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Emma

@autistic-me.bsky.social
1.6K followers 3.2K following 269 posts

Autistic and chronically ill. Interested in disability, education, research and change. And cute animals and music 🐧🐶 🇬🇧

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Reposted by Emma
Adam @abrokenbattery.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
“ME/CFS patients are deeply inconvenient.” George Monbiot on how people with #MECFS need long term support, but governments and insurers have an incentive to “brush it away” and dismiss patients leaving them “massively mistreated, maligned” and “blamed for their illness”.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Here's today's column on the astonishing, ongoing mistreatment of people with #ME/CFS. Please spread it far and wide: the only thing which can break the media's wall of indifference is seeing an article about the issue go viral. Thank you. 1/2 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Abandoned, dismissed and gaslighted: there is no excuse for the way ME sufferers have been betrayed | George Monbiot
Changes in guidance and science seem to have little impact on millions of devastated lives. It’s a social crisis playing out behind closed doors, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Stephen Frost @sfrost.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
This is how communities show up for each other. Do read this by Nicola Browne from Act Now👇
Highlighted text:

A group of literally hundreds of people has sprung into action, coordinating, donating, providing lifts for families to get somewhere safe for the night, bringing food to those who don’t want to leave the house, offering shelter, car seats, toys and arts supplies for children. Ordinary people from every background, community and colour are carrying out thousands of acts of care and repair, looking after people they do not know, and showing clearly that none of this is in their name.
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Dr Nicola Clague-Baker @claguenjc36.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
1. Training of #hcps People with #ME/CFS and #longcovid I need your thoughts and ideas please. I would like to develop simulation training for all #hcps. We now use a lot of simulation which means that we can simulate severe #ME and #longcovid in a hospital setting.
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Binita Kane @binitakane.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
I saw a patient last week with ME who in 2023 was told by the MECFS service to ‘get back to the gym’. She did 20 minutes, collapsed and hasn’t walked since. The advice is still out there, still wrong and the harm is real.
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Emma @autistic-me.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Think I'm going to have to rewatch the first race across the world episode and count the number of cats 🐈 Close ups of around ten of them and several more in the background too. I have no objections.
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Climate News @climatenews.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
Energy security, food security, economic security, and democratic stability all depend on a stable climate.
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Rachel Charlton-Dailey @rachelcdailey.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Local authorities spend £150 MILLION a year fighting SEND parents in appeals and tribunals. That money could've supported 26,000 kids. Oh, and their success rate is less than 1% By me for @thecanaryuk.bsky.social www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/...
thecanary.co
Councils spend over £150 million a year trying to stop disabled kids getting support
Local authorities are supposed to help the parents and families of SEND children. But many are failing in their duties entirely
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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Good morning. A regular reminder: a tiny few hoard staggering wealth and own much of the media, while millions struggle to survive. That’s not an accident. It’s a choice made by those in power. Tax wealth. Fund public services. Build an economy for everyone - not the 1%.
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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Renee Good tells ICE, "That's fine dude, I'm not mad at you" - then ICE agent shoots her and says "f*cking b*tch" America, how can you be ok with this?
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Chronic Illness Humor @chronicillness.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
@GinaMcGalliard

Stop telling those with #chronicillness exercise will cure them. Also, please stop implying they don’t want to get better when they explain exercise isn’t a medical treatment. Many of us were highly athletic and active before getting sick. Your telling us this causes great pain.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
How many times do we need to point this out? By appeasing the far right, you do not weaken it. You strengthen it. While weakening your own position. There's a vast amount of academic research showing this. But Labour will not listen. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/dec...
theguardian.com
Starmer urges Europe’s leaders to curb ECHR to halt rise of far right
Exclusive: PM calls for members of European convention on human rights to allow tougher action to protect borders
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Pablo 🎧 @pabloista.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
I can believe what I want. My worldview comes from my own lived experience, the things I've learned, struggled with and made sense of over time But here’s the bit people miss: lived experience doesn’t automatically make me right or wrong. It just explains why I see the world the way I do 1/3
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Jackie Nicholson @jax1712.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
This..⬇️ anyone means anyone! Resulting in long term debillitaing illnesses, unable to work or function normally, not knowing how youre going to get through the day from the moment you wake up, if you're lucky enough to get some decent sleep. 🤷‍♀️🙏🏽
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Emma @autistic-me.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Hopefully the other parties take note of this. Reform voters are not united and with the right messaging can hopefully be swung... #HopeNotHate
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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
“His main theme was that the country was fucked. Largely because of Brexit. Weirdly, he has no memory of being the main architect behind the Brexit vote. He seems to think it happened in a world in which he played no part.” Farage - the foghorn of failure. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Nige is no longer laughing at himself as he ‘performs’ yet another big speech | John Crace
Reform leader is trying to make it as a mainstream politician – which involves contradicting himself and gaslighting voters
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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Gotta love Private Eye. Always cuts through the crap.
Minority representation on TV causes outrage

There has been widespread support for prominent Reform MP
Sarah Pochin after she complained about the over-representation of minorities on television.
Said one angry viewer, "She's right. Every time you turn on the telly there's another Reform MP being interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg."
She added, "I respect their way of life and their strange customs, but Reform MPs comprise only 0.7 percent of the House of Commons. Yet Nigel Farage is on Question Time more than Fiona Bruce."
"I'm not prejudiced. Some of my best friends are swivel-eyed loons, but enough is enough.
There are too many people with angry red faces on television.”
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 19/06/2025
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
Ever since I finished Question Time, Reform have massively been on the attack. Including a rant from Richard Tice entirely designed to distract from Reform and Russia. Everyone should know about Nathan Gill, the bribes from Russia and the link to Reform.
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Rev. Benjamin Cremer @brcremer.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
When you demonize and mistreat the immigrant, the poor, the starving, and the marginalized, I'm not interested in hearing about your religious beliefs. You've already shown me what they are by how you're demonizing and mistreating the immigrant, the poor, the starving, and the marginalized.
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Prof. Catherine Rowett, ex MEP @catherinerowett.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Please Starmer, stop blaming immigrants and human rights lawyers. You are making this country into a sewer of hatred and division. None of our problems are because of too much kindness.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Keir Starmer's aides are reportedly telling him not to go to the COP30 climate conference, because Reform would attack him for it. Yes, they might. And he should wear it as a badge of honour. Standing up for humanity, for science and a habitable planet. Where's the hazard in that?
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The Marsh Family @marshfamilysongs.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
In some ways, an oddly upbeat vibe, for a musical rundown of the backsliding #freespeech situation developing in the US ... but this is our 🎵 parody "Freedom of Speech" to the tune of #Disney's "Under the Sea" - with some familiar faces cut in. 😎 youtu.be/DyoYRN8cc-g #Kimmel #Colbert
youtu.be
"Freedom of Speech" - Marsh Family parody of "Under the Sea" from Disney's "The Little Mermaid"
YouTube video by Marsh Family
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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Well, this is terrifying. Not just because there are people so openly explicit in their deranged transphobia, but because in practice segregation of trans and non-binary individuals is already occuring, and not just in US. We're seeing it in UK and elsewhere 1/ www.thepinknews.com/2025/09/18/r...
thepinknews.com
Republican makes 'disgusting' call for mass institutionalisation of trans people
Texas Republican Ronny Jackson has been branded 'disgusting' after calling for trans people to be banned from public life.
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Kat Abughazaleh @katmabu.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Trans rights are human rights.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Could we please stop pretending that the flags being hung from streetlamps or painted on roundabouts are innocent expressions of patriotic pride? This is the far right marking out its territory. It uses these flags to intimidate its traditional victims and opponents. 🧵1/3
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Emma @autistic-me.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Sometimes it feels like the hardest part of chronic illness is being an observer. Seeing everything, feeling it all, able to do nothing. At times I've found ways to channel it +make some small difference. Then everything changes and I'm stuck again. An empath, relying on others with no end in sight.
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Solve M.E. @solveme.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
What if your body couldn’t bear light, sound, movement — or even touch? Today, #SevereMEDay, we ask you to imagine living that way not just for a day… but for years. For people living with Very Severe ME, this isn’t a metaphor — it’s reality. 🧵
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The Sick Times @thesicktimes.org · 08/08/2025
The posthumous album of young singer Kara Jane was released to mark #SevereMEDay. Despite a life of immense pain and restriction, Kara Jane left a legacy of beautiful music that has moved and inspired many thousands of people around the world while raising money for research. bit.ly/3UVX752
The “In Limbo” cover art for Kara Jane’s new album. It features art work of a white woman in a white dress floating in blue, abstract water. She stares directly at the viewer. The text reads, “The Sick Times. Posthumous album of singer Kara Jane released on Severe ME Awareness Day. By Naomi Whittingham.”"She lives on in the beautiful music she created, in the power of her message to the world, and in the hope that others in the future may not have to suffer as she did." - Naomi Whittingham
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Lou Calvey @loucalvey.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
Skegness, one of your absolute finest people right here. Buy her a drink whenever you see her.
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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Most folks are far closer to becoming disabled and/or homeless than they realize. It’s not a moral failing. It’s not something you can “try harder” your way out of. All it takes is one illness, accident or stroke of bad luck. We all need & deserve better social supports
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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
When I was little, the U.S. military came to our home at gunpoint and took me and my family away. We were imprisoned for years in barbed wire camps simply because we were Japanese American. I have spent my life telling that story, hoping it would never be repeated.
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Katy Montgomerie 🦗 @katymontgomerie.com · 15/07/2025
The UK pretending that sex is binary doesn't just hurt trans people! Intersex people aren't even recognised officially in the Equality Act and IGM still goes on! petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...
petition.parliament.uk
Petition: Add intersex to the Equality Act as a protected characteristic
We want the government to make sex variations a protected characteristic under the Equality Act.
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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
NEW FROM ME - Britain is abandoning international medical consensus on disability. Every other developed nation recognizes cumulative impairment as genuine severity. We're about to become an anomaly—and the logic of 4+ suggests it was deliberate. tinyurl.com/mwwb5xv4
tinyurl.com
Who Will Count as Disabled Tomorrow?
The dangerous redefinition of welfare disguised as Labour's compassionate reform.
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Professor Julie Hulme @juliehulme-psyc.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Please help Emma if you can? She’s a fab researcher and it sounds like a fun project!
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Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 13/06/2025
Sounds absurd to assert that a person's desire to know what my genitals are is more important than my desire to keep my genitals private but here we are.
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Emma @autistic-me.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
I'm looking for some #ActuallyAutistic #uni students in the UK, for my MSc dissertation. You'll find or create images representing your experiences of identity development at #university. You can share ideas anonymously with other students via Discord. More info here bit.ly/3FuX2l5. Thank you!
Rainbow header with a gold infinity symbol, saying Research study participants needed. The study title is "exploring autistic experiences of identity development in higher education". 
Info as in the post above - you need to be 18+, a UK university student and have autism diagnosis or be waiting to get one. You'll also need to be able to find, create or select images representing your experiences. 
More information at bit.ly/3FuX2l5, or my email address is w7r88@students.keele.ac.uk. Thank you!
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Special Needs Jungle @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
SO CLOSE‼️ Just over 7k 🔼 to the MAGIC 100K! petition.parliament.uk/petit... Defend Disabled children's #SEND rights! 📤 with family, school, FB/WhatsApp groups, non-SEND pals—SEND can affect any child at any time: "It could be you" (but you'll have a lot less money than a lottery win) SIGN & SHARE!
shows the total of the petition at 92,933
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Gpwriter @gpwriter.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Before the darkness falls and consumes us all with the coronation of a raging, criminal madman. Remember, the kindness, the decency, the days of joy and hope, and the smiles and eyes bright without dread and fear. #poetry #poets
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Eleanor Rylance 🔶🌳🌍🇫🇷🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇦🇨🇦 @eleanorrylance.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Trying to be Reform-lite isn’t working for Tories or Labour atm. It’s hard to see why they are not trying to offer alternative visions to the simplistic, fact-free nonsense put forward by Farage. Make people *feel* better, and they’ll stop falling for the first populists they see. Action needed.
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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
A former “friend” told me he cared for me & wanted me to have everything I needed… but that it was time I realize I’m a net negative in society. He referenced my “free surgeries”, countless ER trips & how the system was artificially extending my life. 🧵
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Ann Memmott @annmemmott.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Fabulous new research by this team, looking at what on earth is being measured when teams say they want to stop 'problem behaviour' in autistic young people using Early Interventions (ABA, NDBI, etc etc). I'll discuss very briefly here../
acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
<em>Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry</em> | ACAMH Pediatric Journal | Wiley Online Library
Background Some autistic children exhibit behavior that caregivers, clinicians, and researchers consider problematic. However, there is little consensus about the types of behaviors that should be t...
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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
It’s not too late for the government to change course. Keir Starmer is being advised to urgently pause the Government's plans to cut disability & health benefits by Parliament's work & pensions committee who say they should not go ahead without a comprehensive impact assessment Contact your MP, NOW
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The Marsh Family @marshfamilysongs.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
A song we adapted from "Iris" (Goo Goo Dolls) about seeing and acknowledging what's happening now, in Gaza. youtu.be/7OGcRQtorAM
youtu.be
"Gaza" - adaptation by the Marsh Family of "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls, on the occupation of Gaza
YouTube video by Marsh Family
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security.    Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.   Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. —Harry Truman, 1952
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Cassia Rowland @cassiarowland.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
This piece is spellbinding throughout. This bit in particular captures so beautifully my own feelings about being disabled, though it’s from the perspective of a parent to a disabled child. My experiences are part of who I am and have made me a better friend, colleague, neighbour.
Screenshot from the linked Guardian article reading “I don’t mean to be glib. If I could press a button that made Max’s life easier by granting him everything he has been denied, I would do it in a second. But if the question is whether I would take myself back to being the genial ignoramus of two years ago, I’m much less sure. I wish this had never happened, of course. But life would feel thin without it. I understand things about myself and the world now that I can’t wish I didn’t know. All of the noise about what on earth I’m here for has melted away. I think I am a better person, if a sadder one.”
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Arthur Webber 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 @bernietranders.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
You’re telling me that right wing voters that Labour was trying to appeal to voted for a right wing party anyway and left wing voters decided not to vote for Labour because they’re too right wing now? Who could have possibly predicted this.
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
If we really want to take on chronic diseases.... by @virusesimmunity.bsky.social and @hmkyale.bsky.social #LongCovid, post-infection syndromes, immune system assessment and intervention gift link www.wsj.com/opinion/how-...
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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
the thing I hate most about that rfk quote is that autistic lives have value and worth and beauty and dignity whether they are able to do the things other people do or not. no one is defined by ability or lack thereof and to frame divergence as lack is monster stuff, utterly godless
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Ann Memmott @annmemmott.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
The Chancellor seems convinced that her benefits-slashing won't result in poverty. 25 major charitable organisations have all explained, in detail, why that is not correct. A society is judged on how it treats its most vulnerable. Show some integrity and listening skills, please, Government.
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