TW eugenics. So in August of this year a hashtag I created went viral and now that viral hashtag is an activist group….. I was and still am a somewhat small scale, small following type of activist who talks a lot about the issues but just you know…. Right into the ether. I am

a member of a group of friends who also are an activist group called Feminists against Ableism @FAbleism but we are also as a group relatively new to the playing field and in need of some growing. So I was not prepared for what would happen but I had my friends to help me.

Anyway since the start of the Covid crisis, eugenics talks happened a lot. From the beginning on on there were talks about that it was ok because the virus left the young and healthy relatively alone, there were talks about we should just let high risk people die, we are

protecting only the fat and old (as if disabled people, old people and fat people deserve to only live when ablebodied people find it a good thing), maybe we need to stop everything and just open everything up again. And this was not just politicians, or conspiracy theorists.

Netherlands is a country where we pride the debate, including debating stuff that do not effect anyone debating there, because we are a country that pride our (their word, not mine) intellectualism. So these people who were debating other people’s, not their own, deaths had those

conversations everywhere in the media. Not a day goes by and eugenics were talked off. (from what I hve seen all countries had this happen, this was not inclusive to the Netherlands at all, I am just explaining my story)

A lot of Dutch disability activists talked about it a

lot, as well as our plight as it comes to the ineffective measures in place that were supposed to protect us, and it lived a lot in our community but the segregation that happens between disabled people and ablebodied people meant that the plight of high risk groups that had

segregated themselves from society went unheard.

The power of a hashtag is not just the way it was created, although usability plays a role, as does reach to the people you want to reach. The power of a hashtag comes from a lot of people having a lot to say. And we had a lot to

say when I created the hashtag with all my disabled friends backing me up in August (Honestly the strength I get from these people).
While people were going on holidays again we were still locked up with no end in sight and no protection in place.. And when there were again

three articles or so about eugenics in just a 24 hours timespan , the last one just made me so angry. And when I am angry I often have a lot to say. So the hashtag was born.

And I was not the only one angry with something to say. The hashtag was consistently trending as a viral

hashtag for multiple days. There were intervieuws for me and other people as people started to see us for at least a while. And then we were mentioned in a political debate and from that debate two things were born. The promise that politicians were going to talk to with high

risk groups, which ended up happening in October (GeenDorHout was not a part of it unfortunately) and we were mentioned as an action based activist group instead of a hashtag….. And from there the idea and execution came to actually make it just that.

We are now an action

based activist group as well as a support group. Did it end up making a lot of change in the long run? No, unfortunately not. But the small changes still linger and I appreciate that. More people do start to get that the eugenics talks are not ok. We still come together, on our

group discord, and on the hashtag. We did already organize some protests. And most of all, The hashtag now has a life on it’s own and I still see pop it up in media and on so many places in so many ways. That was and still is pretty awesome. For a lot of the stuff we need you

need structural change our current government is unwilling to offer. But for the need for that to be shown, we also need people to see our plight. And I hope, I think, the hashtag was one of many contributing factors in making us more visible. Something that would never have

happened if a lot of people did not come together and showed we had something to say. Go follow @GeenDorHout. And go follow @Fableism as well. We are currently reorganizing some stuff behind the scenes but we are definitely having some nice stuff up our sleeve.

ps. If you are Dutch and have an interest of changing the plight of disabled people so situations like what happened during this pandemic with the treatment of high risk groups can be avoided in the feature, you should take a look at the programme of @PolitiekBIJ1 that came out

yesterday and is both accesible in text and audio for those who cognitive dysfunction does not allow them to read anymore and those who are blind. I am not telling you how to vote, but this is very much align with my activism for disabled people and high risk groups who were hit

hard by the pandemic and I would be amiss if I not point out ways to possible help our community. Go check it out and see what you think of it.