@PhilippaGeorgiou
Sorry, but I am gobsmacked that MNHQ considers it appropriate to post several patronising posts about what they think ableism is, or what they think are offensive comments about disabled people. Some people have engaged with reasoned arguments, yes, and whilst we may not always agree with them, that is legitimate - we don't always even agree with each other. But "my uncles third cousin / the random person living three streets away that I have never spoken to falsely claims PIP" is hate speech. Nobody, but nobody, lives in the skin of the person they are talking about. Comments about "marking our cars with a sign" are reminiscent of Nazi Germany and there is literally no other reasonable way to interpret such a comment. It is astonishing that MNHQ delete perfectly acceptable comments because someone doesn't like them yet cannot delete obviously offensive posts that dozens of people are reporting
This post highlights perfectly how unreasonable some posters are being. MNHQ have taken an objective view of what is ableist. You absolutely don't have to be disabled to apply an objective test in the same way that you don't have to be a woman to judge if a post is misogynistic. I assume by underlining the word 'they' you are suggesting that they are intrinsically incapable of applying an objective test because they aren't disabled. This is nonsensical. The idea also that comments should be removed just because a proportion of the forum's population could find them offensive would render a forum like Mumsnet completely unworkable. I read posts everyday that offend me on important issues like abortion, women's rights etc, it absolutely doesn't give me the right to shut down debates and discussion because I find them offensive or a sensitive topic.
People post anecdotes. Again, that's how a forum like MN works. You may post about your experience as a disabled person to educate people, others may post about their experience of the benefits system and the people they know that use it. Very few people are stupid enough to post on a public forum like MN and openly admit they abuse the system. It would be crazy to do this! We can't just assume though that it isn't happening and lots of people will know enough about family members and friends to know it's happening. They are as entitled to post about this as you are entitled to post about your life experiences. The weighting you put on their anecdotes and how accurate you perceive them to be is completely subjective. The internet is the wild west and we have no idea if anyone is who they say they are or if they're telling the truth about anything. It would be foolish to take down posts about people that allege to know that their acquaintance is fiddling the system on the basis that this may be inaccurate when every single post on this forum may well be inaccurate.
Suggesting that the only reason that people could want to label Motability cars is because it is 'reminiscent of 'Nazi Germany' is ridiculously offensive in itself to the victims of this regime and complete hyperbole.
You need to keep some perspective. Criticism is not automatically hate speech. Conflating the two is hugely dangerous and just works to shut down debate and discussion. We desperately need to keep debate and discussion going as when this ends it only leaves space for extremism to grow. If it's a sensitive topic then stay away from threads that you know will upset you and trust MN to moderate appropriately.