28.2: Activity by T Nowacki
- Page ID
- 249494
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Read the excerpt from “Intersectional Disability Politics” by T Nowacki, and then consider the numbered statements below. Each numbered statement contains at least two logical fallacies: identify the fallacies in the text below, and name the logical fallacy applied there. Then, explain in your own words why each statement is not logical/not a valid argument.
Excerpt
From “Intersectional Disability Politics” by T Nowacki
Many disability activists today argue that activists in all other arenas—those who focus on gender, race, sexual orientation, anti-capitalist ideal, or poverty—should by default also be disability advocates, and there’s good reason for that. Disabled people are, arguably, the most overlooked minority group, yet disability is something that almost all people, if they live long enough, will experience at some point in their lives. Ableism also underpins all other “-isms:” think of the various arguments that attempt prove that women aren’t as physically strong as men and are therefore inferior to men. Or, consider the old justifications for slavery that attempted to prove that black people were less cognitively able than white people, and therefore benefited from the “guidance” of their white oppressors. Until the 1970s, homosexuality was clinically viewed as a mental defect—rendering LGB folks clinically disabled by their sexual orientation. Disability has been used to marginalize, abuse, and oppress people for the entire recorded history of the United States. It’s clear that ableism is inherently tied white supremist, patriarchal, and anti LGBTQIA+ ideologies. Disabled people want their human rights honored, and they want policies and legislation to ensure that their rights, just like that of their non-disabled peers, are clearly established, defended, and guaranteed. ’
Statements
- Nowacki’s palpable hatred for white men renders their argument about disability invalid.
- If a slew of new legislation and policies are created to protect all issues that can be defined as a “disability,” we’ll have people with paper cuts claiming they were discriminated against because of their “disability”: it will be a distraction for lawmakers and will create frivolous lawsuits that will jam up our courts.
- Nowacki competently argues that the heart-breaking plight of disabled people in our society, who suffer greatly each day just to do things that you and I hardly even notice, warrants our activism and allyship.
- In “Intersectional Disability Politics,” Nowacki sets up a dangerous paradigm where having personal opinions, preferences, and abilities is unacceptable —you’d be fired for suggesting that your female colleague isn’t as bright as a male on your team, and you’d be called “ableist” for playing basketball, since not all people are able to play it. Maybe you’d even somehow be racist, too, according to Nowacki.
- Nowacki fails to consider why, historically, disabled people were marginalized. If experts in medical science, social science, and psychiatry all agreed for centuries that disabled people were a special class of people that deserved protection but could not participate in society fully due to their deficits, why should that precedent be overturned now?