Neurodiversity and Names
This kinda crap is how you make Auntie Jena start cussin'...
Okay.
I think by now, everyone who hasn’t been blissfully sleeping under a rock somewhere has heard the discourse on President Joe Biden’s propensity to mix up names.
I really wasn’t surprised when the Right took the extremely minor incident at the recent NATO conference and ran with it. I expect that out of them. Anything they see as a perceived weakness they pounce on and magnify ad infinitum, purposefully distorting it in a desperate attempt to distract from their own guy’s shortcomings.
Like… all those recent felony convictions, for example. Because your candidate being a bona fide criminal actually IS a big deal in an election. Whereas a common verbal glitch absolutely isn’t.
So yeah. The Right did exactly what I expected them to do. But I was surprised, disappointed, and furious to see the same thing coming from the Left. The fact that they were so easily led down the path of condemning him was disheartening. And a lot of the behavior of the journalists and some party insiders has been ignorant at best, disingenuous and deliberately cruel at worst.
Whether intentional or not, the entire narrative is ableist. And amplifying ableism, whether doing so intentionally or not, harms a lot more people than just President Biden. Those giving oxygen to this panic really need to be aware of that. I do believe that some of them are well intentioned, and think they get what’s happening. But they don’t, and the discourse they’re promoting confirms that.
The fact is, switching the names is cognitively insignificant, and it can happen to anyone, but it happens more frequently to people who are neurodiverse. As a lifelong stutterer, Joe Biden is neurodiverse.
As it happens, so am I. I’m a hell of a lot more neurodiverse than Joe Biden is. And I am real fuckin' tired of hearing a bunch of uninformed conjecture and fear mongering about President Biden switching names and what it may or may not mean, from people who do not live inside one of these conditions and don’t have a clue of what they’re talking about.
I do live inside one of these conditions. I have for 48 years, and I’ve had to learn the mechanics of it— how it manifests, how those manifestations affect me, and how to cope with it. Because of that experience, I am infinitely more qualified to speak to what is going on with President Biden than a lot of the people I have heard doing so. I’m happy to offer some insight that will hopefully clear up the fears of the well intentioned, and shut up those who are promoting this theory for a different reason.
A little about me. I happen to be Dyspraxic. Dyspraxia is a neurodiversity. This particular neurodiversity causes interference with the brain’s ability to process sequence. That doesn’t sound like such a big deal, until you actually think about how many things in your life are related to sequence. Like awareness of time passing. Numbers. Getting dressed. Planning to go somewhere and following a series of directions to get there. General coordination. Hand-eye coordination. Sense of direction. Depth perception. Motor skills.
So what does Dyspraxia look like from the outside? Well in my case, I notice it quite a lot but you probably won’t notice it. I know this, because when I went through the Reasonable Accommodation process with an employer about ten years back, they basically accused me of lying about having a disability and I had to go through eight hours of stupid human tricks to prove it, after which the neuropsychologist came back and essentially said “Holy shit not only do you have that disorder, you have four others along with it!” And I said, “Yeah I know. Believe me, I know. Could you fill out this form confirming that though, please? I want to walk into the HR lady’s office playing Katie Perry’s ‘Roar’ on my phone, and slap it down in the middle of her desk.’ He laughed and said he’d be delighted and before I left he told me ‘You’re a neat lady.’ (Since I’m neurodiverse and awkward, I blushed and said, ‘Aw thanks! You’re cool too!’ and tripped over something leaving his office. Which I still think about TO THIS DAY.)
If outsiders do notice anything in particular that would indicate I have Dyspraxia, it’s that. I trip a LOT. And when I do it, I don’t just trip once. I trip and then keep tripping for about ten more feet. The staff at our local Target are convinced that I day drink because I’ve done some truly SPECTACULAR falls while shopping. It’s also not unusual for me to drop things. I find that frustrating and I’m pretty short tempered about it, so I’ll usually yell at whatever I just dropped “Oh fuck right off!” So…yeah. That’s pretty noticeable. I can’t cross a room without running into something. I’m constantly bruised. (Goddess bless Zoey Deschanel for making quirky clumsy women cute. Zoey! Girl! We owe you big time! The women of Dyspraxia Nation are gonna have you canonized. Seriously, there’s a petition, and as soon as we remember where we put it, we’re all gonna sign it.)
I am also a terrible driver. TERRIBLE. I honestly shouldn’t drive. I didn’t learn till I was 23— and I haven’t gotten much better in the decades since. I also have zero sense of direction. Absolutely none. I was lost once and called my stepfather for help, and he asked if I was going East. I said “I dunno. I don’t know East.” He said “What do you mean you can’t find East, where’s North?” I said “Bill, if I knew where North was I could damn well find East.” Those concepts mean nothing to me and I have no sense of them. I navigate by landmarks and the grace that is Google Maps. And even if I’m on a route I’m familiar with, if something about it has changed—like some trees were cut down or a building was burned—I might as well be on a different planet. I can get lost and stay lost for quite a while. It’s a real bitch.
I don’t take stairs. I don’t run. My mother made me take two years of gymnastics and four years of ballet and three summers of swimming and five years of piano (she was real invested in the piano) and didn’t know why I was never able to do any of those things. My best friend tied my shoes for me through all of kindergarten and first grade. I was eleven before I could operate a zipper that connected at the bottom, or ride a bike. I knew what was needed to do those things, but I just could not get everything to line up the way it should.
And there’s another motor activity that Dyspraxia can affect. Speech. Dyspraxia can cause the same type of verbal glitch—my term for it, not an official one—that occurs in people who stutter.
People like President Biden.
Now, I don’t believe that President Biden has Dyspraxia. For one, he rides a Peloton every day, and I could NEVER. I tried to ride a recumbent bike in the gym once and I overheated and passed out and fell off of it. He also plays sports and drives a Corvette with a tremendously powerful engine. I’d have that thing in a tree in about five minutes. So his reflexes and coordination do not indicate Dyspraxia. But neurodiversities often dovetail into one another, and so I have experienced the same type of neurological anomaly that causes him, as a stutterer, to switch names, or get spun off on the wrong word mid sentence, and I understand it.
As I said, I live inside one of these conditions. I have my whole life.
When you have this kind of neurodiversity, your brain works more rapidly than your ability to articulate the thoughts that form within it. This happens because your motor function/coordination is limited, while your cognitive capacity is accelerated.
So what you're saying is about two lines behind the paragraph in your head that you are in the process of relating.
Brain = Ferrari, motor skills = Ford Tempo
See, neurodiversities do NOT affect cognitive or intellectual ability—instead, because your brain is constantly having to find new and innovative ways to route around the glitching, you often develop cognitive and intellectual hyper-abillities.
One of the common ways that this manifests outwardly is that your brain swaps out one word for another in the statement you are in the process of making. It’s ahead in the script, and it throws a name back a couple of lines as that line is exiting the mouth, but its the name that’s closest to the point in the script where your brain is, not the point where your mouth is. It can happen with any word but it happens more frequently with names, because your brain stores them all in the same place. It’s like reaching into a cabinet without looking and bringing out the wrong can. Names are all in the same mental ‘cabinet’, and so sometimes one comes out when you want another one. Especially when you are comparing one person to another, your brain just flips them in the script.
It doesn’t only happen to neurodiverse people. It can happen to anyone. If you want to see it in real time, royally piss off your grandma, and then watch to see how many of your cousins and siblings names you get called before she finally lands on you.
It's annoying. It's embarrassing. We wish it didn't happen.
It is also entirely insignificant.
Switching out a name in a sentence absolutely DOES NOT indicate in any way, shape, or form, that you are confused about which person is which. It is indicative of NOTHING that would impact your comprehension, your intellect, or your cognitive abilities. You can still reason and think in a complex manner. Usually more complex than most people.
I have called my daughter by the dog's name, and vice versa. (She loves that, by the way.) I called a lady on the phone at work Vivian the other day. Her name was Lauren. I don’t even know anyone named Vivian, but the address listed for her was Victorville, so I think that’s why I pulled a’v’ name. So I apologized and we moved on. I'm adopted and know my birthparents so I have four sets of parents. I’ve switched out one parent's name for another, and crossed gender lines to do it. I call most of my nieces and nephews Darlin' or Buddy or Baby Doll (when the girls were little) so I don't end up landing on the wrong name. My friends have often been greeted with 'Hey you!' or in a group with 'Hello Lovely People!'. That means it's a beautiful day in Dyspraxia Nation and if I try to say a person’s name, the name of someone across the room or a kid from my first grade class is likely to come out. It doesn’t mean that I am confused, and that I have any doubt about who each and every lovely person is. It just means my symptoms are more prevalent that day than others.
Does any of that mean my intellect is impaired? Not even a little. I taught myself to read at three. I’ve written two books and have two more in process, and I’ve also published poetry. I have an eidetic memory and I can take tests and kill them without ever writing a single note or cracking a textbook. As a theatre actor I got off book first in every single production I've ever been in and learned everyone else's lines too; and could quote most of them from memory even years later. I’ve actually worked as an actress, a singer, and a voiceover artist and audiobook narrator, so it is possible to overcome my symptoms that manifest in my speech. (I have some interesting outtake reels in my voicework though.) In my professional life I’ve gone into four different industries I had no familiarity with and learned them. I can also spot patterns in data that other people can’t see. I can read micro expressions and subtle voice inflections that people are unaware they’re projecting, and which those around me don’t pick up on. I draw more information from the world than most people do and I can process it quickly and interpret it correctly. Everyday life—driving, putting on clothes, walking up and down stairs or through a store—is hard. Things I shouldn’t be able to do are easy.
Neurodiversity is fascinating.
Do I know left from right at 48? No. Can I get lost going to my own house because I have no inborn sense of direction? Yes. Can and have. Do I know where my keys are right now? Not a chance. There are all manner of things that I can't locate right now. Not because I'm stupid or declining mentally or in any way incapable of functioning. My brain jettisons a lot of that information. But it can also access concepts and solve problems that those of people with neurotypical minds cannot. It’s a trade off.
Here’s the thing, y’all. I don’t believe for a second that any Dem insider pressuring Joe Biden to drop out of the race, or journalist asking condescending questions (and there were a lot of those jackasses at the NATO press conference) actually believes that Joe Biden is confused about the difference between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
They simply do not believe that, because he isn’t, and they know it.
In order to believe that Joe Biden thinks the Mango Mussolini was his Vice President, they would have to disregard everything else he said about Kamala Harris in the statement where he mixed up her name with Trump’s. He was very clear about what person had what qualities, and who each person was. He just switched a name.
For those choosing to follow the track that he wasn’t confused about who either of them are, BUT it still spells out some inevitable impending (but conveniently undefined) doom for Joe Biden’s mental state, that concern is unfounded. Put aside your panic for a second and look at it logically. Cognitive decline or impairment involves being confused about reality. If the man knows who everyone in the sentence is (and he clearly does) then his mental process is fine.
Joe Biden is not declining mentally, nor is he cognitively impaired. Switching the names means nothing. It was apparent from the rest of the statement that he knew exactly who both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump were, and that he knew the difference between Putin and Zolenskyy. That is what’s relevant.
Anyone who is questioning his ability to handle the Presidency is blatantly ignoring the fact that he is currently handling the job quite well. After the debate he made 20 campaign stops up and down the East coast and every single one of them was successful. But the press and these insiders leaning on him to quit are not talking about that.
His work at the NATO conference alone is enough to prove that he is not declining. The NATO summit was incredibly productive and successful, and Joe Biden led it. One significant development was a plan for an economic partnership with a dozen Indo-Pacific countries related to tech manufacturing, most of which he was the architect of. He also released a statement with the President of South Korea regarding the partnership they reaffirmed at the summit to continue working toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Penninsula.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/07/11/joint-statement-by-president-joseph-r-biden-of-the-united-states-of-america-and-president-yoon-suk-yeol-of-the-republic-of-korea-on-u-s-rok-guidelines-for-nuclear-deterrence-and-nuclear-operations-o/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/07/11/readout-of-president-bidens-meeting-with-natos-indo-pacific-partners/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/07/11/fact-sheet-united-states-welcomes-growing-contributions-to-global-security-from-natos-indo-pacific-partners/
He also joined in a partnership with Finland and Canada regarding the shipping industry in the polar regions. BTW, Joe Biden got Finland to join NATO.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/07/11/biden-harris-administration-announces-new-polar-partnership-ice-pact-alongside-finland-and-canada/
Since the war in Ukraine started he convinced fifty countries to pledge their support, and several countries released a joint statement on increasing Ukraine’s air defenses:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/07/09/joint-statement-on-strengthening-ukraines-air-defenses-by-u-s-president-joseph-r-biden-dutch-prime-minister-dick-schoof-german-chancellor-olaf-scholz-italian-prime-minister-giorgia-melon/
This is about a tenth of what he accomplished there. Look at the fact sheets on the White House website. The man is doing the hell out of the job of the Presidency. That anyone could look at the work he did at the conference this week and question his competence is mind blowing.
He spoke about all of these incredibly important and complex partnerships at the NATO press conference, most of which the reporters summarizing it ignored. Instead of focusing on the things he told them about the initiative and how it was going to benefit America, they wanted to split hairs because he couldn’t remember every single country in the Indo-Pacific partnership off the top of his head. Well, there were a dozen. The reporter asking the question couldn’t either, I guarantee it. And again, that was the most insignificant part of how he answered that question, and that’s what they wanted to focus on.
One reporter suggested that the UAW was shaky about supporting him in the election and Joe interrupted and said, “UAW just endorsed me but go ahead.” It was later fact checked, and it was stated that he was mistaken and ‘thought that the endorsement from the UAW happened recently when actually it was months ago’ and isn’t it sad how confused he is.
No, jackass. What’s sad is that you, a journalist who ostensibly should have a better than average grasp of language, didn’t remember that the word ‘just’ can be used more than one way. His emphasis in the statement was on ‘endorsed’, not ‘just’. Indicating sarcasm. ‘UAW just endorsed me is all. The little matter of their ACTUAL endorsement is surely unimportant compared to this hypothetical worry that you’ve conveniently pulled out of your ass with nothing to back it up, but don’t let the facts get in the way of your snarky question.’ It was abundantly clear to me what he meant. But they chose an inaccurate spin.
There is a LOT of that happening.
He has always mixed up names because he’s had a stutter his whole life. He is still speaking intelligently at press conferences and campaign stops about his policies and the work he is doing for America, and they’re choosing to focus on an idiosyncrasy that they used to characterize as a charming quirk. Well, he’s no more declined now than he was before. The difference is what they’re choosing to magnify, and what they’re choosing not to. Y’all act like you don’t actually want to win this election. And make no mistake, Joe Biden CAN win this election. We would be lucky to have him for four more years. Don’t fall for their deliberately deceptive, ableist bullshit.
Frankly, Joe Biden deserves better than this. From both the media, and the members of his own party determined to shoot him off his horse and the rest of us in our collective feet. This man is our President. And he is an excellent President, who is accomplishing a ton for our country. He’s also a good and decent person, which is more than I can say for the journalists and his own party members who are subjecting him to this treatment. I’m embarrassed for all of them. Too bad they don’t have the decency and good sense to be embarrassed for themselves.