Stimpunks Foundation

Mutual Aid and Human-Centered Learning for Neurodivergent and Disabled People

The Music of Stimpunks: A Public Service Announcement… with Guitar

We placed songs from our “Chronic Neurodivergent Depressed Queer Punk” and “Pluralism Rocks” playlists throughout stimpunks.org, tying them into our advocacy. They collectively serve as a Public Service Announcement, with guitar.

The music:

Everything that was normally supposed to be hidden was brought to the front.

Punk subculture – Wikipedia
Table of Contents

Spare Me from the Mold

I make the right mistakes
And I say what I mean

Spare Me From The Mold

If we were not threatening to the social order in some way, there would not be therapies designed to control how we move our bodies and communicate.

THINKING PERSON’S GUIDE TO AUTISM: On Hans Asperger, the Nazis, and Autism: A Conversation Across Neurologies

Neurodivergent

Please complete this simple task
Push the buttons just like we ask
This step first and that step last
Over and over and do it fast
I’m watching everyone, feeling like a simpleton
Why can’t I get it done? I just want to scream and run

I don’t think like you
But I’m the one that’s called abnormal
This construct
Was built by petty tyrants
Am I on the level yet? (Level yet)
How did I do on your little test?
Get my brain to reset (Reset)
'Cause everything you say is static
Do I make a good pet? (Good pet)
Obey the commands or get the back of the hand
'Cause the world wasn’t built for a brain like mine
Change my mind, change my mind, change my mind
This construct
Was built and can be dismantled

We stand together
We think apart
We stand together
We think apart

-- Neurodivergent by Rabbit Junk

Until ABA updates its scientific methods, its functions of behavior, and incorporates modern day psychology – including neurology, child development, educational psychology, and other vital research – it cannot be considered to be a safe, effective, or ethical field.

Behaviorism is Dead. How Do We Tell The (Autism) Parents? » NeuroClastic

Standing In the Way of Control

Because we′re standing in the way of control
We will live our lives

-- Standing In the Way of Control

We are marginalized canaries in a social coalmine and Rawlsian barometers of society’s morality. It is deeply subversive to live proudly despite being living embodiments of our culture’s long standing ethical failings.

Our non-compliance is not intended to be rebellious. We simply do not comply with things that harm us. But since a great number of things that harm us are not harmful to most neurotypicals, we are viewed as untamed and in need of straightening up.

One of my favorite anecdotes from Asperger’s thesis is when he asks an autistic boy in his clinic if he believes in God. “I don’t like to say I’m not religious,” the boy replies, “I just don’t have any proof of God.” That anecdote shows an appreciation of autistic non-compliance, which Asperger and his colleagues felt was as much a part of their patients’ autism as the challenges they faced. Asperger even anticipated in the 1970s that autistic adults who “valued their freedom” would object to behaviorist training, and that has turned out to be true.

THINKING PERSON’S GUIDE TO AUTISM: On Hans Asperger, the Nazis, and Autism: A Conversation Across Neurologies

Keep on Livin’

I would like to honour all the autistic people who survive the care system somehow.

All those who survive extreme ‘therapy’.

All those who are brought to their knees, reading hellish descriptions of their loved people.

And all who did not survive this onslaught.

Ann Memmott PGC🌈 on Twitter

We serve our loved people so we can keep on living through the onslaught.

Look up to the sky, sky, sky
Take back your own tonight
You'll find more than you see
It's time now, now, get ready

This is your time, this is your life and
This is your time, this is your life and
This is your time, this is your life and
This is your time, this is your life and

You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)

-- Keep On Livin'

Old Friend (Stay Alive)

Staying alive is a lot of work for a disabled person in an ableist society…

Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the 21st Century
Please stay alive
Please stay alive
Please stay alive
Please survive
Please survive

-- Old Friend (Stay Alive)

Last Song

I watch you dancin' and
I watch you cry
I watch you look up and
Scream out why
Oh now my dear you got
So much to give
I heard them talkin' and
You're gonna live
So hold me closer and
Hold me tight
A little closer till we're
Into the night
Cause you and I we've got
So much to give
I heard them talkin' and
We're gonna live
That's right
It's alright

— Last Song, The Bobby Lees

of all the sounds i’ve ever heard

death is the loudest

i wandered, lost: poems

Malfunction

I know that pluralism is our reality. I know that Neurodiversity is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation, and that Neurodiversity friendly forms of collaboration hold the potential to transform pathologically competitive and toxic teams and cultures. I know Autistic forms of communication within a neurodiverse team and within a psychologically safe environment impart a collaborative advantage to the entire team. I know neurodiversity, the social model of disability, and intersectionality are urgently needed reframing necessary to equity and inclusion.

Creed
Raise your hand if you’re not from a mold (yeah me)
Varied strings are worth more than gold

Mah-ah-ah-ah-ahl function away
Mah-ah-ah-ah-ahl function away
Malfunction! Malfunction! Malfunction!
...
Their Malfunction isn’t us, it’s all the clamor and the fuss

I’m about to pick you up
get you back up on your feet
you don’t need to worry love
Even if we’re incomplete

Come on baby open up
Pull out the wires and trim the fluff
Be yourself sounds so cliche
But hey let's do it anyway

Different

All we did was refuse to believe that we were the problem.

Rolling Warrior: The Incredible, Sometimes Awkward, True Story of a Rebel Girl on Wheels Who Helped Spark a Revolution 
Have you ever taken flack from the bullies on attack
Cause you're different

They laugh and call you names
But that ain't no badge of shame
Just cause you're different

People gonna stare, you unsettle them and scare ’em
Cause we're different
Walking down the street
When you pass they
Take a peek
There's something different

Live your life outside the box
Blow off all the empty talk
They focus on the things you're not
Just walk your walk

—Different

Rebel Girl

This isn’t just a story that disabled children will love; it’s a story about what is possible when we fight for ourselves and each other. It is a story about how tenacity, strength, the power of community, and the willingness to fight for what matters can start a revolution.

ROLLING WARRIOR: THE INCREDIBLE, SOMETIMES AWKWARD, TRUE STORY OF A REBEL GIRL ON WHEELS WHO HELPED SPARK A REVOLUTION 
That girl thinks she's the queen of the neighborhood
She's got the hottest trike in town
That girl, she holds her head up so high
I think I wanna be her best friend, yeah

Rebel girl, rebel girl
Women in Punk

There have always been, like, women in it, and queer people, and people of color.

That community is also something really cool about punk.

Eloise Wong of The Linda Lindas

BECAUSE we are interested in creating non-hierarchical ways of being AND making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations.

BECAUSE doing/reading/seeing/hearing cool things that validate and challenge us can help us gain the strength and sense of community that we need in order to figure out how bullshit like racism, able-bodieism, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our own lives.

RIOT GRRRL MANIFESTO

All Hail Open Doors

Generally punks can agree to the loose notion that “punk is an attitude/ individuality is the key.” It was a yearning to be different, to distance oneself from the mainstream mass of society. But punk was also a desire for community, a hunger for fellowship with like-minded souls…

Dissertation or Thesis | We accept you, one of us?: punk rock, community, and individualism in an uncertain era, 1974-1985

Opening doors has become my calling.


Welcome to this house.


Find your people.

All Hail Open Doors, Swamburger and Scarlet Monk

Until one day… you find a whole world of people who understand.

The internet has allowed autistic people- who might be shut in their homes, unable to speak aloud, or unable to travel independently- to mingle with each other, share experiences, and talk about our lives to people who feel the same way.

We were no longer alone.

7 Cool Aspects of Autistic Culture » NeuroClastic

Call to Arms

This is a call to open arms
Lay down your guard, lay down your guard

A call to arms is what you need
I’m calling on you to sing along with me

Call to Arms, The Attack

How can we cultivate spaces where everyone has that soaring sense of inclusion, where we can have difficult and meaningful conversations?

Because everyone deserves the shelter and embrace of crip space, to find their people and set down roots in a place they can call home.

“The Beauty of Spaces Created for and by Disabled People” by s.e. smith in “Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the 21st Century“

The Curse

And I’m doing
Better, every day
Because of those who stay aware
That we’re as great as we make
And not all differences need to be so
Explained

The Curse, Solillaquists of Sound

Access intimacy is also the intimacy I feel with many other disabled and sick people who have an automatic understanding of access needs out of our shared similar lived experience of the many different ways ableism manifests in our lives. Together, we share a kind of access intimacy that is ground-level, with no need for explanations. Instantly, we can hold the weight, emotion, logistics, isolation, trauma, fear, anxiety and pain of access. I don’t have to justify and we are able to start from a place of steel vulnerability.

Access Intimacy: The Missing Link | Leaving Evidence

Bad Reputation

I don’t give a damn ’bout my reputation
Never been afraid of any deviation
And I don’t really care if you think I’m strange
I ain’t gonna change

Bad Reputation, Joan Jett

…punk rockers belonged to an international cohort in the 1970s seeking new sources of belonging as trust in traditional sources of community waned. With its increased emphasis on self-actualization and self-definition, the 1970s – and punk rock – therefore marked a critical juncture in the history of the self in America. Punk rock began as simple efforts by individual, unconnected people to make music that fulfilled them, something they hoped might revitalize the music industry. Over time, these discrete and disparate people and labors grew into a subculture whose music, publications, art, and lifestyle became a powerful critique of not only the music business but also the family, institutional authority, suburbia, dominant gender mores, and mainstream consumerism. Aesthetically diverse, a punk sensibility valued individuality above all else and allowed participants to be alternately angry, cynical, ironic, or hedonistically joyful. Despite punk rockers’ best efforts, these attributes they wore on their sleeves – individualism, apathy, hedonism, and irony – could not mask their very strong desires for existential meaning, a yearning to belong to something worthwhile. Punks came together in an inherently unstable community celebrating individualism.

Joan Jett, guitarist for the Runaways, a proto-punk Los Angeles band, voiced the feeling of innumerable punk rockers by stating, “A defining moment for any teen misfit is finding others like yourself, even if the only thing you share is the feeling of not belonging anywhere else.” Alice Bag, also of Los Angeles, described punk as being “like the Island of Misfit Toys” because it contained “all these people that had been ostracized and … had been considered geeks and nerds in school.” But “you put us all together, and we felt accepted, and we felt like we were in an environment where we could thrive and be creative without being criticized.” In these two quotes lies the central tension of punk rock: it was built on individualism and an anti-hero ethos, yet expressed itself as a community. The motivation for punk was individualistic artistic expression, but the glue for the subculture was the experience of finding like-minded misfits.

Dissertation or Thesis | We accept you, one of us?: punk rock, community, and individualism in an uncertain era, 1974-1985
We’ll start our own label

Out of Tune

Lately I’ve been feeling out of tune out of tune
I don’t know why but I would like to know why
And I want to get back in tune
Out of tune that’s what I am

Being out of tune pains my head
(can’t get out of bed)
Hurts from being out of tune and
I just so want to get back in tune
Out of tune that’s what I am out of tune

--Out of Tune

Roots

A long-standing and influential theory regarding disability is the “social model,” initially advanced by Mike Oliver. The social model argues that “disability” does not reside within individuals, but is actually created by a mismatch between social structures and individual capacities. These structures can include obvious physical barriers (such as stairs, which could make it impossible for people in wheelchairs to enter a school or workplace by themselves), but can also include intolerant social attitudes which make it very difficult for people who don’t act in a manner that is considered “acceptable” to participate socially or avail themselves of community resources.

British human right activist Liz Sayce has specifically extended the social model to explain much of the disability that is experienced by people diagnosed with mental illnesses, and has argued for the establishment of “inclusive communities” to facilitate greater community participation among these individuals.

Source: Punk Rock and the Dream of the Accepting Community | Psychology Today

Any time I think I feel at home again
I hit the ground running 'til I'm gone
I've spent the past few months stuck in my own head
Just 'cause I can't connect with anyone

My legs are restless, eyes are heavy, set me free
From this feeling I have learned is discontent
I'm out of gas, I'm out of cash, but now I see
I was never really broken
I was bent

-- Roots

Tunnel Vision

When I opened my eyes this morning
There's only one thing I could say
It was "Dammit, I'm awake."

My bedroom walls were closing in
And my chest was getting tight
Tunnel visioned, there is no light

Knocked down, face down, into the ground
What's wrong with me?
Anxiety
Breathe in, breathe out, without a sound
There's nowhere for me
Anxiety

-- Tunnel Vision

Manic Depression

It’s about rejecting pity, inspiration porn, & all other forms of ableism. It rejects the “good cripple” mythos. Cripple Punk is here for the bitter cripple, the uninspirational cripple, the smoking cripple, the drinking cripple, the addict cripple, the cripple who hasn’t “tried everything”. Cripple Punk fights internalized ableism & fully supports those struggling with it. It respects intersections of race, culture, gender, sexual/romantic orientation, size, intersex status, mental illness/neuroatypical status, survivor status, etc. Cripple Punk does not pander to the able bodied.

what are the principles of cripple punk? Are there any rules?
'Cause I can't help what my head is telling me
I can't stop myself from listening
Manic depression
Yeah
Endless obsessions
Yeah
No I can't help what my head is telling me
I can't stop myself from listening
Manic depression
Yeah
Endless obsessions
Yeah

-- Manic Depression

Imaginary Numbers

Hey, you ever stop to think that maybe we're all different?
Or that you can't just throw every student into the same system
Just examine resources and where they're placin' em
I'm just saying there's different students out there facing some pain
It's completely unfair to expect that they would behave the same
But go ahead, make it harder for one and watch them play the game
So real shit? I wrote this for the outcasts
What you have to offer is worthwhile, don't ever doubt that

-- Imaginary Numbers

Every Right Now

I think we need a rebellion of what I call the “caring class,” people who care about others and justice.

DAVID GRAEBER VIA THE BEAUTY OF COLLABORATION AT HUMAN SCALE
Every right now
Is the next chorus
And everyday is a bright new day

Every right now
Is the next chorus
And we can all do something good

--Ronan Boren of Stimpunks and Josephmooon

Create more anti-ableist spaces.

Let’s act to hold ALL spaces accountable for providing care and access to disabled folks with all types of bodies and minds.

JEN WHITE-JOHNSON

We can start building more accessible, care-centered communities now. We can combat ableism now. We can lay the groundwork for a world that works better for all of us.

DR. SAMI SCHALK ON TWITTER

Know Your Rights

This is a public service announcement… with guitar!

— Know Your Rights
You have the right to food money
Providing of course you
Don't mind a little
Investigation, humiliation
And if you cross your fingers
Rehabilitation

-- Know Your Rights

Disability systems rely on artificial economies of scarcity. Programs are underfunded, so caregivers, teachers, social workers, and disabled people themselves are all pushed to project their needs as necessary and virtuous. 

I Shouldn’t Have to Dehumanize My Son to Get Him Support

Turkish Coffee

Stressed out? Trying to climb the ladder to Safe & Social? Restore equanimity with the track below from BALTHVS.

Image credit: Trauma Geek

True Colors

There is room for all of us to play our part. And whatever we do, however we do it, we can do it with ‘loud hands’ and ‘loud voices,’ and loud whatever else we need, in whatever way that works for us individually or collectively. Let us be our real autistic selves, loud and proud, and show the world what we truly are.

Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking (p. 125). Autistic Self Advocacy Network

True colors are beautiful

Like a rainbow

You Learn

Wear it out (The way a three-year-old would do)
Melt it down (You're gonna have to eventually anyway)
The fire trucks are comin' up around the bend
You live, you learn
You love, you learn
You cry, you learn
You lose, you learn
You bleed, you learn
You scream, you learn
You grieve, you learn
You choke, you learn
You laugh, you learn
You choose, you learn
You pray, you learn
You ask, you learn
You live, you learn
-- You Learn

As If We Existed

We make things that help people, and we won’t make things that harm people.

Move carefully and fix things.

What if love said: Hear me out a bit before the future comes around.

What's the problem with my genius?
Too attached to ever leave it
Silent for the new achievement but
What I long to witness is the equal shift
Of lifted gadgetry to intuition by
Genius giving up its selfish tact
And bringing praise of spirit back (Hey)
Pay respect upon the debt incurred
By non-belief when soul was speaking
Called simplistic by a name familiar to
Those regulars who think intelligence a competition
Missing opportunity to be a real show embarrassment
The care is not
The care is NOT spewing tools to ax the problem
Rather asking have or how they aptly solve themselves
...
What if love said: Hear me out a bit before the future comes around
...
This isn't anger, no, it's passion so let's live the way we should
As if we existed

"As If We Existed" by Solillaquists of Sound

Stronger Than You

Fostering healthy pluralism, which democracy demands, means confronting intolerance.

Chrissy Stroop
Pluralism Rocks: Inclusion Songs
I know you think I'm not something you're afraid of
'Cause you think that you've seen what I'm made of
Well I am even more than the two of them!
Everything they care about is what I am!
I am their fury, I am their patience
I am a conversation!

I am made o-o-o-o-of
Lo-o-o-o-ove, o-o-o-o-ove
And it's stronger than you
Lo-o-o-o-ove, lo-o-o-o-ove, lo-o-o-o-ove
And it's stronger than you
Lo-o-o-o-ove, lo-o-o-o-ove, lo-o-o-o-ove
And it's stronger than you
Lo-o-o-o-ove, lo-o-o-o-ove, lo-o-o-o-ove

-- Stronger Than You

Rainbow Connections

A rainbow doesn't choose to be a rainbow
It just shines in the sky

To all of you in darkness
We're here turning on the light

Now I stand with you for the world to see
My love, my dreams, and me
My love, my dreams, and me

-- Rainbow Connections

“Everything is politics”, but the code of conduct is not about an advance of progressive/left-wing politics. It’s about establishing a minimal level of civil and professional collaboration. Civil, non-discriminatory, and professional behavior should be a baseline and shared value held by people of all ideologies, regardless of political affiliation (with the obvious exception of hate groups).

Contributor Covenant: Frequently Asked Questions about Contributor Covenant

When social spaces are designed without concern for all groups of users, the space will become an echo chamber of ideas and perspectives from a narrower range of people.

ADL Social Pattern Library | Inclusive Social Spaces – ADL Social Pattern Library

Androgynous

Genderpunk: a colloquial term for culture and resistance against gendernormativity; an identity that in and of itself is a resistance against gender norms, homophobia and transphobia, oppression and societal status.

Your gender has nothing to do with your eligibility to be genderpunk. If you agree with the mindset, no matter how you identify, you can be a part of the movement. 

Source: Have A Gay Day : What is ‘Genderpunk’?

Don’t Leave Me Gravity

Dive in, don't you roll over
Don’t you promise your lungs to the fights
Starving, hardly knew Mozart
Don't you know he was never quite right

He used to see craters, in her head
He used to be darling and cheap
But no one believed him
When he said he lost his strength

I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images and cling
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing

Zombie eyes are promising
Crooked teeth are sweet
Don't leave me gravity
Don’t leave me gravity
He used to see craters, in her head
He used to be darling and cheap
But no one believed him
When he said he lost his strength

I always believed him
When he said he couldn't find his feet
I always believed him
When he said it didn't feel complete

I always believed
I always believed
Breathe
Breathe
I always believed him
'til he made it back to our beat
-- Don’t Leave Me Gravity

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All videos as a playlist.

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