Welcome back to The Weekend Press! Today, Kat Rosenfield reviews “Fjord,” a new movie that examines whether liberal democracies actually tolerate conservative Christian immigrants. Suzy Weiss drinks with the woman inside Dustin Hoffman’s head. Spencer Klavan on the ancient Greek tragedy that Republicans need right now. And more!
But first: Disability isn’t “magic.”
Good intentions can become ugly realities. And nowhere is that clearer than in how we treat the mentally unwell.
America closed an overwhelming number of its psychiatric hospitals, because surely its schizophrenics didn’t deserve to be locked up like they were in prison? And so, many of them ended up on the street.
An anxious mother hears her teenage daughter say she has developed multiple personality disorder, like the other girls on TikTok, and takes her to see a therapist. And so, pediatricians report, they’re overwhelmed with patients more likely to be suffering from social contagion than genuine illness.
Disability activists encourage us to see autism as a “superpower,” to help erode stigma. And so, those with a profoundly life-inhibiting form of the disorder are erased from the awareness-raising conversation.
“The rhetorical alchemy of recasting disability as something not bad, or even as a positive good, might serve the needs of relatively high-functioning people with relatively high-status disabilities,” writes Freddie deBoer in our lead essay. “But this way of thinking utterly abandons those for whom disability is a daily assault on their ability to function.”
His piece is an excerpt from his remarkable new book, All in Your Head: Illness as Identity, Trauma as Fashion, and the Desire to Be Disordered. It’s not a memoir, but it is personal; Freddie has spent a lifetime suffering from bipolar disorder, and, he writes, “stigma has never been one of my hundred biggest problems.”
The same is true of most disabled people. “Talk to someone struggling to live with cystic fibrosis. Talk privately to the caretakers of severely autistic adolescents who are prone to violent outbursts,” writes Freddie. “They don’t need euphemisms. They don’t want saccharine narratives.”
They want society to recognize the painful realities of their lives—and offer material support.
And therein lies a lesson for the newly empowered Democratic Party: A true politics of the left is not about shouting at people on social media, even if that’s more fun. It is about doing the hard, and not very sexy, work of legislating to make life in America fairer for the most vulnerable.
Read his full piece below:
Second Thought
Is foie gras the new paper straw? This week, among all the election headlines, you may have seen that the French delicacy has been banned in Denver and D.C.—but is this anything more than a feel-good nod to animal rights in a nation full of pigs in cages? In the latest episode of Second Thought, Suzy and Dan Ahdoot get into it—as well as last weekend’s most cancel-worthy Halloween costumes, and the Englishman who just got home after spending nearly 30 years walking around the world. “This is such a British celebrity,” says Suzy. “Just someone who plods along in pain for half of their life.” He didn’t even enjoy it!
Click the link below to watch the episode, or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
This week, we published a full slate of election coverage—which you can catch up on here. Also, Larissa Phillips reflected on the ideological whiplash of being a MAHA mom; Arthur Brooks gave advice on how to raise your kid to be a reader; and Evan Gardner reported on bona fide data centers in space!
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How should you spend the rest of your weekend? We asked our columnist Kat Rosenfield for her recommendations . . .
🚶Walk . . . the Hudson Highlands for a scenic stroll in the woods at Harriman State Park—or channel your inner mountain goat and scramble up the Butter Hill loop for spectacular vistas at Storm King (where I spent a very enjoyable Tuesday this week not-thinking about politics or elections). The October crowds are gone, but thanks to an exceptionally mild fall, the foliage is still near peak.
🎵Listen . . . To the best late autumn mood music, by English folk musician Vashti Bunyan, whose 1970 album Just Another Diamond Day was critically underrated in its time but has since acquired a cult following; the songs are the ideal soundtrack for skipping through a golden wood at twilight or chopping root vegetables for a stew.
🎃Eat . . . As a wise man once said,“It’s decorative gourd season, motherfuckers”— but also, more importantly, decorative gourds are also edible gourds. My husband and I love this recipe for acorn squash roasted and stuffed with Moroccan-spiced lamb sausage, rice, and mint, which is beautiful enough for a Thanksgiving side dish but easy enough for anytime. Pair it with a cute salad and a big, fat glass of red wine.
That’s all, folks! Have a great weekend.
