Comments on: Horrendous autism “advocacy” video

By: An “unbalanced response” « Ideologically Impure

An “unbalanced response” « Ideologically Impure — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:59:04 +0000

[...] someone tell me how this isn’t a political blogosphere variation on Autism Will Steal Your Real Children And Replace Them With Changelings rhetoric? How Eddie isn’t metaphorically patting Slater on the head, telling him “Oh, [...]

By: FWD/Forward » Rant: Your Logic is SO Faulty!

FWD/Forward » Rant: Your Logic is SO Faulty! — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:04:16 +0000

[...] First of all, lady, the name of your organization is offensive. (Also.) [...]

By: AMM

AMM — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:04:50 +0000

This reminds me of the now-infamous "ransom note" ad campaign in New York City, sponsored by the New York University Child Study Center, which portrayed "autism" and "Asperger syndrome" as "kidnapping" people's children. (There was a nice New York Magazine article about the campaign to shut down that ad campaign.) My son is diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome (originally as autistic, but then the DSM IV came out), and we have been fortunate in mostly running into professionals who were prepared to see my son as a human being and helped him to feel like it was worth the pain and trouble to try to relate to the rest of the human race, as well as helping us to see the humanity in him. [*] It helps that he is an extrovert. He is now in college (engineering -- no surprise!, especially given all the techies on both sides of the family), and has become / turned out to be a (mostly) caring, empathic, idealistic person who I am proud to call my son. Maybe he would have been just as wonderful if he hadn't had Asperger's, but he would have been a very different person. [*] There have been exceptions. When he was about 4 or so, we brought him to one rather famous neurologist -- who shall remain nameless -- who ran roughshod over his sensitivities (and ours!), then accused us of bad parenting because he wasn't cooperative, and insisted that his psychologist's planned therapy (play therapy, etc.) was a waste of time, that we should instead focus on behavior training. Guess who we never went back to....

By: Zoi

Zoi — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:21:30 +0000

@PharoahKatt: The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN) works to minimise the stigma against Auties, and has established support groups. Their support groups primarily focus on teens and adults, but you could always ask them if they know of anything for children - I'd be very surprised if they don't.

By: PharaohKatt

PharaohKatt — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:14:28 +0000

I’ve been trying since I read this to think of a response. So far I’m too busy being shocked and angered. It’s like all those horrible, invasive questions I’ve been asked “What would you do if your brother didn’t have Asperger’s?” Well, I don’t know, because he wouldn’t be my brother!

Are there any Autism Advocacy organisations which focus on reducing stigma and teaching parents/siblings how to live with Autistic children, which doesn’t make it seem like they are a “terrible burden” or “not real”? I’d love to offer them my support.

By: iLinkSpam 2.0 (29th September, 2009) | Geek Feminism Blog

iLinkSpam 2.0 (29th September, 2009) | Geek Feminism Blog — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:53:45 +0000

[...] highlights a horrendous autism “advocacy” video from Autism [...]

By: su

su — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:05:48 +0000

Apparently there was a group flogging Hyperbaric chambers at the last big Autism conference here. Appalling. People are performing medical experiments on their own children all in the name of illusory overnight “cures”. I’ll stop now before I invoke Godwin’s. But it is that bad.

By: tigtog

tigtog — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:25:40 +0000

@Amandaw, you have hit the nail on the head. Some of the treatments that are touted as a cure for autism are horribly painful and debilitating ("chelating" especially) and the whole message the kid gets is that there's something fundamentally wrong with how they think and act that Must Be Fixed. @ Sunless Nick, I've edited the post to be a little clearer that it's another voiceover with lots of voices saying the words rather than the actual families whose images are shown saying the words, but yes, that is what Autism Speaks is doing. @magneticcrow, That babysitting situation must have been very hard to keep your cool in. And the thread you linked to, wow. That said, I have had a couple of run-ins on forums with people who use ASD as a reason to demand that others accommodate their "quirks" to an unreasonable (IMO) degree. I don't see why I should unquestioningly accept behaviour over the internet from strangers that I wouldn't accept from my own autistic spectrum children. In fact, I find that having drilled my kids hard in the rules of manners/etiquette helps them socially, because they don't have to be all "intuitive" about their responses, they can just follow the rules.

By: magneticcrow.blogspot.com/

magneticcrow.blogspot.com/ — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:10:17 +0000

…This stuff isn’t doing any favours to us “high functioning Aspies” either.
But this fits so well with the narrative I always heard about Autism when I was younger. One mother of a kid I was babysitting for when I was 14 went off on a rant about Autistic kids. Apparently, a kid in her son’s class had bitten him. Instead of just being immature, maladjusted, or having a bad day… the kid was Autistic (in her mind). And her idea of how an Autistic child should be treated was to isolate him from all other children his age, forever. Obviously, I wasn’t about to tell her that I am Autistic myself; though had I, I would probably have been told “Oh, you’re not like those others…”
Also, check out the comments on this thread by a professional woman with Asperger’s syndrome. Gotta love the paternalistic “You’re Asperger’s is making it hard for you to see why you’re a terrible person” comments.

By: SunlessNick

SunlessNick — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:17:36 +0000

Then the families appear and talk about fighting the Autism Entity as if it has kidnapped their “real” children and left them with some changeling who doesn’t have “real” feelings.

So they engage in literal dehumanisation of the people they purport to be advocating for?