Fighting eugenics with more eugenics, viral sanism, and ableist online discourse from "people who should know better”

Two events happened recently that have made me think more about the way able-bodied people will gleefully dehumanize disabled people, all while claiming to oppose eugenics and mental health stigma. It's something I already knew, and I don't like witnessing such obvious reminders of it. However, I think they're both connected, and it's important to talk about them. The first is people's reactions to the Sydney Sweeney ad, and the second is people's reactions to a woman who had a mental health breakdown, likely one involving psychosis/delusions, and went viral mostly so people could ruthlessly mock her. I am seeing these reactions play out mostly on TikTok and Instagram.

I am of course talking about the eugenicist American Eagle “Sydney Sweeney has good genes” ad. Many were rightfully appalled by it. However, the reaction at times validated the eugenic logic behind it. Unsurprisingly in our misogynist world, people began to attack her looks. They started saying she wasn't hot enough to promote eugenics. Horrifyingly, I saw some say it would have been better if it was from an actress who they deemed attractive enough, as if the problem was the desirability of the actress and not the message of the ad itself. And then things took a turn for the worst. The jokes about how she looked like she had Down Syndrome or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome came in.

A lot of people have said in regards to the Sydney Sweeney ad that we should just make fun of her and others on the right, and I don't entirely disagree but it becomes a problem when a lot of progressives sound like the eugenicists they're trying to ridicule. Progressives who claim to be appalled by eugenics and yet somehow I've seen more of them use Down Syndrome as a punchline in the last week than I ever have in my entire life. You can't fight eugenics with eugenics. It isn't suddenly okay to laugh at disabled people just because you're doing it in order to insult Sydney Sweeney. Disabled people have been the targets of ridicule and violence for centuries. Ridicule is used as a tool to dehumanize us. Many of us have been the targets of ridicule our whole lives. If you don't have a problem with that, are you really any different than the eugenicists you claim to be so against?

I don't know if the people making those jokes aren't anticipating that someone with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or Down Syndrome would read them, or if they don't care. It is really hard to tell in an era where the R slur is unfortunately thrown around more casually than it was a decade ago or when “disabled people's lives aren't as important as my right to be mask-free in every public space” is commonplace. As a society we never truly reckoned with the way eugenics was (and continues to be) an ideology shared by both the left and the right. Even important aspects of our society, such as healthcare and abortion, have long legacies of eugenics that continue to this day. And contrary to what some may tell themselves, progressives play an important role in those legacies. I wish I could say it's shocking that progressives took a right wing ad about eugenics and added their own eugenic spin to it in their own reactions, but it really just isn't.

Then, people moved on to a new topic for their hot takes. A woman came on TikTok with a several part series, and she seems to be experiencing some sort of mental health crisis. I won't rehash the details, because honestly enough people have been talking about it as it is. But the way she was ruthlessly mocked just demonstrated how cruel people are to those with mental illness and the lack of empathy people have for us. The casual, callous way they refer to us as “crazy” or “psycho” even when (or perhaps especially when) we're clearly experiencing a crisis that everyone views as entertainment. And regardless of your view on her actions, or the actions of any individual with a mental health condition, you have to be aware that others who struggle with similar issues can see you use words like psycho. And we know that could easily be us.

I have bipolar disorder, and I know how much society loathes people with my condition. Even though I am in remission, simply mentioning that I take pills every day to keep away manic and depressive episodes is enough to experience the stigma if I'm not in the company of people who actually have empathy for people with mental health conditions. The stigma is something I have been aware of since I first started having episodes as a teenager, and I'm as painfully aware of it today as I always have been. The stigma made me fearful of telling others about my condition, and constantly scanning for symptoms so I could try my best to hide them as quickly as they arrived. I notice the hatred of mentally ill people every time there is a school shooting or other violent incident where the perpetrator has bipolar disorder. I feel it every time people talk about the need to “bring back asylums” or even just when they only talk about mental health in the wake of another national tragedy caused by our society's obsession with guns. We have made progress in combatting the stigma but not nearly enough. Too many claim to care about mental health but struggle to empathize with what they don't understand.

AI psychosis is now a topic of conversation. It does need to be talked about, but I fear that a lot of people who have never experienced psychosis themselves don't have the range to treat the topic with the sensitivity it deserves. I especially fear this after watching the discussion and jokes about this woman experiencing a mental health crisis. I personally have not experienced psychosis myself, and despite having bipolar disorder, I still personally do not feel equipped to talk about it. I would rather hear from people who have experienced it, as I believe they'll be able to offer some of the best insight. This doesn't mean I think they should necessarily be the only ones allowed to talk about it, but I do think anyone who wants to treat this issue with the care it deserves should listen to anyone who has experienced psychosis who speaks about this topic.

It's clear to me how connected all of this is. The ways people compare Sydney Sweeney to disabled people as a way to insult her isn't any different than the viral jokes about a woman experiencing a mental health crisis. It all comes back to eugenics and the ways disabled people are dehumanized even by people who consider themselves progressive. It's all cruelty and hurting disabled people is the goal, even when people claim that it isn't. These are often the same people who claim to be outraged by the use of the R slur on social media but have no problem expressing their misinformed view that a virus that “only kills disabled and elderly people” isn't something we should still care about. It really makes you wonder when American progressives will finally admit that they too have a eugenics problem. We are long overdue for this.