In the last 24 hours, RFK Jr, Health and Human Services Secretary, announced an autism registry.
If that announcement doesn’t send chills down your spine, it’s worth revisiting Aktion T4, the Nazi regime’s mass murder campaign to eliminate people with disabilities. Across occupied territories, an estimated 275,000 to 300,000 individuals were killed because of the perceived weakness of their psychiatric or physical conditions.
To some, this might seem like a dramatic response.
But in the 1920s, the sterilization of those deemed "unfit" or "hereditarily disadvantaged" wasn’t just accepted, it was widely promoted. 20 years later it was leading to mass incarceration and massacres across Europe.
What started online as a place where people could share their stories of dealing with rare (or not so rare cases) of physical and mental health ailments, building communities with things like #neurospicy hashtags, social media platforms have embraced a new form of digital engagement built on toxic health obsessions and trends. These can often start like harmless recommendations on first blush. Recommendations that follow basic diet and exercise routines but can quickly devolve into pushing strange supplement purchases and the pursuit of longevity and mental acuity at all costs.
Bryan Johnston, the internet phenom who has purported that we don’t have to be our biological age, has a slew of supplements and routines he regularly pushes to his followers. Viral social media stars show more and more extreme routines of waking up at 3 am, taking ice baths, and making self-care an Olympic sport.
So what does all of that have to do with an autism registry?
The obsession with physical wellness and purity is exactly what fueled the eugenics movement of the 1920s, and the psychiatric torture chambers of Nazi-occupied Europe in the 1940s. Today, the Trump administration is socializing this dated idea that ailments are moral failures. They promote research that questions whether autism might be caused by personal choices, like vaccination status, subtly implying that deviations from a perceived health standard reflect individual failings rather than a random spin of the genetic lottery.
These obsessions with health standards and pursuit of mental acuity have also enlivened an even darker conversation that we often see playing out across x.com, Substack and even from staff at Elon Musk’s DOGE.
Of particular interest to the tech bros in their pursuit of physical and mental perfection, the conversation of IQ seems to be top of mind. The reason? Creating a gateway for far-right ideologues to revive racist pseudoscience, framing IQ as intrinsically linked to race. Ignoring any social or systematic reasons behind their “social science” claims - these “renegades” of thought believe academics are dishonest for not engaging with their inquiries. And these are not just fringe intellectuals. There are millions of dollars going into these faux social sciences, creating digital magazines and think thanks that support their views, like Aporia or the Human Diversity Foundation.
In an ever changing digital landscape, our previously safe spaces for exploring our own differences are being weaponized and abused to make us think they are personal failures, and not unique parts of our human geography. But they are wrong - and as good stewards of the digital space we have to remind ourselves, and each other, that our differences make us stronger and homogenous entities in nature are actually the most prone to failure.
In a 46 page decision, Judge Boasburg, called out the Trump administration for defying court orders about abducting people and sending them to foreign gulags without due process // @IAMLEGALLYHYPE
Recession indicators are all the rage online, but have you ever heard of the Hemline Index? // Bimbo University 🎀
RFK Jr is creating an autism index - a concept which violates a slew of existing mandates around consumer and health protections // @morgaanfoley
The Trump Administration, after functionally dismantling the education department, is now working with the DOD and DOJ to create disciplinary processes to potentially be adopted around the country // Mrs. Frazzled
Canada is leaning into working with creators during their upcoming federal election, but the results are mixed with some creators acknowledging that similar to America’s 2024 election, there is a disconnect between politics and authenticity
Taylor Lorenz’s latest shows that Democrats working with creators in politics is still full of pitfalls as folks are learning how to work together and what it looks like to be “Online” in an age of AI, competitive fundraising, and a fractured legacy media landscape
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In solidarity,
Rynn
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