On a nonconscious level we mistakenly equate the intensity of rage and hostility which accompanies the spewing of disability epithets with strength, defiance and righteous indignation. We experience a false catharsis when we utter such words, which is partly a subconscious fantasy that we are “casting out” something evil.

But those are misconceptions which inaccurately cloak the real impulses which give such words their force. What actually gives them force is the fear and self/other – loathing that we’ve been programmed to attach to disability by our culture.

It will require a concerted campaign, enlisting respected opinion leaders from throughout the Left, to change this. It’s possible we can do that, but it’s also possible that we will always be enduring a massive, unremedied deluge of disability-stigmatizing attitudes and behavior, that remains unresolved no matter what we try. That’s no reason to give up. Just a reality we need to contemplate, to help us survive the pain of perhaps unending, repeated wounding.