Lmst

Rachel McNamara boosted:

Found on Bluesky, and thought I'd share here.

The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food you can make so you don't die

From a co-author;

"I co-wrote a cookbook for depressed people and other folks with zero spoons, only knives. It's not meant to be gourmet cooking so much as a survival guide for late stage capitalism. And you can get it for free!"

Edit (2): It turns out both coauthors, @youseeatortoise and @zillanovikov, are here on Mastodon!

#Cookbooks

https://traumbooks.itch.io/the-sad-bastard-cookbook

Rachel McNamara boosted:

@firstdogonthemoon We found a babby tawny frogmouth on our outdoor table one morning. It didn't seem to have fledged yet, so we took it to the vet and they got it to a native animal foster carer. It was later released back into the area. We like to think it's the one that perches on our rear fence at dusk sometimes.

The vet gave it a stick to perch on which yielded this photo which makes me happy to look at.

A tawny frogmouth chick with very fluffy feathers sits on a stick. It is looking straight at the camera with its mouth slightly open like it is smiling. There is a towel underneath it and a light blue background.

Rachel McNamara boosted:

#InternationalWomensDay

Words, unusually, fail me in describing this moment (photographers unknown).
Something in my eye, every time I look at it.

#GretaThunberg #JaneGoodall

Greta Thunberg and Jane Goodall, arm in arm, smiling at each other, age and youth. I can best describe Goodall’s gaze as a blend of wisdom, care and love, with maybe a hint of tolerance, old to young. Thunberg’s smile is slightly cheeky, complicit, and loving. This image makes me cry, every time.

The same moment, from a different camera angle, showing more of Thunberg’s face.
Greta Thunberg and Jane Goodall, arm in arm, smiling at each other, age and youth. I can best describe Goodall’s gaze as a blend of wisdom, care and love, with maybe a hint of tolerance, old to young. Thunberg’s smile is slightly cheeky, complicit, and loving. This image makes me cry, every time.

My teenage son has loud throat-clearing and snort/sniff tics.

We are getting on a plane to travel from Perth to Melbourne today. It would be nice not to have to announce to those around us that they are tics and not contagious but the sharply-turned heads and glares will make me anxious. Wish I could just ignore them.

Also, we wear masks and maybe they should too.

#TicDisorder #tic #AirTravel #TicAwareness #disability

My favourite photos of Meelup Beach, WA #MargaretRiver region

Photo at Meelup Beach. In the foreground is sand and a collection of wet dark-brown coloured rocks. The rocks look like large ancient tablets, roughly stacked in a diagonal heap. Beyond the rocks is the blueish green coloured ocean with light waves and in the background the edge of the bay covered in rocks and trees. Greyish-white clouds cover most of the light blue sky.

Another photo of Meelup Beach in the other direction. In the foreground and evenly spread light brown rocks (approximately a metre in diameter each) surrounded by sand and clumps of dark seaweed. Beyond that is the shiny blue water of the sea and above that a light blue sky with scarce cloud cover.

A photo of four pairs of casual running shoes mostly dark colours except for one pair of bright blue shoes with bright pink laces. The shoes all contain scrunched up socks. The shoes are roughly placed in a line on sandy ground, which is mostly covered with small smooth light brown rocks (about 5-10cm in diameter). Grey dried-up remnants of seaweed lie interspersed among the rocks.

At least 1 in 36 of us is #Autistic

I am happy to hear about this because we can achieve so much more in greater numbers.

I love self advocacy and I love the #disability community ❤️

https://autisticadvocacy.org/2023/03/asan-statement-on-updated-autism-diagnosis-numbers-2/?fbclid=IwAR0LPDc-rOtkJInO2AKl48EeD8jI5vc8W38C4aCx178ZSOnKVi_OTU3hutU_aem_AWx7gsmooOOXVNOvfpKbLTJyIz0HVgYohoM4U4vM2CcH208rq3tuWmFOcCmEv6hu-o8

I've had another think about this. I regret that I've disregarded the experience of other Autistic people who feel that the social model of disability does not describe their experience.

The core of what I was thinking is that I was always going to be who I am and how that is natural and normal and that the idea of a cure for me is offensive (it's like suggesting that I shouldn't exist). But why do I need my existence to be "normal" and "natural"?! There's internalised ableism in that.

Then I thought well what if I could have been another person altogether?! What if there was some distinct external environmental influence that made me substantially different to who I might have been?! I don't actually think this is likely given my family history but would that make me less desirable being who I am now...no it wouldn't.

My challenges in life (regardless of where they have come from or if they can be viewed as strengths via another lense) have shaped my mind to be more accepting and understanding of differences i.e. less likely to become a Nazi, so that's not something I would want any other way.

Regardless of how disability comes about it's still diversity and it's still valuable. I don't want a cure for me. If someone else wants a cure or a fix for their own challenges (even if the challenges only exist because of inaccessibility and even if they don't) then that's valid. However, if someone wants a cure or a fix for others (an individual or worse a group of people) when they don't want it themselves then that's not ok. That's ableist and eugenics.

Someone may ask then does it become ethical to search for a cure for autism. Firstly, I don't believe a cure exists. It is partly genetic and that is not in dispute. But most importantly, the vast majority of Autistic people do not want a cure. What the vast majority of Autistic people want is for more funding to be directed into accessibility and inclusion.

However, my whole point of this exercise in thinking, is that I contend that even if my disability could be cured or fixed, it wouldn't mean my life is any less valuable than anyone else's and no-one gets to decide that for me.

Rachel McNamara boosted:

Wherever I look I can see news about a few very rich individuals being stranded on a submarine that was supposed to take them on a tour of the Titanic. The effort put in place to rescue them appears huge in scope.

Last week over six hundred people died in a #shripweck off the coasts of #Greece and nobody cared. Nobody even bothered to start a rescue operation until it was too late.

Stop pretending people are equal, I hate this hypocrisy.

Rachel McNamara boosted:

The research was fundamentally flawed and should not be used as evidence that one group is better than the other. It does, however, highlight the problem of biased research that stigmatises everything about us.

The autistic girl faces the reader, looking perplexed. She says, “Basically, they decided that autistics care too much and should be more willing to sacrifice their principles for money.” She inhales slowly, massaging her temples. The camera zooms out as she raises her hands in frustration and shouts, “WHAT!”
After calming down, she continues, “I know, I'm shocked too! But let's remember this is only one study. Not all autistics are selfless, and not all allistics are selfish. Yet it does shine a spotlight on how researchers talk about us.”

The page opens on a large spread, showing the autistic girl in various different poses and activities: displayed on a stop sign and crossed out, holding one of the kittens from the first page, playing music on the harp, and daydreaming of a beautiful castle in a field of flowers. The text flows alongside these images. She says, “It often feels like everything about us autistics is twisted into negative traits. Even the good stuff! Our strong sense of justice, our passion for our special interests, and our rich inner lives are all viewed with scepticism.”
The bottom of the spread shows several allistic people frowning and judging the girl. The final panel reads: We can see it all across autism research carried out by neurotypicals. There is an inherent bias.

A girl is staring unnervingly at the reader as she says, “I am staring into your soul!”
The panel text reads: Imagine if we talked about neurotypicals the same way researchers talk about autistics:
“Aggressive obsession with eye contact”,
“Inflexible adherence to unwritten social rules”,
“Inexplicable compulsion to project negative subtext into simple conversations”. The next panel shows the autistic girl standing in front of a blackboard which has “Bad Researcher Detention” written on it. She looks strict as she says, “Silly, right?” Two researchers are in detention, teary-eyed and apologetic. “Sorry,” one of them sobs.
The next panel shows a diverse group of autistic people and the three kittens from the first page, an infinity symbol above their heads. The text reads: We need to have a serious conversation about how we research and talk about autism. And above all, autistic voices need to be the ones leading the charge. Let us head the research! Let us share our experiences!

Rachel McNamara boosted:

There has been a lot of research about autistics over the years, but this one really took the cake! 🍰

Find out what happened when researchers attempted to compare the moral compass of autistic and non-autistic people... (1/2)

#actuallyautistic #autism #neurodivergence #comic #art #MastoArt

Comic Title: Morality & How Researchers Talk About Us.
The first panel shows a researcher looking at a graph. The text reads: In 2020, researchers conducted a study with autistic and allistic people. Participants were from Brazil and between the ages of 14-25. They were given a choice.
The comic shows two different choices. The first one is: Support a bad cause for monetary gain. The panel shows a girl smirking and holding a stack of money, her back turned to a cardboard box of crying kittens. The text on the side of the box reads 'termination'.
The second choice is: Don't support the bad cause but miss out on the money.
The girl is holding one of the kittens in her arms and yells “No!” as she kicks the empty box away.
The comic goes on to explain that the choice was given in two different settings: public and private.
One panel shows a girl sweating nervously, surrounded by a group of people. The other panel shows the girl alone in a big open space as she carefully considers.

A girl is seen clutching a sack of money, cackling wickedly. She has little devil horns and a tail. The comic text reads: This is what the study discovered: Allistic people were more likely to support the bad cause. The higher the monetary reward was, the more likely they were to do so. The girl is seen fawning over a pile of money with hearts in her eyes. She gasps “Wow!”, her mouth wide open.
The comic goes on to say that allistics were more likely to support the bad cause in the private setting. One panel shows the girl in a group of people, with a halo over her head and sweating nervously as she lies, “I don't support it!”
In the next panel the devil horns have returned, and she is alone in the room with a wicked grin, clutching the sack of money as she says, “Give me the money!”

Autistics, on the other hand, were much less likely to support the bad cause. And their answer stayed the same, regardless of the setting. The first comic panel shows an autistic girl playing with the kittens from the first page. The second panel shows the girl turning up her nose at the stack of money. In both panels the girl says determinedly, “No way!”
The comic then asks: So, how did the researchers feel about these results? Well... They concluded that autistics were too concerned with their principles and morals. The panel shows the researcher tapping a sign showing the girl and the cat crossed out; the text reads, “Bad!”.
The comic goes on to say that the researchers framed the results as a negative thing. It shows three shortened excerpts from the research paper, which read as follows:
Excessive valuation of negative consequences when judging the moral appropriateness or permissibility of actions. Inflexible when following a moral rule even though an immoral action can benefit them. ASD individuals, unlike healthy control subjects...

Rachel McNamara boosted:

Twitter was never really profitable. Facebook is struggling and tries out weird stuff like VR to see if that could make them some real cash. And now Reddit admits it is not profitable in the least. It's almost as if you can't really make money off of people chatting online, even if you get them to be angry non-stop.

Welcome to the fediverse. Sit back, relax. It's still a little rough around the edges, but there's no one even trying to make any money off of you.

Everything around us has terms and meanings that societies have given to them over time. We have defined how we should exist so tightly that people struggle to conceive of anything different. If people don’t exist, in a way that we have been taught to expect, then we think they are somehow broken, wrong or abnormal. This can be applied to pretty much any situation.

So speaking general about any axis of oppression (where we have privilege) the best thing we can do is to make more effort to help break down those expectations and barriers and to be more accepting so that everyone can exist on a more equal level to us.

Diversity exists for a reason and that reason is because it’s healthy and ensures our survival as a species. Therefore acceptance, accessibility and inclusion benefits everyone because it supports diversity.

Donald Triplett the first person ever to be diagnosed with autism passed away two days ago. He was 89yrs old. It surprised me to learn this because #Autistic people have always been here so it shocked me how new the term 'autism' is.

The much more recent introduction of the term ‘autism’ to describe people like Donald (and me), with a collection of similar traits, is just an example of how our language evolves and adapts to our increased knowledge and understanding.

I don’t like reading articles about autism, (which is why I haven't shared any of the articles about Donald) because I find the articles to be dehumanising more often than not. The (usually) non-autistic people writing them don’t fully understand yet that we are not the product of some medical condition (caused by genetics with an dash of environmental “triggers”) but in fact just an example of the natural #diversity that has always existed in the population.

Everyone is a result of their environment and genetics not just us Autistic people. It’s pretty obvious when you state it like that right?!

However, we are a minority struggling to fit within a culture that expects us perform in a way we are not naturally equipped to perform. This is what is responsible for the #disability that we experience.

This is related to something I've been thinking about recently...

I have a strange instinct for being able to recognise illness (not always but more often than most people do. For example, I was stumped when my eldest son got a rash on his chin and it turned out he'd been sucking the air in a cup overnight such that it stuck over his mouth and chin lol).

I seem to notice patterns and then predict things about peoples' #health . My mother's health and my father's health (some pretty major things) for example. My children's and my own neurodivergence (and others) and my childrens' physical health too.

I mention this now because I am surprised that I decided to wear a mask when testing my youngest son for Covid yesterday, whereas in the past I have not done that. It's like I instinctively (although it's more likely my brain 'connecting all the dots' without me consciously realising) knew he was going to have Covid even though his brother had tested negative two days earlier.

I do have a special interest of sorts with health so I wonder if this is partly a #neurodivergent thing. Biology was my favourite subject at school and I did exceptionally well at it. I also studied a Bachelor of Science (biological sciences, microbiology) and got an honours award in my first year.

Now, related to this instinct of mine, I stumbled on a fact that blew me away...

I have skin issues from time-to-time, rosacea among other things and the other day, after I developed an unusual skin rash, I was thinking that if we have bacteria coinciding inside our bodies eg. the "good and bad bacteria" then maybe there are viruses coexisting in our body too.

I did a Google search and it blew me away because I was right without having any prior knowledge of this.

AND you should all hear this....the article that I found says that scientists estimate that over half the biological matter in our body is not human!

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/viruses-can-help-us-as-well-as-harm-us/

@GottaLaff @dianor it's so dispiriting to me that so many illnesses have such vague and general symptoms. I have had the first five of those symptoms for most of my life primarily due to neurodivergence and the stresses arising from it.

Rachel McNamara boosted:

People with long Covid continue to experience medical gaslighting more than 3 years into the pandemic.

#Covid #COVID19 #SarsCov2 #LongCovid #CovidIsNotOver

https://theconversation.com/people-with-long-covid-continue-to-experience-medical-gaslighting-more-than-3-years-into-the-pandemic-203744

@garyloc just did a Google search and yes it seems they have that nickname. Previously, I would have a giggle at my husband for always being cautious around those trees (because not much else fazes him and I considered it one of his quirks) but I guess it took a close call for me to really appreciate the risk.

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