Rachel

A little about me: I’m an #Autistic #PhD student in #ReligiousStudies, researching myth & ritual in the Hebrew Bible. I was an attorney for 10yrs, until I hit autistic burnout & decided to build a new career around my special interests in myth & religion. Nice to meet you all!

Successive fads in autism etiology often get popular because they act as comforting myths for nonautistic people. So Asperger & Kanner identify these kids with 'childhood schizophrenia' & it seems random & terrifying then Bettelheim picks up on a line from Kanner & says it's the mothers. They did it

Obviously this is racist and gross, but it's also shockingly historically illiterate? No one who has taken a single high school world history course would deny that Arab culture has produced incredible science and literature. This is why we need basic humanities education.

I wish I had even one other person out here who cared enough to help me in a crisis. Instead, I have to figure out how to teach a class tomorrow (presumably through dizziness) because my co-TA flaked out & dumped it on me. I have no backup or cover or help.

I’ve been stuck home all day because I’m dizzy whenever I’m upright. They are apparently doing electrical maintenance in our building all day, so the power is out, including in the kitchen. I don’t have food I can eat cold. So all I’ve eaten today are chips, which can’t be helping the dizziness.

#Arabic phrase of the day: فان كنت تريد ان تنعم علي وتهلني مواهبً عظام وتكون عندي اكبر الناس فاترك هذا الكلام عنك "If you really want to make me happy, make me a really huge present, and be my best ever person, stop talking crap about yourself like that!" (from Sin. ar. 440, fols. 233r-v)

This makes me angry, as the nerdy autistic kid who has always been exploited by peers & made to do much more than my share. You’re teaching the kids that do well in school that they owe other people free labor, time, & knowledge. Autistics in particular are already vulnerable to such manipulation.

This isn't really fair to gifted kids who aren't trained teachers and don't know how to teach. It's also not fair to the kids who are struggling and need actual, targeted instruction from an adult who knows how to help kids with learning difficulties.

It’s hard to decide what part of this story on Marissa Mayer’s new startup is most loathsome, but this “women need a wife or, in other words, a digital servant” construction makes me want to flip over an actual table www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/s...

Ah yes, the bane of ADHD life... "did I already take my meds this morning?"

me: i'll just do the dishes real quick also me 45 minutes later: why am I reading about the history of ceramics? #funny #relatable #humor #ADHD #neurodivergent

Horizontal is good. #NEISVoid #ChronicIllness

Horizontal is good. #NEISVoid #ChronicIllness

Ok she’s safe at school. Now I’m going to stay in bed until I have to pick her up in the afternoon.

ive talked on how i wont engage with writers who use ai, i wont eat at a restaurant with an ai menu, i wont have anything to do with it. but what this post illustrates is regardless of how OTHERS react, ultimately the worst part about using ai is that you are punishing YOURSELF and dont even know it

My biggest contribution to the “Women & Gender in Islam” course I TA is pointing out parallels/allusions to the Hebrew Bible in Islamic traditions. This week is the Sermon of Fatima, & I’m getting strong “daughters of Zelophehad” vibes. Is there research on that connection? #ReligiousStudies #Islam

6E. I feel like I’d get along with those guys. We could be intellectual together, or make snarky jokes about everyone else. Please don’t put me next to my childhood crush Zuko; I’m married & much older than him at this point, it would be awkward 😳

1. NOBODY asked you. Zero bodies. 2. Conflating Diaspora Jews w/Israelis is textbook antisemitism + I'm sure that stat's a lie 3. Most of all, @abdulelsayed.bsky.social embodies more Torah principles than any of these dinguses ever could.

6E. I feel like I’d get along with those guys. We could be intellectual together, or make snarky jokes about everyone else. Please don’t put me next to my childhood crush Zuko; I’m married & much older than him at this point, it would be awkward 😳

My biggest contribution to the “Women & Gender in Islam” course I TA is pointing out parallels/allusions to the Hebrew Bible in Islamic traditions. This week is the Sermon of Fatima, & I’m getting strong “daughters of Zelophehad” vibes. Is there research on that connection? #ReligiousStudies #Islam

Rarely is there any sort of self awareness in the institution as a whole about how little they know and how spectacularly wrong they are about things, literally most of the time. That’s what science is about: discovering new things. Discarding old assumptions when they don’t fit the data.

I hate that I have an actual professional obligation to know where "goyslop" comes from, but as a Jewish Studies professor who teaches a lot of extremely online students who spend a lot of time in lefty internet spaces, I get asked about this sort of thing regularly, and I have to historicize it.

2. Jenny sees the solution quickly. She didn’t need Timmy’s help. She spends the whole class tutoring Timmy, trying to help him understand the answer she reached ages ago. Credit is shared. This is a waste of Jenny’s time, she deserves challenging work.

I think it’s the collaboration. There’s 2 incredibly common problems with “Solve this together”: 1. Timmy, like many kids, doesn’t feel like doing the work. Autistic Jenny is sincerely trying to follow instructions & do a good job. She ends up doing all the work, but sharing credit equally.

I’m good now, that discourse just sets me off, & I needed to get it out of my system. Back to video games now. Shabbat shalom peeps 🕯️🕯️

I wasn’t born this way, without boundaries & undervaluing my own skills! I was taught to be this way, by the same sort of people who think academically advanced kids should have to educate their less capable classmates. #Autistic

Literally TODAY, I had an entire class unexpectedly dumped on me, a TA, because the rest of the teaching team know I care & will work hard to cover for them when they flake out. Autistic sincerity makes me vulnerable to this dynamic, I HATE IT, & we shouldn’t be reinforcing it in kids.

If you have a special interest & know what it is, you are blessed. Many people go their whole lives without finding something that makes them truly happy & enthusiastic. #Autistic

AOC: "As AI begins to encroach in our society, their goal is to take your cognition away from you. AI's goal is to take your thoughts away from you, your ability to think away from you, so that you become dependent on a machine ... reading books is active resistance"