HOUSTON — Upon meeting Joseph Mars for coffee, we were shocked to learn that a man posting ableist nonsense online is disabled himself. When we pointed this out, Mars, a neurodivergent wheelchair user, was adamant that he is not autistic, he has Asperger’s, and that his wheelchair is just because sometimes he has difficulty walking. He rejected the fact that the distinction between Asperger’s and autism is outdated, and he stated with conviction that Aspies are not disabled — they are superior to everyone, especially disabled people.
At this point Mars painfully rose out of his chair and did a Nazi salute that he claimed was not a Nazi salute. We asked him what he thought of the Nazis, and he replied, “I’m not going to say the way they treated disabled people was a bad thing if that’s what you want.”
We asked if he felt disabled people should be shot or gassed, and Mars said, “No, not at all. These days we can simply eliminate Medicaid and let nature take its course.”
Given his special interest in exploring space, we pointed out the countless contributions Professor Steven Hawking made to our understanding of the universe. He responded by attempting to stand, falling and doing another Nazi salute that wasn’t a Nazi salute. He struggled to get back into his wheelchair and said, “Do you know any nondisabled people that want to be inseminated by me?”
We realized we were wasting our time trying to convince a disabled person to stop being ableist and left the cafe, leaving Mars to pick up the tab.