Trigger Warning: Discussion of abuse/murder of autistic people, the people who give sympathy/support for it.
Go read this. I'll wait.
War Against Autism Ignorance
Did you read it yet? Ok, good. That's what I'm going to talk about. Because we DO need to fight back.
I'll admit it. I have no intention to stop boycotting things. But I will ALSO give alternatives in my letters where I explain exactly why I am boycotting. I will even talk to someone and suggest the alternatives politely before I boycott. We all fight in our own ways.
That said, I like the call to arms. I agree with it. It might not be our job to educate, but I don't see other people educating for us and getting it right. I see other people educating against us instead, and that has to stop.
Go read this. I'll wait.
War Against Autism Ignorance
Did you read it yet? Ok, good. That's what I'm going to talk about. Because we DO need to fight back.
I'll admit it. I have no intention to stop boycotting things. But I will ALSO give alternatives in my letters where I explain exactly why I am boycotting. I will even talk to someone and suggest the alternatives politely before I boycott. We all fight in our own ways.
That said, I like the call to arms. I agree with it. It might not be our job to educate, but I don't see other people educating for us and getting it right. I see other people educating against us instead, and that has to stop.
Autism Speaks, Generation Rescue, Jenny McCarthy, Age of
Autism,
Kim Stagliano, Autism One Conference, Dan Olmstead
These are some of the people educating against us, rather than for us. These are the people who give sympathy to our murderers. These are the people who sometimes actively try to silence us (I'm looking at you, Social Media Crisis person over at Autism Speaks.) These are the people we need to counter. These are the people we need to out-debate, out-moral, out-science, and out-shout. And we're going to do it because WE are the true stakeholders, we are not tragedies, and we will NOT be silenced.
Nothing about us, without us!
I appreciate hearing from you about how you prefer to be addressed, "Autistic", as many professionals are taught to use "person first" language in their writing, e.g. "a friend with Autism". Secondly, I have a comment regarding your position on organizations such as Autism Speaks: I understand it is hurtful to viewed as "something is wrong and needs to be fixed" with me. However, I also understand our community's desire for prevention. In the 1960's we learned that giving pregnant mothers thalidomide caused their children to be born without limbs. It is not that those children were not loved, nor that people in general wished they weren't born. We saw a deliberate harmful reaction to something foreign we introduced into women's bodies, and now avoid unnecessary exposure to that. I think the same thing is happening today with the organizations you've mentioned above: They are seeking to first, advocate for families and bring awareness about Autism, and secondly to help find the foreign source that causes Autism to develop. And I believe it exists, just based solely on the sudden spike in prevalence in developed countries such as ours. Yes, people will still have accidents with brain injuries; They will have children born with chromosome abnormalities; there will always be things that make each and every one of us different and we should continue to accept people for whom they are. But, I agree with the efforts of folks who try to keep our future generations safe and prevent harm.
ReplyDeleteThank you for allowing an opportunity to share my views on your site.
On the birth defects issue: Yeah. That's very true.
DeleteOn thinking that's what Autism $peaks is up to? NOPE NOPE NOPE.
They don't advocate for us. They advocate against the autistic people who are already here. They spread fear about us. Their awareness is actively bad. And they're still going on about vaccines (no link found) and other things of that kind, despite evaluations of adults and people who were classified with other disabilities suggesting that autistic spectrum stuff has always been around 1%. (Yeah. For real. 1% of adults in the UK, discoveries that about half the people who were classified with just intellectual disability or the equivalent from a generation or two ago are also/just autistic, that kind of thing.)
And autism is NOT a brain injury. There are some medical conditions that look like autism and some that are correlated with autism, but those are not themselves autism.
Also, the preventions are very different between the cases: The missing limbs- don't give mothers that stuff! Autistic kids: Abortion/telling autistic people not to reproduce.
So it's really not comparable, and there are big issues that Autism Speaks that you are most likely not aware of if this the only post on this site which you have read.
I love this article and I think we need more of it, especially in times of tragic shootings and the way the media are quick to diagnose the killers as having Autism or something on the ASD ...
ReplyDeleteSeriously, we need more articles like this one and more communities like www.aspiesforfreedom.com, who are big on Autism self Advocacy and against corrupted organizations who use Autism as an epidemic just to make a quick buck...
DeleteAlthough in light of recent tragedies, I'm happy to see more people come to aid of the ASD spectrum while at the same time find it an insult to even think that people could say that those on the ASD aren't able to emphasize with the parents who lost children in this heinous shooting when a lot of people on the ASD are parents themselves...