#bbc uk

It’s every hate message and death threat I’ve ever had in regards to being openly disabled online amplified times a million.

It’s disabled hate content, pure and simple. It demonizes disabled and chronically ill people while holding up online hate groups that have harassed people to death--something they conveniently leave out-- as some sort of paradigm of unsung heroics and justice against welfare frauds. Specifically against those with invisible chronic illnesses, and believe me, the timing is not a coincidence.

In the wake of Covid, we are about to witness a mass disability event the likes of which haven’t been seen on a global scale for nearly 100 years. In creating this documentary that seeds doubt and anger into the minds of the general public, the BBC is helping to further the Tory regime in their dehumanization of disabled and chronically ill folk. By portraying them as frauds and fakers, they further enable the Tory justification of denying benefits to the most vulnerable, ensuring that their blatant disregard and abandonment of duty of care is normalized as acceptable because look, look how prevalent faking is! We have a documentary about it! It’s on the BBC so you know it’s legit… even thought they based all their research on a reddit hate forum…

But their incompetence and immorality doesn’t end there, oh no. Along with the title and presentation being outright disgusting and irresponsible, they’ve also stolen content from creators who declined to be involved and voiced their concerns over the creation of such a documentary. @jessicaoutofthecloset said on Twitter that she refused to be a part of it, yet her image is used to promote it. And some of the other featured creators (I’m not going to link to them, their social feeds are already a nightmare) have claimed that their interviews were edited in such a way to make them sound ableist or twist the meaning of their words to fit the “us vs them” dynamic the documentary was trying to instill against “real” disabled people (i.e. visibly disabled) and chronically ill people, which is not at all what they were saying—especially because the person involved is both disabled AND chronically ill.

It’s disgusting, and frankly all the journalists involved should be fired. There is not a shred of ethics or care to be seen for any of the people they have opened up for attack online by listing them openly as disabled content creators. But that won’t happen. Because disabled and chronically ill lives don’t matter. Not when you’ve got ratings and dangerous propaganda to uphold.

I’m not going to say don’t watch it to anyone who is curious. But I will say make sure you’re in an okay headspace to handle it. I was barely able to get through it in the end. And if you’re able bodied and healthy, please watch it with the knowledge that what is being shown is a highly skewed and ableist outlook based on literal hate forums that have harassed people to death for being vocal online about disability activism. These people want us dead. What they are doing is not moral or even needed. Please don’t fall for their lies. Please be better than that. Please be kinder.

Please, I’m so heartbroken and tired.

If anyone has the time and energy, you can help by making a formal complaint to the BBC here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints