I have an older family member who is severely mentally disabled and always has been. His medical records diagnosed him as r*tarded. The adults diagnosing him at the time didn’t understand enough about mental conditions and their differences when he was a child. So kids like him were diagnosed with that. It did have more ‘legitimate’ uses than it does in our current context. Doesn’t make it good or right, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have tried to be more specific either. That legacy leads to now where we have the nuance and resources to do better. I am glad it’s more and more relagated to the past as it’s consistently been used to dehumanize people.

Crocheting is an inexpensive, versatile hobby that could absolutely result in art that you could sell online. Seriously, with a bit of string and a funny stick, and you can make lil stuffies, hats, scarves, etc. You can make cute ones, nerdy stuff, appeal to different fandoms/online communities. If you create a decent inventory, perhaps a local place by you would also feature your products for a cut.

I’ve seen cool button making machines for relatively inexpensive ($60~), but then you would need to have access to a printer and ink, so overall that’s a more expensive project. But that’s another option to think about as well.

That’s so retro tho