarpunk nor do I believe you would be unable rely on machines in a solarpunk society. The whole goal of solarpunk is environmentally conscious technology not no technology. In fact I think most solarpunks would love a future that has the technology you would want. In other words I think your goals are in alignment if not complete agreement.