Savage Hypocrisy

Original Post: July 16, 2006

I read up on the Cure Autism Now site that they finally decided to address the issue of neurodiversity. In the FAQ section, there is a question that states:

Q: Why do you talk about "curing" people with autism? Shouldn't we be working on acceptance and support, instead of a cure?

A: All people with autism deserve the acceptance and support of their communities, and an understanding of the challenges they and their loved ones face. When we talk about a cure for autism, it is not meant to belittle people with autism, any more than those seeking a cure for spina bifada or other disabilities are devaluing the lives of people with those particular handicaps. But, for many people with autism and related disorders, life is a constant struggle to understand and be understood. With the advancement of science through our many research projects, we hope to improve the quality of life for all those with autism.

I shake my head and don’t know whether to laugh or cry. You want us to believe you and the rest of the autism establishment care about the dignity of autistic citizens despite years of disparagement because YOU say so in a single paragraph? You expect us to buy that line? Sure autistic people may not be good at social interactions or immediately “getting” underlying messages, but we’re by no means stupid. Let us breaks down this piece of hypocrisy one phrase at a time.

All people with autism deserve the acceptance and support of their communities, and an understanding of the challenges they and their loved ones face.

Sure, if that were the case with you people, why isn’t the job of the CAN organization to dispel stigmatizing views of autism? How is it respectful that autistics are called tragic and the condition is described as “worse than cancer”? Why does CAN not stand for "Celebrate Autism Now"? How is it respectful to call autism a “plague”? Let me remind whoever from CAN is reading this that one of their leaders stated:

“Autism is like this… it’s like somebody sneaks into your house in the middle of the night and takes your precious baby’s mind and personality and leaves their bewildered body behind. If one in every 250 children in America were actually being kidnapped, we would have a national emergency. And we do; it’s called autism.”

Clearly, the kidnapped motif is quite common in the marketing of autism to the public. While your at it, why doesn’t the person who made the above statement join a milk manufacturer and print autistic children on the side of milk cartons. That way parents AND young children can see the missing VICTIMS while eating their Rice Krispy’s every morning with the Autism Speaks awareness information on it.

When we talk about a cure for autism, it is not meant to belittle people with autism, any more than those seeking a cure for spina bifada or other disabilities are devaluing the lives of people with those particular handicaps.

Well, if you really did mean that, watch your language. Sending messages to people that it is wrong to even engage in harmless stims and that it is bad to pursue unusual interests during treatment sessions implies that society finds whom these people are undesirable and defective. Lack of accommodations in making social interactions exacerbates this problem. This is suppose to NOT belittle autistics… HOW?

As for needing greater awareness for autism, I already said that it is necessary. More funding is necessary for a greater understanding of autism. I agree to the point with the current establishment that autism is SEVERELY under-funded as a medical issue, being more common than most childhood medical conditions. We SHOULD be realistic about the challenges those on the autistic spectrum face. However, we should not use such dehumanizing language to describe autism as a condition. The realities of children who can barely speak or care for themselves are just as real as those of J-Mac and other famous autistics who are verbal and can live independently. However, any autistic who brings up any positive awareness for autism instantly has his/her sanity called into question. People demand proof of diagnosis, and make vicious personal attacks. It is this hypocrisy that exemplifies the very things the autism establishment criticizes in autistics.

Disclaimer: The following is a satire.

Let us suppose for instance that the autism is RIGHT about the stereotypes of autistic adults. Autistic self-advocates are what they would call “not really autistic enough”, “misanthropes”, “Borderline Personality Disorder”, “pharma-shills”, and even sociopaths. Oh, and let us throw some blood libel into the mix. Autistic adults are advocating for the COMPLETE neglect of autistic children for only one reason. You see, autistic adults are like vampires. They start out as little children who are robbed of their souls little bit by little bit by autism as they grow up. By the time they grow up, their souls are completely gone. But all of them gain incredible savant powers that they use to do evil, although mostly idiotic, things. The only way to keep this power is the consistent consumption of autistic children’s blood; it is little wonder why they run on a routine too. That’s why autistic adults keep children autistic so that they the children are about 10 years old and plump enough they gas the children, stuff them in the back of vans, take them to the underground lairs, cut their throats, and boil their blood. The only way to prevent such vampirism is to prevent autistic children from becoming autistic adults. Thus, a cure or pre-natal test to destroy all of autism is imperative.

End of Satire

Whoa. Beat THAT John Best Jr.! If I literally meant what I wrote above, I’d give you a good run for your money on the defamation you can create. In all seriousness, even if the above were true about autistic self-advocates, the establishment is sure doing a good job setting a moral example and encouraging others to do the same (not!). You can’t prove your moral superiority even in the circumstances above.

First, if autistic adults were truly rude and misanthropic (which they are not in real life), the “qualified” people who are claiming to speak for autistics won’t be too different either. The message is, “Agree with me or I’ll slander/libel you into oblivion." Yet how come they are morally on top? No one has to question their credentials, yet it is perfectly natural to request private medical information from autistics. Imagine how the parents of the autistic children I work with at the Kennedy Krieger Institute would feel if I made accusations about them as not being the children’s parents and actually being “imposters” or “child kidnappers”. It would not be very fun for me. Yet it would be common protocol if I were to make statements contrary to popular opinions of autism.

Secondly, there is a double standard. If the satire above is true and some autistics are caught for drinking blood from murdered children (that they murdered), they would instantly be condemned. Heck, even I would probably condemn them without being inherently prejudiced against autistic. When William Freund killed those two people, people may become paranoid about Aspies and profiling may become acceptable. I understand now that Freund was misguided in his actions and very wrong indeed, but nothing justifies potential phobia against autistics in general. At the same time for most neurotypicals, it would be seen as “understandable” for a neurotypical mother to smother her autistic daughter to death with a plastic bag. It would be “understandable” for the TWO neurotypical parents of a 19-year-old autistic male to lock him in a burning apartment. All this because of the stress of autism? Isn’t all of murder wrong? This double standard may be no different than the Jim Crow laws from the olden days.

Lastly, the epidemiological statistics on autism are misused. The current establishment’s use of them numbers is as shady as them lawyers the vaccine plaintiffs are hiring. For the establishment knows that any consistency will result in a lose-lose situation. The current 1 out of 166 people being affected by autism in America is used so often I’m surprised it is not a meme like “Peanut Butter Jelly Time”. This statistic includes children and adults, on all levels of functionality. Now here is the tricky part. If the establishment seeks to exclude autistics who can communicate from discourse about autism policy, the epidemiological numbers do not seem so bad. If autism is marketed as a pandemic to the American people, that means the establishment has acknowledged many communicative autistic adults as such and thus allow them to make their own statements in the arena about autism. How the establishment keeps sticking to the “autism epidemic” line while excluding so many autistics from discussion of their own condition is beyond me.

The next time you read any more mainstream autism literature, please challenge any extreme assumption or other ones you have a hunch are wrong. The hypocrisy I would think makes the establishment’s thinking system very suspect at best.