this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2025
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Fuck AI
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Love it.
Steve Jobs once called the personal computer a bicycle for the mind; ChatGPT is a wheelchair for the mind. There is no shame in using a wheelchair if you need one, but if you don’t need one and use one anyway, you will come to need it.
this metaphor is ableist because nobody is pushing wheelchair use on abled people, unlike ChatGPT. and no, abled people won't become "dependent" on wheelchairs because they'll realize how miserable life is when you're barred from most public establishments.
most of the people perceived as "faking it" are just disabled people who can't afford a diagnosis or won't be diagnosed by medics due to racism, fatphobia, etc.
You make a good point.
I don’t agree that no one pushes wheelchairs on people who don’t need them (based on my personal experience). I live in a country with socialized medicine so i am not used to cost being a barrier to care, and i didn’t consider the american context.
you are definitely right that i am looking at wheelchairs the wrong way. i agree that they are liberating for many people. lately i have been pushing a stroller and it opened my eyes the tiniest bit to how many places are hostile to anything on wheels. i can barely imagine the access challenges that a person in a chair faces. the metaphor i used was totally off the mark in that respect.
i will let my comment stand, but i will think about what you said and try to be better.
may I ask what you mean by personal experience? are you a wheelchair user who's gone through the gatekeeping system to be prescribed one? if not, i think you have a highly idealized view of what that system looks like and how ableism is truly a global problem in medicine. i wasn't even talking from an American perspective.
you may live in a country with socialized medicine but I'm not aware of any system whose universal healthcare also applies to disabled people. even if the cost barrier was eliminated, all the other barriers to access like legal status, ableism and racism wouldn't go anywhere unless nation states and hierarchies ceased to be a thing.
This metaphor is a … metaphor and does not say or imply anyone is pushing wheelchairs on able bodies people or that a significant amount of wheelchair users does not need them.
But if you start consistently using a wheelchair when there is no physical reason for you to use one, will your muscles not atrophy, thereby making you need it?
I don't think this metaphor is inherently ableist. That wheelchairs aren't being pushed onto anyone isn't really relevant, nor is the fact that very few people fake needing a wheelchair. I don't think the person you replied to was shaming anyone for "faking it." Just saying that if you don't need a wheelchair, it's probably a bad idea to use one.
it is ableist though, because we get told we don't need to use one every single day. this stems from ableds vilifying wheelchair use as a "downgrade on the human experience" as opposed to a liberation tool, which is what it actually is.
their metaphor wouldn't even exist if this mentality wasn't normalized.
But... the person you're replying to didn't say you don't need to use a wheelchair. They said that if someone genuinely doesn't need to use a wheelchair, using one will likely have negative effects. Which is just, like, true? In my head, it's roughly akin to saying, "If you consistently take a medication you don't need, you're probably going to wind up needing a different medication to counteract the negative effects of the medication you unwisely took."
You're completely right that wheelchairs are liberation tools and shouldn't be vilified. And as someone who needs medical intervention to survive, I understand your frustration with ableist rhetoric. I just think your reading of this one is a bit off the mark.
what negative effects are there for ableds using a wheelchair? gonna need a few sources besides conjecture.
the only way they'd get hurt is from other ableds assaulting them or getting a badly fitted chair, which also happens with bikes. the double standard is that bikes would never get called a downgrade outside of carbrain spaces.
Muscle atrophy? From not using your muscles? Can you not read??? Maybe you're using chat GPT to reply.
OK then, show me an able-bodied person who got diagnosed with muscle atrophy from using a wheelchair. you're living in fairy land
First of all, it's hypothetical. If only for the fact that using a wheelchair in real-life actually greatly increases difficulty getting around. The point is that if you don't lose your muscles, they get weaker. Happens with anyone that has an accident that causes them to be unable to use their muscles for a prolonged amount of time. See also: Astronauts needing to exercise while in space or back on earth because they've not had to use many of their muscles as much due to lack of gravity.
why are you assuming they'd be full-time wheelchair users? an abled person wouldn't stop using their legs and would be an ambulatory user.
Because we are talking about someone using AI for most if not all tasks that involve thinking and/or creativity, as if it was any other tool.
unlike genAI, wheelchairs don't magically make you become dependent on them.
it's impossible for someone that wasn't disabled already to find using a wheelchair preferable to just enjoying abled privilege.
an abled person would just use a "self-driving" car instead of using a wheelchair if they felt like outsourcing responsibility over their lives.
You are clearly triggered and you shouldn't be triggered. Take a damn chill pill and realize noone is your enemy here, you're just making a jackass out of yourself.
Again, we're talking about a hypothetical situation
You are such a moron