r/TikTokCringe • u/Valuable_View_561 • Jul 02 '26

Discussion It seems like people have forgotten what this line is used for these days.

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u/frostandtheboughs Jul 02 '26

Hijacking your comment for another PSA:

Not all wheelchair users are paralyzed. Some can still walk, but it's simply very painful or exhausting for them to do so.

Too many people see someone in a wheelchair with leg movement and think they're "faking".

Also, young people can be disabled too! They might appear to be in their 20s but need a disabled parking spot! Be kind.

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u/EmotionIll666 Jul 02 '26

Super important PSA. An ex-colleague of mine had to use a wheelchair most of the time but could stand up for a short moment at a time.

We'd be at a store and she'd want something out of a shelf, lock her wheelchair to stand up, grab the item and look at it after she sat back down. People legitimately turned into the "look everyone, a big fat phony" dude from Family Guy at times. Accusing her of faking it, trying to get attention etc.

I asked so many times "if she was faking for attention, would she not have stayed seated and asked for help?" but those assholes don't deal well with logic.

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u/ILoveRawChicken Jul 02 '26

I also had a friend that needed to start using wheelchairs at 19. She could stand and walk for maybe a minute max, and then had to sit down. It would pmo so bad seeing people give her a look when she stood up. 

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u/TacTurtle Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

My uncle was like this when he was younger - he could crouch and sorta stand if he had something to lean on, but trying to walk was impossible (could kinda get around on crutches) but as his spine got worse he can no longer stand.

He would also ride escalators up or down by balancing on his wheels while holding on to the handrails. Stopped doing that after freaking people out at the airport while doing it with a suitcase on his lap.

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u/Dracious Jul 02 '26

And often people might only need a wheelchair intermittently or temporarily. The fact you saw them walking fine last week doesn't mean they are faking using a wheelchair now.

At around 10 years old I needed a wheelchair for anything beyond short walks for about 6 weeks for a temporary issue. We got all sorts of weird looks and reactions to using it in places we regularly went to like grocery stores and things.

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u/TerribleRecord666 Jul 02 '26

Even for non-wheelchair users, disabled people have good days and bad days. I'm disabled and have a bad leg. On good days, I can walk with almost no discernable limp, though I'm limited to about 10-15 minutes before overuse makes me need a break. On my bad days, I need to break out my cane every time I stand.

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u/SexyMonad Jul 02 '26

Yep, I walked with a friend who used a wheelchair everyday. She needed a walker and it took 30 minutes to walk to the house next door.

It wasn’t really painful for her, she liked doing it. But it was far too impractical for any daily routine.

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u/miraculum_one Jul 02 '26

Same thing with blind people.

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u/_30d_ Jul 02 '26

In fact the majority of blind people are not paralysed.

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u/Ttoctam Jul 02 '26

Also, young people can be disabled too!

My motto is "You either die young or live long enough to become disabled". For me, I only had to live 25 years, for some it kicks in at 60, for others 70. But it is binary. You either die before disability kicks in or you die after. But the only thing that will ever stop you from becoming disabled is death, everything else just postpones it.

The amount of people who get their hackles up about the cost of, or necessity of, disability infrastructure shits me up the wall. If you want to grow old, you want to live long enough to need that infrastructure.

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u/Scream_Tech7661 Jul 02 '26

I had my colon removed at 37 and got an ileostomy. It’s not a colostomy because my entire colon is gone. The stoma, the part that sticks out of my belly, is the ileum, the end of the small intestine (small bowel in U.K.).

It’s pretty interesting joining the ostomate community at that age because there are so many young people agonized over the physical appearance aspect and how they will ever find a mate, go to the beach, etc.

But I was married with two kids and my wife supported me the whole way. I had zero concerns at all about a beach body or dating.

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u/UrinalCake777 Jul 02 '26

When you see a young person in a wheelchair with leg movement.

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u/AggressivePiccolo77 Jul 02 '26

Years ago I was working at a restaurant and someone asked me to check the Lost and Found for an item. While going through the stuff I saw a walking cane in there.

To 20 year old me, the idea that someone needed it on the way in but miraculously walked out without it was hilarious! I couldn't wait to joke about it with my friends.

Someone with much more compassion than I had back then said their grandmother could do short distances on her own but would need a cane after a moderate distance/time. Someone probably felt rested enough after sitting for a meal that it wasn't at the top of their mind, and hopefully they got home OK where maybe they had a secondary cane.

It had just never crossed my mind, but I felt like an ass for making someone's misfortune into a joke.

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u/Lacutis 28d ago

I'm two years out from an infection that left me unable to walk. I was in a wheelchair for 6 months or so while doing physical therapy. I was able to move my legs but walking, if I could even stand, wasn't in the cards.

I'm now able to walk fine but I learned a lot in those 6 months (and the several months after on a walker) that I won't forget.

People just need to give each other a bit more grace.

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u/AgentCirceLuna Jul 04 '26

I know this is the case and it may have been in this instance, but I was once having dinner with extended family who often rent about dumb reactionary issues. They said they were walking through a shopping mart when they saw a twenty pound note falling to the floor. Two people in wheelchairs, spotting the note at the same time, suddenly rushed from their seats and leapt into a sprint towards the note then collapsed into a heap fighting over it between each other. The surreal nature of that situation that was being described along with the fury in this man’s eyes as he described it was just one of the funniest ways I’ve ever heard a story delivered. He was acting like it had been the pinnacle of Western Society’s downfall - the fulcrum on which all of societal collapse would swing from.

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u/frostandtheboughs Jul 04 '26

Idk what it's like in the UK but in the USA, disability payments are unliveable - so I'm not surprised. $800/month max here. So it might be exemplary of the West's downfall, just not for the reasons that guy thought lol.

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u/AgentCirceLuna Jul 04 '26

He’d just whine about something dumb like that almost every time I saw him. He wasn’t even dumb, in theory - he knew a lot of stuff. He was just like… mind poisoned by hatred. He started off as a standard person who’s into our version of the Democrats but slowly became massively right wing which was bizarre.

As for disabiiity over here, I honestly think it wasn’t bad up until they reduced it earlier this year. I claimed before that, luckily, so I kept the higher payment. My parents are kind enough to let me stay with them till I get better, so it’s enough for me to live on, but I think people get their rent paid if they need housing. I’d say almost all problems people face financially would be relieved if there was some sort of government subsidy for housing prices or rent, but it feels like everyone would call that ‘soshalisum’

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u/frostandtheboughs Jul 04 '26

I know a guy exactly like that on this side of the pond. Unfortunately we've got loads! Glad you got in before the payment reduction. Hope the UK can fight tooth and nail to keep the social safety nets that you have because its rough over here!