Walking through downtown Bellingham, arguing out loud with each other about which store to visit next & some inner system politics, we had a moment.

We used to think poorly of people who talked to themselves this way. Some of us reflexively still do.

So we talked about that.

We remember an incident in the Rite Aid on the corner down there, shortly after we’d come out as plural to ourselves.

There was an older person zoned out in the line waiting for the counter. The clerk noticed them and shouted their name and told them they could come forward.

This person stood their ground, and angrily shouted back something like, “We don’t answer to that name right now!”

We don’t remember it word for word. Our witnesses aren’t awake right now.

But we remember thinking, “Ah! Another system!”

But it was very clear that this other system wasn’t doing well. They wore ratty, dirty clothing in many layers, and were clearly dissociating. They were also such a regular to that store that the clerks knew a name for them and were patronizing in their tone.

Our culture is fucking cruel to neurodivergent people. It’s eugenics. Nothing less.

And then we log back in on Twitter and encounter people with profile pics showing off carefully applied makeup and clean hair shouting at other users that “DID isn’t real!”

All through our life, we’ve heard that, actually. It started on the elementary school playground.

People like to sound smart and authoritative by quoting skeptical takes they’ve read somewhere, touting it all as science. And that starts early, on the playground, and people never give it up.

And it’s part of the whole system of saneism & ableism, so society can turn its back.

If you’re out there fakeclaiming anyone, for anything, for whatever reason you think you’re doing it, you’re just a stooge of fascism.

There’s no benefit in this world to be had for claiming to be plural. All it gets you is shit and an ignoble end.

But if you ARE plural, sometimes it’s what you have to do to actually live a little and function as best you can.

But we still get punished for it.