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Rebel with to many causes

TheCatWoman

I've always been a bit of a rebel, I don't think it's just about being autistic, but it helps, I was brought up in quite a political family, not party political, but just interested, social injustice infuriates me. I've been involved with so many causes over the years, the womens movement, anti-nukes, animal rights, anti apartied. Now I find that every cause is on social media which I can't do, nor can I go out on the streets protesting like I used too.

I still have the urge to be involved there are so many things worth fighting for, the planet being the biggest one, is anyone else involved in activism?

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  • in reply to Ausomely Autistic
    Ausomely Autistic said:
    I would love to at some point get involved in advocacy for our autistic community, but maybe it’s just me who thinks that activism is different in that it is political?

    Tricky one this. What would you advocate for specifically? It wouldn't be fair to advocate just for autists so you would need to do it for the whole neurodivergent umbrella and we are a mess of contradictory needs that you will never find one specific thing to fight for.

    The majority of us are not suited to protesting in public and plenty don't like to make a fuss because of any potential conflict situations that may arise.

    Add to that the push back I'm sensing from the media now and we are going to have a hard time agreeing on something then fighting for it.

    The media is starting to make more noise about how many people are being diagnosed now with autism and how much of a strain we are placing on the NHS - almost victim shaming as there is little physically to identify us and a huge range of issues we are asking for help with that are often contrary to one another.

    From my experience of causes, we are going to have a hell of a hard time making a case never mind winning concessions.

  • in reply to Ausomely Autistic

    AA, I think it's hard to be an activist for anything without it being political and advocating for people who are unable to advocate for themselves will become political. By political I mean political with a small P, not big P parties and demonstrations etc. As an advocate you will be banging your head against entrenched institutional biases, many oif which will need to be challenged through the courts and/or legislation.

    I'm not just a political rebel though, I seem to be a rebel in so many area's, rebellion comes naturally to me even when I'm not trying. When I was at school I led my class and then it spread to several others on strike, it was interesting as the teachers had recently been on strike themselves and didn't have a moral leg to stand on and they knew it.

    Being a person who asks questions seem to make me be seen as rebellious, like asking why if someones in an army prison and about to be dishonourable discharged they follow all the rules nad the punnishing regime? My response would to being told to get up at 5:30 for a run would be a No with a few more Ffs in it. When I asked some of my friends about this they said 'because they make you', I asked how, what could they do to me?