I suppose I’m growing rather curmudgeonly in my old age, or too proud. It’s a bright afternoon here in se7, and L and I are off out soon, but suddenly I feel rather grumpy and cynical. One of my online associates has called me up on my use of language, saying that I should use the term ‘disabled people’ rather than ‘people with disabilities’. The argument goes that, as society puts up barriers which hold me back, I am a disabled person, as you would disable a component on a computer by switching it off. A more-or-less valid point, I suppose. As a writer, though, nothing irritates me more than folk telling me what language to use: I like variety, and, given that there are arguments for and against both forms, see no reason not to interchange between the two. Indeed, you could say that to disable something on a computer is to switch it off, make it obsolete, and I am very much still on. Moreover, things like this come and go with fashion. Of course, I know enough about Lacan to know how important language is, but it just seems like certain members of the crip community like to show their mastery by calling you out on language, rather than dealing with the actual arguments. After all, when one is at full speed writing about how the current government is oppressing us, such trivialities barely enter your head.