1. ‘You are a parasite on the productive classes’: online disablist hate speech in austere times
- Author
-
Leah Burch
- Subjects
030506 rehabilitation ,Health (social science) ,media_common.quotation_subject ,05 social sciences ,Psychology of self ,050301 education ,General Social Sciences ,Context (language use) ,03 medical and health sciences ,Politics ,Bulletin board ,Critical discourse analysis ,Austerity ,Welfare dependency ,Political economy ,General Health Professions ,Sociology ,0305 other medical science ,0503 education ,Welfare ,media_common - Abstract
In response to a climate of austerity, disability has been keyed to a meta-narrative that has a political purpose, to justify extensive welfare cuts by positioning disability as a drain on so-called ‘hard-working taxpayers’. This paper explores how this meta-narrative is articulated on the online bulletin board, Reddit, to show how disablist hate speech may emerge as an attempt to secure one’s sense of self during austere times. A critical discourse analysis (CDA) is employed to reveal these instances and highlights the normalisation of disablist hate speech within the wider context of welfare dependency. Based on these findings, this paper makes recommendations for future research and makes a call for policy change.
- Published
- 2017