This post also appears on the Flash Blog site, which you should totally be looking at.
And I thought, and I thought.
It's hard to come up with a universal should for any group, and part of the problem that Autistic people face is that people tell us what to do.
Autistic people should stim more?
That's kind of true, but a friend of mine basically wrote that. He didn't call it that, but he wrote it. It's going to be linked here, once it's posted.
Autistic people should continue being awesome?
It's true, but it would really only have worked if I had thought this through enough to put Autistic People Are as the first flash blog and Autistic People Should as the second one, so that I could have done Autistic People Are Awesome first.
Autistic people should do whatever the heck they want?
True, and something I probably could write a post on, but it's not going to get Googled much.
Autistic people should have better Google autocompletes!
It's meta. That makes me laugh. A lot. I like it! If only I could get it onto the list of Google autocompletes. That would be hilarious.
Autistic people should use meta-humor!
Actually, I don't know. A lot of my Autistic friends really do like meta-humor, and I like it. But I think that this would confuse people. I am at least trying to reach people and have an effect here, after all.
Autistic people should be the ones you're listening to about autism?
Yeah, but I'd be preaching to the choir there. You lot already read my blog. You're already listening to an Autistic person about autism. Better to leave that one to a neurotypical parent, since that, "do whatever the heck they want," and "have better Google autocompletes" are pretty close to the only ways they can finish that sentence without it being another case of neurotypicals saying what we should do. It's not the exact problem that led to this flash blog, but it's pretty close to it.
So I've got nothing.
I can write about what this specific Autistic person should do.
I should keep being awesome.
I should keep writing, because if I don't I'll explode.
I should keep doing nanotechnology research.
I should find better supports for the fact that I've got some executive functioning issues.
I should accept my abilities for what they are and work as best I can with what I have.
I should actually work on compiling essays into a book.
I should do my Chinese translations.
I should find my passport.
I should write that guide to studying abroad while Autistic that I was talking about with the Office of International Education.
I should make sure to leave the world better than I found it.
I agree that Autistic People Are should have come first. It would probably have been easier to write for that one first, and I suspect that people are more likely to search for that.
ReplyDeleteI approve of your meta humor and agree that autistic people should have better autocompletes. I'm now somewhat worried about whether you feel that my draft oversteps the bounds of courtesy and appropriateness, since it goes beyond the suggestions you gave. I mainly wrote it in the passive voice, so that it was really about what should be done to people with autism. (Speaking of which, while I strongly suspect that you'll approve of it, if you're going to reject it, it'd be nice to know that while I still have a couple of hours in which I might replace it.)
Would you consider it appropriate for me to describe autism for Autistic People Are? That is, to do a 101-level description of the signs and symptoms, since most people who are made "aware" are likely to have no idea what it actually is, and are likely to think it's something entirely different? You can vet that, too, if you want, but I do think I can describe it accurately without help. What are your thoughts?
I'd totally vet that, and your "should" post is queued as is. You're not telling Autistic people what to do, you're telling other people how to treat us using the passive voice to make it fit in the prompt.
DeleteIf this winds up being a repeating thing, "are" will come first, for sure.