Most of a fear of ageing is just ableism (specifically, fear of disability) if we’re being real about things, right? Am I missing something here?

Context: that thing where a young person says they’re not afraid of ageing and an older person says “wait until you’re older, then you’ll understand!”

I’m 25, disabled, in an unreliable body w constant pain + debilitating fatigue, unable to work, on a govt pension, substantially excluded from society, experiencing loss of (“productive”) identity...

Maybe if we treated disabled people better you wouldn’t need to fear this?

I agree with comments that fear of losing beauty privilege is a part of it too.

If you’re afraid of mortality, surely that is being afraid of mortality not being afraid of ageing though?

Many people have shared great insights of other factors in the replies here. Thank you.

I stand by what I said in my first tweet, that “most” of the fear is ableism, at least as the fear is discussed with young/er people.

A lot of what we call ageism is ableism.