Ableism is also, in my opinion, one of the more insidious types of prejudice because it frequently underpins other forms of discrimination. For example, if you ask someone who is racist why they hate a particular group and it’s often because they believe that group is not as intelligent, or because they can’t control their emotions or behavior. Those are inherently statements about a group of people’s abilities.

We spend a lot of effort dispelling the misconceptions that those groups are less capable, but for some reason there’s substantially less effort that goes into dispelling the misconception that someone who is less able to do something is less worthy of human rights.

And that’s not to say that individuals who have shown they’re genuinely dangerous to others should be allowed to cause more harm, it just means that they should be judged individually based on their individual actions and not treated with cruelty.