Trigger Warning: Abuse/murder of autistic people
Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong.
You might not even understand why it is
so wrong, and you definitely don't understand why it bothers me so
much.
I don't even know how to make you
understand.
How do I explain that being autistic
does not make it OK for people to torture you in the name of therapy?
How do I explain that false treatments
that would be considered abuse if the kid wasn't autistic are...
still abuse when he is?
How do I explain that triggering PTSD
is not an acceptable way to fix a behavior problem, ever?
If you don't get that those kids feel
that pain, that those kids are fully human, how can I explain that?
Why do I have to explain that?
I want to explain.
I want you to understand why this is
wrong.
I want to shout at you that I know
autistics can feel pain because I
am autistic.
But
I see how you don't think we're quite human.
I
see it when a man keeps his two autistic sons in a cage, the
prosecution can prove that he did so (he admitted that he did so!)
and the jury thinks it is reasonable protection.
I
see it when mothers murder their autistic children and then the other
parents rally around the murderer, rather than condemning her.
I
see it when, as soon as I tell you that I am autistic, I am suddenly
too autistic to understand what is best for my own life.
Even
though I was competent five minutes ago, before I shouted ``I know
autism doesn't have to mean X because I'M AUTISTIC," now I am
not.
Now
I am autistic.
Now
I am one of those people who can not possibly have emotions, who
cannot possibly feel.
Now
teaching me is not education, but intervention.
Now
abuse is therapy.
Because
I'm not really a person either, it's OK to ignore me.
To
make you understand why the wrongness bothers me as much as it does,
I have to tell you something.
That
something is the one thing that will also make my opinion invalid in
your eyes.
It
will make you think I have no empathy, that I can't possibly know
what it's like to deal with someone as
I
think you have no empathy.
If
you had empathy, you wouldn't need me to tell you that torturing an
autistic person is torturing a PERSON, and that it's wrong.
If
you had empathy, you would realize that painting autistic people as
tragedies can't be good on our end, and you would stop.
But
you don't stop.
And
if I try to tell you why I care so much that you stop, I am the one
who can't understand.
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