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November 5, 2025 10 mins

Trump brings Gaza war crimes home to US autistics.

Using starvation to subjugate people is a war crime, whether at the point of a gun or denying SNAP benefits.

November 1st, SNAP halted. Healthcare funding threatened. Social Security could vanish, Trump warns. 42 million Americans face losing food assistance. Not someday—right now.

A nation that uses starvation on its own civilians? I’m no lawyer, but I’d argue that’s tantamount to war on its own people. Any day of the week. And I consider it a crime in its own right, even if courts reserve “war crime” for armed conflict.

I can hear it already: “You’re being dramatic. That’s hyperbolic. You can’t compare domestic policy to Gaza.”

Watch me.

Medieval siege techniques. Surround them and starve them out. Whether it’s Gaza or Indiana.

What’s Actually Happening?

The Trump administration threatens benefits we count on to exist as political leverage during government shutdown negotiations. Support promised to the American public for decades, transformed into weapons to get what Trump wants.

Here’s what international law says about that. The Rome Statute explicitly classifies starvation of civilians as a war crime, a crime against humanity. Around the world, deliberately depriving people of food for political gain—that’s defined as genocide.

These aren’t my words, they’re international law.

Gaza starvation: internationally recognized war crime.

SNAP weaponization: They can call it an unfortunate policy choice, but it’s the same tactic, just a different population. Location doesn’t change that. Denying food to gain power simply is withholding food, withholding life for power. They’re not negotiating. They’re holding a gun to our heads.

Why Autistics First?

Numbers tell you everything you need to know. Autistics face an 85% unemployment rate. So we depend a lot on SNAP—I do. Most of us depend on Medicaid to see our doctors, and many of us are disabled, unable to work. So SSI dependency just to live, it’s a high priority.

The government knows exactly who gets hit when they pull these levers: autistics, neurodivergents. We’re the most vulnerable first. We have the least political power of any minority group, I think.

And look at the language they use. “Efficiency.” “Streamlining.” “Reducing dependency.” It’s the old Nazi “useless eaters” logic dressed up in techno-bro management appeal. Killing off the weak, dusted off and wrapped in budget terminology. We’re the testing ground, that’s how it always works. Start with disabled people. Normalize the tactic. See who complains, see if you can get away with it. Then expand to the next group.

We’re the canaries in the coal mine. We die first. And we’re already choking.

The Roll Call of History: Every Empire Does This

Want to know how I know this is a war crime? Because every failing empire does exactly this. Brings colonial violence home. Every. Single. One.

France took torture techniques from Algeria, brought them home for Paris riot control. The U.S. militarized policing in the Philippines, deployed in Ferguson. Britain did the exact same thing: tactics used in the Irish colonies, in India, that came home to British workers as labor disputes escalated.

This isn’t speculation. This is documented history. The Ottoman Empire in its death throes: Armenian genocide, Greek genocide, Assyrian genocide. Ancient Rome. Ancient Egypt. Every single one.

The pattern is always the same. It starts with unpopular groups: Jews, immigrants, disabled people, people they call “defective,” “foreign,” “unproductive.” Test on them first, see if anyone notices, see if anyone stops you, then expand.

Scholars have a term for this: the “boomerang effect.” Or “internal colonialism”—when you apply colonial logic to your own people. Black radical thinkers saw this first, by the way. They recognized the pattern decades ago.

The Gaslighting Ends Here

So when someone says “You’re being dramatic”? No. I’m being historically accurate.

“That’s hyperbolic.” The Rome Statute disagrees. I can read you the details.

“You can’t compare domestic policy to war.” Every empire in history already done that. They already made that comparison for me.

We’re not comparing tragedies. “Who’s suffering more than who?” We’re recognizing tragedy.

When policy debates require trigger warnings like this article, like this livestream, maybe it’s not policy.

When negotiations threaten survival, maybe they’re not negotiations.

When efficiency means starvation, maybe it’s not efficient. It’s fucking violence.

That need for trigger warnings says it’s violence. Not discourse. We’re not being fragile. We’re being informed. We’re watching it happen in real time. Hell, it’s obvious in every bowl of beans I eat instead of a hell of heavily tariffed hamburger.

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