Fidget Spinners Aren’t a Problem

Etienne Rodriguez
Jul 30, 2017 · 2 min read

When I first learned about fidget spinners I was excited. Something made to help people manage their autism, ADHD, anxiety, and more. Even better was that fidget spinners were becoming increasingly normalized among neurotypical people. The only thing better than helping people with mental disorders is making sure that those people aren’t alienated for helping themselves. I wasn’t even upset about people making fun of fidget spinners, because they are pretty silly. They help people though, so I would never make fun of the actual people who use them. So the memes and jokes about the spinners themselves were mostly harmless and legitimately funny at times. That is until people decided to start going after anyone who had a fidget spinner.

I was on Facebook and saw someone get called a douchebag for having a fidget spinner. Apparently they’ve gotten so popular that anyone who has them is just a bandwagon hopping asshole. The thing is this “douchebag” is diagnosed with autism. Someone with autism got called a douchebag for making use of a device that was created to help him manage his autism. In-fucking-credible.

You have to be a special kind of tone deaf to go out of your way to shame people for using something that was created for people with mental disorders. As a culture we’ve gotten a lot better with not being ableist, but of course some people forget to do any type of cultural research before they attack people.

It’s not even that there’s a relationship between personality and owning a fidget spinner. People just hate anything that popular and will stop at nothing to tear down people who are enjoying themselves, even if that person has a social disorder. As someone with autism I know that if I got called a douchebag for using a fidget spinner I would never forget it. I’d be minding my business one day and just get an incredibly uncomfortable flashback. Is your little edgy, non-conformist joke worth all of that? Triggering someone's disorder because you can’t handle people enjoying something that’s popular?

Fidget spinners, cube, and anything like them shouldn’t be ridiculed just because they’re popular. People who like them because they’re fun are valid. People who like them because they help are valid. Everyone is fucking valid. If you go out of your way to invalidate someone because of a plastic toy, you can go fuck yourself.

That’s all I have to say.

Etienne Rodriguez

Written by

I used to be an angry teen who wrote a lot. Now I’m a jaded “adult” who writes less, but has more opinions.

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