Misguided Causes And Resisting Eugenics.

In this April Autism Month of 2023- our autistic conservative Charlie Keeble has made his personal theme for this month ‘resisting eugenics’. Despite the laws that shield disabled people from being euthanised there are still forms of eugenics at play in healthcare and social justice campaigns. 

Last year I wrote a strong piece on my autism advocacy about self-determination for autism. It also included a rant that I directed at left wing political activists that I intended to be a satirical speech that underlined my frustrations at disability advocacy. I reflected on it quite recently and I thought about the way in which the public understand disability advocacy.Although it was taken very strongly I saw that a great many criticisms were directed at my cause, which included my self-determination objective to inspire autistics and other disabled people to live with passion and purpose. 

I’ve had some people say to me that I am a lost cause. Do they think I am a lost cause because of the way I promote disability activism, or is it because they see disability culture as culture of misery and apathetic people whose purpose in life has no use in society? I am not a lost cause, I have actually got a very good cause, these critics have misguided causes. I think many people don’t know how frustrated disabled people feel about what kind of situation they have to put up. So instead of ranting about it again I can mention what my frustrations are with a parable.

In the late 1980s and early 90s disability advocates had become fed up with the way that they were being taken in the hierarchy of the equality mission. They wanted the same rights as their able bodied counterparts had, which was for their right to self-determination and not be lumbered with pestilential sympathy. “We want what you got!” they used to shout. Us disabled people used to live with this mentality of being made to take this charity.

Upminster born musician Ian Dury sang about this in a song in 1981 called ‘Spasticus Autisticus’, which was about a slave to welfare wanting better things in life. Dury had contracted polio as a child and knew the frustrations of society pitying disabled people as well. 

Basically they were just saying “Shut up and be grateful for what you get” or we would have to consider dying as useless eaters who were not to be seen or heard. There are two sides to disability advocacy. One of them is the campaign to make the world more accessible and friendly to the disabled by eliminating the physical barriers, and the other is to fight against the public’s perception of disabled people as just people for pity. 

So disabled people have two sets of battles to fight. One is against the physical barriers, the other is against the condescending nature of the public’s perception of disabled people in society. So the big question here is what makes a do-gooder actually useful when they are only helping others to use them for their own glory? 

In 1992 a group of disability activists picketed and stormed an ITV studio to stop their Telethon charity raising money for disabled people. These protest groups called themselves ‘Piss on Pity’ and ‘Bloc Telethon’ and they had a just cause to fight against the patronising nature of this inspiration porn fest. For years the disability charities had portrayed disabled people as pitiful and wretched pathetic souls that only relied on an industry of altruism to keep them happy and alive. The telethon protestors saw this as a charade of patronising behaviour in which they were being used as props to social justice rather than genuine people with a purpose to live for.

Afterwards ITV scrapped their Telethon charity but there are still do-gooders out there who think they know better and expect other people to eat out of their hands. That submission is a fitting metaphor and I think it reflects the message that I am pushing here. If you want to help disabled people then build a framework in which they can have the freedom to make their own living. Not use them as instruments to your own agenda by hijacking or manipulating them to push a social eugenics order. 

Currently two major legislations have been implemented to uphold the civil rights of disabled people. There is the Disability Discrimination Act in 1995 and the Equality Act of 2010. These helped grant disabled people the freedoms to make their own living and own property without discrimination. There is still a long way to go for autistic people like me, but we are building things to make the right framework suit the disabled community. Some will dismiss disabled people unintentionally by setting them to fail school exams or job interviews.

Furthermore there is another part of disability advocacy that I think can be applied to the current state of affairs. Yes I am angry at my own community of disabled people and it is frustrating to see disabled people’s ability to progress. In fact I think Britain is suffering from a civil rights crisis. In the case of the disabled community there is infighting over how we are supposed to advocate and live for our wellbeing and purpose in life. Try keeping your own household of advocates in order before you start preaching good deeds to support people. I have got good taste in diversity and I criticise activists for supporting advocates of bad character. 

Like the disability activists of Bloc Telethon in 1992 I too piss on pity, and I piss on self-pity also. There needs to be greater emphasis on disability pride within the community and that pride is about being exciting individuals empowering others. Now this is why I think disability is not as well regarded as other forms of activism like black power, LGBT+, feminism and other cultural types of social groups. I promote positive aspirational ideas in disability advocacy, but most other forms of advocates prefer to promote their agenda with a front as angry, hateful, bitter people who are so resentful of others. 

What this is doing is pushing a futile attempt at unity that undermines civil justice and this promotes social eugenics thatleads to one group becoming culled from progressive movements. This in turn leads to segregation that can put disabled into institutionalised ghettos and out of sight from the public where they can be allowed to die in obscurity. What disability activists need to be raising awareness of is corrupt healthcare practices and also challenge healthcare campaigners who believe that the disabled are a burden on society. 

One of the less well known dark events of the Covid-19 pandemic was when NHS fanatics stayed silent when the health service let autistic people die to “protect the NHS”. During the Covid pandemic some disabled children were told if they would like to have a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’form if their lives were so miserable then they would be allowed to die, if they were in hospital with terminal causes. That really offended me to the core. I’ve read several stories online including one case at a Somerset care home where an NHS branch told them the staff to offer DNR forms to patients to prevent the health service being overwhelmed with Covid patients. 

During the pandemic I made it a personal mission to prove that the accommodations that disabled people rely on were useful to keeping the country going and thus disprove that the disabled are not useless eaters. But sadly some people have not seen a positive out of a negative like this. The mainstream media just wanted to push a message of hysteria among the public, which made them mentally sick and blindly praising healthcare workers. Ignoring the real problems with the pandemic, just like what happened when they callously proclaimed that autism was a brain disease caused by the MMR vaccine in 1998.

In Canada there is a eugenics programme in their healthcare system called the medical assistance in dying (MAID) act. It has been utilised by healthcare professionals and Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government to cut down on their healthcare spending. Never has the healthcare service seen dark acts of eugenics in a duty of care to heal the pain of human dignity. Anti-discrimination activists and social progressives seem to be taking lessons on civil justice and healthcare from Nazisocial welfare officers. 

Do I think that these acts of altruism are responsible for aggravating and preserving prejudiced thoughts in society? Yes I do. So for my autistic conservative objective I can show you what I am fighting for is good for the wellbeing of human civilisation. If you want to value autistic lives then don’t usemoral virtuosity to show your superiority, as if you believe you a right to dominate and destroy the liberties of other tribes and groups of people. 

Charlie Keeble

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