So this is for the Stop Combating Me flashblog.
Order 66. Order 66. Order 66.
I know that reference. (Star Wars, order to kill the Jedi)
Exterminate. (Doctor Who, Daleks)
Well, eradicate is the word they use. They don't want to be quite so obvious as to actually quote the creepy science fiction or science fantasy examples.
And yet.
I don't get how it's not that obvious. With people from outside the “autism community” (in quotes, because there is no such one community, but still used because some people are outside all the autism and autistic communities) hear what is going on, they get that it's messed up pretty fast. Not all the pieces, but that something is very wrong here? Oh, yes, they get that fast.
Not living, just existing? That line that disillusioned parents recently makes friends, teachers recoil.
“They said WHAT on a PSA?!” That's the reaction when I tell them about the woman who told the world she considered murder-suicide in Autism Every Day.
“But... good parents don't kill their kids...” Yeah, I know. And for some reason, when I or others like me tell the parents of autistic kids this... they manage not to get it.
Sure, they might not how much I am like the “poor dears” pictured, but they get that killing people is wrong and they get that encouraging murder is wrong and they get that speaking like your children robbed you of your (and their) lives is wrong.
Somewhere in combating autism (but not autistic people, or so they say) it became OK to combat the autistic people. Right now, I don't really care if it's somehow possible to combat autism but not autistic people (pretty sure it's impossible, because autism isn't separate from us, but right now that's not even the point.) I care that right now we are combating autistic people. We are. Autistic people are having childhoods taken away in the push for typicality, autistic people are being locked away, autistic people are dying of the ways people try to combat autism. Even if you think it's possible to combat autism but not autistic people, the fact remains: that's now what's actually happening. What's actually happening is taking its toll on autistic people, not some nameless and shapeless autism sans person.
Maybe you could argue that they're not specifically trying to combat autistic people, but is considering autistic people acceptable collateral damage really any better? I say no: it's calling the lives of autistic people worth so little that we're acceptable losses in the fight against autism. It's making it acceptable to turn autistic people into a battlefield for the sake of combating autism. (Ever seen a battlefield after the battle? Yeah, don't turn a place into a battlefield in order to “save” it, it doesn't work. Doesn't work any better when the battlefield is a person.)
Do you think us being the battlefield or the collateral damage instead of the enemy makes us any less combated? It doesn't. Face that reality: even if we're not the intended targets of combating autism, combating autism is still hurting autistic people. It's still combating the very people you probably think you're helping when you say you're combating autism. Unless the autistic people aren't the ones you're doing this for, but our oh-so-overwhelmed family members (note the sarcasm, please.) If that's the case, at least be honest about it: you're then combating us because you think we make life harder for the real people or whatever. (Think we're real people? Then maybe our lives should matter, huh?)
Don't like the implications of any of those ideas? Maybe you should take the hint, and stop combating us.
Order 66. Order 66. Order 66.
I know that reference. (Star Wars, order to kill the Jedi)
Exterminate. (Doctor Who, Daleks)
Well, eradicate is the word they use. They don't want to be quite so obvious as to actually quote the creepy science fiction or science fantasy examples.
And yet.
I don't get how it's not that obvious. With people from outside the “autism community” (in quotes, because there is no such one community, but still used because some people are outside all the autism and autistic communities) hear what is going on, they get that it's messed up pretty fast. Not all the pieces, but that something is very wrong here? Oh, yes, they get that fast.
Not living, just existing? That line that disillusioned parents recently makes friends, teachers recoil.
“They said WHAT on a PSA?!” That's the reaction when I tell them about the woman who told the world she considered murder-suicide in Autism Every Day.
“But... good parents don't kill their kids...” Yeah, I know. And for some reason, when I or others like me tell the parents of autistic kids this... they manage not to get it.
Sure, they might not how much I am like the “poor dears” pictured, but they get that killing people is wrong and they get that encouraging murder is wrong and they get that speaking like your children robbed you of your (and their) lives is wrong.
Somewhere in combating autism (but not autistic people, or so they say) it became OK to combat the autistic people. Right now, I don't really care if it's somehow possible to combat autism but not autistic people (pretty sure it's impossible, because autism isn't separate from us, but right now that's not even the point.) I care that right now we are combating autistic people. We are. Autistic people are having childhoods taken away in the push for typicality, autistic people are being locked away, autistic people are dying of the ways people try to combat autism. Even if you think it's possible to combat autism but not autistic people, the fact remains: that's now what's actually happening. What's actually happening is taking its toll on autistic people, not some nameless and shapeless autism sans person.
Maybe you could argue that they're not specifically trying to combat autistic people, but is considering autistic people acceptable collateral damage really any better? I say no: it's calling the lives of autistic people worth so little that we're acceptable losses in the fight against autism. It's making it acceptable to turn autistic people into a battlefield for the sake of combating autism. (Ever seen a battlefield after the battle? Yeah, don't turn a place into a battlefield in order to “save” it, it doesn't work. Doesn't work any better when the battlefield is a person.)
Do you think us being the battlefield or the collateral damage instead of the enemy makes us any less combated? It doesn't. Face that reality: even if we're not the intended targets of combating autism, combating autism is still hurting autistic people. It's still combating the very people you probably think you're helping when you say you're combating autism. Unless the autistic people aren't the ones you're doing this for, but our oh-so-overwhelmed family members (note the sarcasm, please.) If that's the case, at least be honest about it: you're then combating us because you think we make life harder for the real people or whatever. (Think we're real people? Then maybe our lives should matter, huh?)
Don't like the implications of any of those ideas? Maybe you should take the hint, and stop combating us.
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