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Tourette’s and the Left's Newfound Love of Ableism

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  February 26, 2026 8:30 AM

Earlier this week, social media erupted when John Davidson, an activist with Tourette's syndrome, yelled out the N-word during the BAFTAs in the U.K. If you don't understand what Tourette's syndrome is, Davidson made an entire movie about the condition and how it nearly ruined his life. That movie, "I Swear," won awards at the BAFTAs, including for the actor who portrayed Davidson.

If you don't know what Tourette's is, it's a neurodivergent condition where individuals have physical and verbal tics that lead to outbursts. In ten to 30 percent of cases, those with Tourette's have coprolalia, or tics that produce socially unacceptable words. Those tics are involuntary and do not reflect an individual's beliefs or their thoughts. It is a horrible condition, and Davidson has dedicated his life to helping people understand the condition and gain acceptance for those with Tourette's.

I'm old enough to remember when ableism was the Left's latest boogeyman. When John Fetterman was running for Senate, asking questions about his cognitive abilities following a massive stroke was labeled gross ableism and summarily dismissed. That went by the wayside, of course, when Fetterman became the last sane Democrat in Congress. But in the Left's game of intersectionality, disabilities suddenly lose when someone says the no-no words they don't like.

Yes, the N-word can be a racist slur. In this case, however, it's not. It was the manifestation of a disability.

As the Left always does, they showed how truly intolerant and ignorant they are by attacking Davidson. YouTuber Grace Randolph, who is a white woman thinking she can speak for Black people, showed she doesn't understand Tourette's at all.

"A lot of you are acting as if he not only can’t control his offensive tics but as if he has no idea he even has them. He does," Randolph wrote. "He should therefore be as considerate of others as you are asking others to be of him."

Randolph continued, "Mr Davidson didn’t just say any word, he said a word that is deeply hurtful, dehumanizing and with not just a horrible history but a horrible present."

She also showed how she has no idea what Tourette's actually is.

No, he didn't "think it" because that's not how Tourette's works. 

In a livestream, Randolph claimed, "You have to understand what a slippery slope is to allow this word under any circumstances. There are no circumstances under which this word or any word like it can be said."

Here, I'll point out that Randolph also posted a review of "Django Unchained," a film in which that word is used more than 100 times. In that review, Randolph said the movie was "one of [her] favorite films of the year," and she recommended people go see it because it's "very funny." She also said, "I really appreciate the way it so starkly deals with the issue of slavery."

"And I think one of the things it captures best, in my opinion, is the very twisted, almost surreal relationships, interpersonal relationships that came out of the situation," she said.

But now that a white man with a disability said this word, Randolph and her ilk are singing a different tune. She, and many others, are not only demanding that Davidson apologize for his disability, but that people like him should also be segregated from society.

"And it’s telling he voluntarily left the event after this, as he, on his own accord, could tell what he had done was horrible," Randolph wrote. 

Yes, Grace, he's got a conscience and if you've even read a summary of "I Swear," you'll know that Davidson was subjected to abuse, harassment, and discrimination his entire life because of his Tourette's. He's been beaten, was unable to go to school, and had his entire life defined by his condition. So he's aware of what his tics can do, but that awareness is not an acknowledgement that what he did was horrible.

He. Had. No. Control.

Randolph even posted a poll about where we should "allow" people like Davidson at events like the BAFTAs.

Incredible.

Contrast this behavior with the way the Left demands we tolerate the anti-social, violent behavior of the mentally ill criminals in cities like New York and Chicago. We're told those people can't be put in hospitals or mental health facilities, and that we can't imprison them for the violent crimes they commit because that's unjust and inhumane.

But a man with a documented medical condition? He must be isolated from society because he hurts Randolph and Carnell's feelings.

The same people who pushed mandatory masking on us so they could go out in public now want the disabled to stay home.

I often say that if the Left didn't have double standards, they wouldn't have any. For years, the Left lectured us about compassion. About inclusion. About destigmatizing mental and neurological conditions. Until it became inconvenient and an opportunity to virtue signal.

John Davidson did not choose his tics. He did not “think” the word. He did not weigh its history and decide to weaponize it. He lives with a documented neurological disorder that has defined — and often damaged — his life. And yet the same crowd that insists society must bend for every other marginalized group suddenly demands that a disabled man stay home.

Inclusion, it turns out, has conditions. And tolerance, for the modern Left, only runs one way.