Disabled people are unfortunately pretty used to attacks by the British corporate media – trying to make us out to be fakers or using our fear for clicks. This has of course massively ramped up in the last few months in the run up to evil Liz Kendall and Rachel Reeves announcing plans to kill us off with Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefit cuts.
But the Spectator may’ve just printed the most disgusting piece of disability hate speech yet.
The Spectator: disgusting hate speech against neurodivergent people
As pointed out by ADHD UK, the Spectator has jumped on the bandwagon of taking the piss out of people with ADHD, by claiming it’s not real and that those with it are only saying they have it to excuse bad behaviour. In the cartoon featured in this month’s issue, one man tells another, “so anyway, when I was diagnosed with ADHD it just explained everything”
The man depicted in the cartoon? Adolf fucking Hitler:
This absolutely shocking cartoon from the spectator magazine. @spectator @michaelgove #adhd pic.twitter.com/4zPaZ6Wfis
— ADHD UK (@ADHDUKcharity) March 24, 2025
That’s right, the Spectator has taken the most evil man to ever live and shown him using having ADHD as an excuse for spreading hatred of marginalised people so he could imprison and murder millions of them.
I can’t even explain how consumed with rage i was when I saw this. The fact that the week after the British government has just announced the harshest cuts to disabled people ever, one of the UK’s leading political magazines would publish a cartoon not only making fun of people who have ADHD because so many believe it’s not real, but to attribute it to fucking Hitler.
I don’t need to remind you all of the opinion Hitler held of neurodivergent and disabled people, labelling them as “useless eaters” and turning the German public against those who require support to live, in order to gain support to sterilise, torture and eventually kill hundreds of thousands of us.
In other news – Labour.
In completely different, unrelated news, we have the “party of work” and its current campaign of saying those on disability benefits are “languishing” and “taking the mickey” whilst pushing the agenda of how good work is.
I mean it could be worse, I suppose, they could’ve made a back-to-work campaign video showing a brick building with a black iron archway. Oh wait:
as subtle as a bus crash https://t.co/0OdpWlCa96 pic.twitter.com/RhtXy9J2vX
— enter shakira𓅮 (@BARFJAMiN) March 7, 2025
All of this is of course happening whilst certain parts of Labour also push to legalise assisted dying, something they vehemently claim won’t affect disabled people. However, many in Labour want to open it up to those with “incurable illnesses” (disabilities). There’s also the fact that one of the many many amendments rejected was to not allow people to legally kill themselves if they feel like a burden, something Labour are actively doing with cuts and the rhetoric around disabled people.
Make no mistake, it’s absolutely not a coincidence that this was published in the wake of Kendall’s budget cuts announcement, The media has for a long time been a government tool used to disparage disabled people and feed the hatred of “benefit’s scroungers” and fakers to the British public.
If you look at the media’s ADHD hate campaign alongside the plans of successive governments, it’s clear that this has been a coordinated attack to ensure that the British public see those with ADHD as faking it for attention and benefits in order to scale back the support they can receive.
A snowballing propaganda campaign
Since 2023 outlets of all political affiliation regularly published articles claiming that there were too many people with ADHD, that people were only getting a diagnosis cos it was trendy, that people on TikTok were coaching others on how to say they had ADHD for benefits.
The BBC even ran an episode of panorama where a man “proved” how easy it was to be diagnosed with ADHD, at a time when so many were struggling to get appointments and medication.
This has snowballed throughout the past two years, building more distrust in the public about those who are faking it until they believed it enough that Kendall was able to announced her cuts. Whilst the link here might not be clear, when you look at how they want to make PIP harder to claim it is.
Whilst those who cant feed themselves would still be able to claim, having to be reminded or using time-saving ways to feed yourself wont score enough points, Whilst not being able to wash or change your clothes will pass, again having to be reminded to change your clothes or that you haven’t showered in a while won’t.
People with ADHD in particular struggle to remember to do basic tasks such as feeding or showering ourselves. These and many other things that won’t score enough points to claim show how much the PIP changes that will directly affect those with mental and neurodivergent conditions.
The way the media has turned the public against disabled and neurodivergent people has more than paved the way for Labour to destroy their lives.
The Spectator needs to be held accountable for its actions
The thing that enrages me the most though, is that this was published THREE days ago, and not a single other media outlet or journalist has acknowledged that this cartoon exists, never mind the harm it causes.
Not one single person from the left or right of the media has challenged the fact that a major political magazine depicted the most evil man in history using ADHD to excuse his crimes against humanity- and that says it all about the way the media views disabled people
Despite what the government and media want us to think, we have a right to live our lives without these constant attacks and be respected.
There is however something you can do about it.
The corporate media’s own regulatory body IPSO might be (in my opinion) a two bit farce of an organisation built to protect the media over the public. However, we are within our rights to complain about this.
I’ve had my battles with IPSO over the years who like to tell me that it’s perfectly fine to discriminate against a group of people and that inaccuracy is fine as long as it’s the writers opinion so here’s what I’ve reported them for.
Accuracy: Hitler was never diagnosed with ADHD.
Discrimination: the cartoon suggests people use their diagnosis to excuse bad behaviour.
I more than expect that IPSO will find a way for the Spectator to wriggle out of this, but by using our voices to oppose this we show that disabled people will not allow the media to continue to portray us as liars or at worst evil to suit the governments agenda to kill us all.
You can report the Spectator to IPSO here.
Featured image via the Canary
