It’s hard for me to celebrate July 4th given the fascist descent the United States of America is hurtling down. Care systems are being dismantled. Life is increasingly perilous for neurodivergent, Disabled, and queer people in this country. Cruelty is the point.
Yet, I am reluctant to let bigots define the day and carry the celebration.
So on this 250th, I’m celebrating what I love about this country. Its beauty. It’s people. It’s football. And right now, it’s futbol. I love that the World Cup being here reminds us that diversity is our strength and that immigrants are vital to our greatness. And that sometimes it takes people coming here to appreciate the joy of welcoming strangers. And the little things like the sizes of our Costco and the concept of our ranch dressing and the taste of our barbecue. And that we’re founded on an aspirational document that stated that we would have no kings unless they be burger, and we would have no queens unless they be dairy.
Weird July 4 #independenceday #july4th #worldcup #immigrants #supremecourt #politics #comedy #shorts – YouTube
Happy 4th. Stay ornery.
Weird July 4 #independenceday #july4th #worldcup #immigrants #supremecourt #politics #comedy #shorts – YouTube
Here’s what I can celebrate.
The Declaration of Independence is a list. Before it is anything else — before the self-evident truths, before the poetry — it is a bill of particulars against a king. A long train of abuses, enumerated. Named. The founding gesture wasn’t the fireworks. It was writing power down and refusing to let it stay hidden. Hold this truth to be self-evident: they named the systems of power and aimed the grievance upward, at the crown, not down at the governed.
That’s the instinct worth keeping. Not the flag. Not the state. The refusal.
You cannot change a reality that you cannot name.
Kimberlé Crenshaw | ‘You Cannot Change a Reality That You Cannot Name’ — FAIR
Power works best when it stays unnamed. That’s the whole trick. So 250 years on, power has learned to hide again — and it has turned the watching around. The state monitors people, not power. It builds registries. It tracks the Disabled and the neurodivergent. It sorts Autistic children into compliance. It hunts immigrants and calls it safety. It watches the vulnerable while it lets itself off the hook. The gaze that the founders pointed at the king now points at the child.
That is the inversion. Monitoring people, not power.
So name it.
Monitor Power, Not People.
“Left to itself, power moves to protects the institution, not the child”
Left to itself, power protects the institution. Never the person. That’s not a bug in England’s SEND system or in ours. That’s the purpose of a system, revealed by what it does. So we don’t leave it to itself. We watch the watchers. We turn the surveillance back around and aim it where the founders first aimed it — up.
And what’s actually worth celebrating was never the power. It’s the people who refuse it. Mutual aid. The welcome we extend to strangers. Interdependence instead of sorting. Diversity is our strength — that line in the comedy bit is also the whole of disability justice. We are stronger, weirder, more ornery, and more alive together. The good stuff — the barbecue, the ranch, the welcoming, the no-kings — belongs to the people, not the crown.
Broken systems, not broken people. Aim the gaze upward.
This July 4th, rooted in the rejection of kings, keep the founders’ first instinct and lose their blind spots. Write power down. Name it. Watch it. Monitor Power, Not People.
Stay ornery.
“Monitor Power, Not People” credit: Monitor Power, Not People – Vintage TV Sticker – Liberal Jane Illustration
Name the systems of power.
- Neoliberalism
- Conservatism
- Resentment
- Southern Strategy
- Lost Cause
- Segregationist Discourse
- Meritocracy Myth
- Moral Panic
- Lowering the Bar
- Minority Stress
- Racial Weathering
- Policing
- Toxic Masculinity
- Bodily Autonomy
- Biological Essentialism
- Stigma
- Shame
- Ableism
- Eugenics
- Administrative Burden
- R-Word
- Empire of Normality
- Autism Grievance Parent
- Power
- Privilege
- Precarity
- Oligarchy
- Sadopopulism
- Systems Generated Trauma
- Rot Economy
- Fantasy Economy
- Metric Fixation
- Objectivity
- Tech Ethics
- Ableism
- Neuronormativity
- Empire of Normality
- Pathology Paradigm
- Behaviorism
- Eugenics
- Deficit Ideology
- Sameness-Based Fairness
- ”Better get used to it.”
- Inspiration Exploitation
- School-Induced Anxiety
- Toxic Positivity
- Resilience
- Burnout
- The Road to Neuronormative Domination.
- Education Technology and the New Behaviorism
- We’ve Turned Classrooms Into a Hell for Neurodivergence
- 14 Obstacles to Neurodiversity Affirming Practice
- Double Empathy Problem
- Double Empathy Extreme Problem
- Triple Empathy Problem
- Disability Double-bind
- Performative Neurodiversity (Neurodiversity Lite)
- Pathology Lite
- Empire of Normality
- Harm Reduction Theater
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