The working class cannot afford to recover; we can only afford to react. When you can't afford to stop, you are forced to push through the burnout. Because you cannot recover, your nervous system stays trapped in a permanent state of high alert. #Autistic #WorkingClass

I couldn't self identify as neurotypical even if I wanted to. I do not know and can't comprehend what it feels like to be one. 1/2

We do not choose to be autistic. Sometimes, I will admit, if I had a choice, I would choose differently. But I am who I am, and that's that. Everything else flows from that.

Not here to fight for a side. Not here to perform the correct positions. Here to learn, to think, and to understand myself a little better in the process. That is the only honest reason I can give for being here.

A movement that cannot tolerate dissent is not a liberation movement. It is a loyalty test. We have replaced debate with enforcement. Question the consensus and you are not simply disagreed with. You are cast out. Try to engage with a difficult question and you are branded a traitor. 1/4

WHY I AM A LIBERAL open.substack.com/pub/paulwilc...

I am a Liberal because people should be free, not just from state overreach but from poverty, exclusion and distant, unaccountable power. My politics start with one principle: you should have control over the life you actually live. Power belongs close to the communities it impacts. 1/5

"The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people." John Stuart Mill

Liberal Party Support for the Petition calling for essential services to keep telephone and face to face access for anyone who needs it. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...

Choosing to live is not same as wanting to live. 54 in a few weeks and the constant overthinking, the vigilance is hard to sustain, but i am also a dad to two young girls who need me. I have a reason to live. I also want to help in my small way on here so others can learn from my experiences.

Online debating is so draining and mentally damaging for me that I stopped. Getting misunderstood and then having to explain myself only makes it worse. I find myself screaming inside, 'That's not what I meant!' 1/2

All my life, people have misunderstood and misinterpreted what I say. People look for hidden meanings and subtext, forcing me to constantly explain myself so my words aren't twisted into something completely different from what I actually said. 1/2

As an autistic person, I increasingly realise how differently I process language compared to online political spaces. If example I hear "British workers," I interpret it literally: workers who are British. That includes Black, Asian, and white British workers. To me, words mean what they say. 1/3

We have "working poor" in this rich nation of ours. Until that changes, nothing changes

Employers are quick to blame wages and employment protection, but this problem pre-dates recent changes, and EU has similar policies. They should be looking at their own employment practices, as we explained here. reidfoundation.scot/2025/06/tack... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Wasn't put on this earth to be liked. Just as well. I am who I am, and that's all I am.

30,000 steps. 12hrs. Clinical waste, dirty laundry, backbreaking work that keeps a hospital running. Paid under the average wage. Some people think this job is beneath them. Those people have never done it. Local or immigrant, if you do a dirty hard and thankless job you have my respect.

This jigsaw piece has no intention of fitting in. John Stuart Mill understood why. Silencing the one dissenting voice is never justified, even when all of mankind holds the opposite view. Conformity is not truth. It is just the path of least resistance.

You cannot understand the big picture without grasping the small details. We keep going round in circles because asking the harder questions feels uncomfortable. But comfortable politics is how others control the agenda while we congratulate ourselves for having the right values.

The Double Trap How forty years of British economic strategy failed everyone and is now paying the price open.substack.com/pub/pabloist...

Football is like life: there are ups and there are downs. At the start of the season, I was recovering from surgery to remove a tumor from my head. Then, I got my Autism diagnoses. Grace had spinal surgery and watched the League Cup semi final from her hospital bed. 1/2

To my daughter Grace It's been a privilege to have enjoyed these last ten seasons watching St Mirren together. The Great Escape in 2016/17; champions and promotion in 2017/18; the penalty shootout winners in the playoffs in 2018/19; that Obika goal in 2019/20 1/2

Access to diagnosis is not a welfare question. It is a freedom question. A person who does not know how their own mind works, who spends decades internalising failure as personal rather than systemic, is not free in any meaningful sense. #neurodivergent #liberalism

If you have met one autistic person you have met one autistic person. That is not a slogan. It is the most liberal fact there is. We are not a class. We are not a community with a collective voice. We are individuals. Irreducibly ourselves. #ActuallyAutistic

Masking is not a choice. It is a tax. Levied by a society that mistakes its own particular way of processing the world for the only way. John Stuart Mill called it the tyranny of the majority. Autistic people live it every day. #neurodivergent #liberalism

A straight talking reminder that dealing with internal pressure requires proper tools, not just "toughing it out." For generations, men have been told to "man up" and bury it. That doesn't fix the problem it just builds pressure until something breaks. 1/2 #MensMentalHealth

What a season! Scottish Cup semi finalists, Scottish League Cup winners, and avoiding relegation in the play offs. Never dull being a St Mirren supporter! 🐼

The Tension That Cannot Be Resolved On individuals, freedom and the questions that have no final answer substack.com/@pabloista/n...

Pay better wages, then we wouldn't need to work overtime. The basic wage for a Band 2 NHS hospital porter, domestic, or kitchen staff member is £28,988.

The Tyranny of Normal What liberalism actually says about neurodivergent minds open.substack.com/pub/pabloist...

"The first condition of liberty is the establishment of a minimum standard of life... You cannot have liberty when a man is under the pressure of immediate and terrible want." Harold Laski,

"The liberal state is not an ends in itself, but a means to an end, and that end is the individual life. The state exists for the individual, not the individual for the state." L.T. Hobhouse

"The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it." John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

When public opinion demands that everyone think, feel, and react the exact same way, it fosters a culture of collective mediocrity. True progress requires intellectual diversity...1/2

If a person's choices don't cause harm to others, their own physical or moral good is not enough reason for society to interfere. Over their own body and mind, the individual is sovereign...1/2

True freedom isn't just about what the government lets you do; it’s about resisting the "tyranny of the majority." When society demands absolute social conformity in how we speak, look, and process information, it acts as a quiet dictator...1/2

The Thread I Could Not Name Finding the Thread: Liberalism, Freedom and the Self substack.com/@pabloista/n...

Some people don't look at you to see you; they look at you to confirm their own biases. They’ve already written the script, cast you as the villain or the problem, and no amount of truth is going to change their minds. Let them keep watching their own fiction.

It’s a bizarre kind of balance, feeling completely misunderstood and intensely disliked in equal measure. People will literally manufacture a version of you in their heads just to have something to resent.

I’ve realised some people don't actually want to understand you they just want to misinterpret you. Falling into that gap where you feel both misunderstood and disliked is exhausting, but honestly? It’s also the point where you stop apologising for just existing.

It's literally 353 Miles from my house. Autistically speaking.

My autism led me deep into rigid politics; my ADHD chased quick fixes. They used to compete, but reconciling them changed everything. Now, the hyperfocus and the need for clarity work together. I can still dig deep, but with a quiet purpose and a clarity I never had before.

All my life, playing a part until the role became a cage. The old, fierce political dogmas no longer fit the reality of my world or how I am wired. Taking the final curtain call on that performance isn't a defeat. It's stepping off the stage to find my authentic political voice. The journey begins

I've been a chameleon all my life. I don't even know who I am anymore. I overthink everything like an actor consumed by the part. It's time to take that final curtain call and stop trying to be someone that no longer exists.

Centralisation has failed Britain for decades. Westminster hoards power, Holyrood hoards power, and local communities are left managing decline with fewer tools every year. Democracy works best when power sits close to people.

Economic inequality remains the defining political issue of our time. Most ordinary people, whatever their background, have very little real power over the conditions of their lives. Politics should start there.

The best traditions in British politics understood that liberty means more than being left alone. Freedom means having the economic security, education, healthcare, and democratic voice needed to shape your own life.

I have spent the last year trying to write down honestly what I believe, not what I used to believe, not what I am expected to believe given my history, but what I actually think when I work through the questions carefully. open.substack.com/pub/pabloist...

The Greens put up a plumber in a by election, and now Reform UK have got a bloke with a plunger. Must be a metaphor about politics in the UK in there somewhere.