HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. incited backlash after questioning why autism is "only happening in young people" during a televised news briefing.
This response vexes me because while Uncle Barry here is certainly an example, what these people are forgetting (and what this thing about Uncle Barry glosses over) is that until the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the fights from the 70s onward, if a family in the US had a child with an IQ of under 70, they were often shipped off to an institution.
Deinstitutionialization didn’t really begin to gain steam until relatively recently in our collective history- here in Tennessee we still had one of these facilities open until the nineties. These people didn’t believe there were people with severe mental disabilities, because our society hid them away!
Look up Clover Bottom. But don’t, because it’s horrifying. I’ve met people who lived there their entire lives. What was done to them was disgusting.
It is awful what was done to them. But it’s awful that people with a greater severity of condition, a greater need for care, are often glossed over in these comment sections. It feels like they’re made invisible in these conversations just like they were in those institutions! And I’m terrified that assholes like RFK Jr will disappear them for real!
There needs to be a federal investigation in to Oklahoma’s congregate care homes. Kids still get shipped off to institutions, which are unsafe and unregulated.
Thatcher did the same over here. Called it ‘Care in the Community’ which translates as ‘Vastly increasing the at risk and vulnerable unhoused population’.
This response vexes me because while Uncle Barry here is certainly an example, what these people are forgetting (and what this thing about Uncle Barry glosses over) is that until the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the fights from the 70s onward, if a family in the US had a child with an IQ of under 70, they were often shipped off to an institution.
Deinstitutionialization didn’t really begin to gain steam until relatively recently in our collective history- here in Tennessee we still had one of these facilities open until the nineties. These people didn’t believe there were people with severe mental disabilities, because our society hid them away!
Look up Clover Bottom. But don’t, because it’s horrifying. I’ve met people who lived there their entire lives. What was done to them was disgusting.
It is awful what was done to them. But it’s awful that people with a greater severity of condition, a greater need for care, are often glossed over in these comment sections. It feels like they’re made invisible in these conversations just like they were in those institutions! And I’m terrified that assholes like RFK Jr will disappear them for real!
State institutions are still hellholes.
There needs to be a federal investigation in to Oklahoma’s congregate care homes. Kids still get shipped off to institutions, which are unsafe and unregulated.
The one good thing Reagan did was deinstitutionalization, even if he did it the dumbest way possible.
Thatcher did the same over here. Called it ‘Care in the Community’ which translates as ‘Vastly increasing the at risk and vulnerable unhoused population’.