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6 Neurodivergent Influencers and Celebrities Who Are Crabs in a Barrel

I would like to assist in dispelling the myth that we are all special little monolithic angels with unicorn sparkle farts.

Noisy Skin Bag
8 min readDec 24, 2024
Photo by Karolina Kołodziejczak on Unsplash

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Crab mentality in a nutshell

The basic idea of crab theory is when people from marginalized groups internalize their oppression and project it onto other members from those same marginalized groups that they belong to. Oftentimes, this has to do with when someone feels that the only way they can survive and serve their own self-interests is to assimilate as much as possible with those holding the most social capital doing the oppressing and also scapegoat those who fail and/or refuse to do so.

The associated visual is one of crabs in a barrel (or bucket) simultaneously trying to escape the container in which they are trapped while attempting to prevent other crabs from escaping. The extent to which one does this depends on a variety of intersectional factors, such as different points of privilege and marginalization, and idiosyncratic environments of formative social conditioning.

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Noisy Skin Bag
Noisy Skin Bag

Written by Noisy Skin Bag

I am formally diagnosed with autism, ADHD, and OCD, and have informal diagnoses of PDA and 2e. I share my experience navigating the disability landscape.

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