We’re enduring the worst Autism Acceptance Month ever as society rallies around the common cause of our abuse, control, and extinction, complete with celebrity extravaganzas. We can’t be online at all and not be faced with eugenics and behaviorism. It’s traumatizing.
My acceptance month blogging:
- Interrogating Normal: Autism Social Skills Training at the Margins of a Social Fiction
- Lost In Translation: Ways in Which Neurodivergent and Neurotypical Social Languages Differ
- The Meaninglessness of “Evidence-based”
- Behaviorism: Measuring the Surface, Badly
- “Autistic people have significant barriers to accessing safety.”
- Cradle-to-Grave Eugenics: Selective Abortion, Assisted Suicide, and Structural Ableism
- Google, Autism Speaks, and NAUWU
- Autigender and Neuroqueer: Two Words on the Relationship Between Autism and Gender That Fit Me
- Accommodations: Individualized Responses to Structural Design Problems
- A Credo for Support: Respecting Autonomy in a Society of Interdependence and Care
- “Care is an organizational structure needed to keep our nation running.” “Care work makes all other work possible.”
- The Self-injurious Stims that I Love
A passage to ponder:
We are marginalized canaries in a social coalmine and Rawlsian barometers of society’s morality. It is deeply subversive to live proudly despite being living embodiments of our culture’s long standing ethical failings.
Our non-compliance is not intended to be rebellious. We simply do not comply with things that harm us. But since a great number of things that harm us are not harmful to most neurotypicals, we are viewed as untamed and in need of straightening up.
…
If we were not threatening to the social order in some way, there would not be therapies designed to control how we move our bodies and communicate.
One of the best things that could come out of this is a wake-up call, because concepts like eugenics reassert themselves in every historical era-whether it’s Nazis talking about “life unworthy of life,” geneticists in Iceland talking about “eradicating” Down syndrome through selective abortion, a presidential candidate mocking a disabled reporter from the podium while bragging about his “good genes,” or autism charities framing autism as an economic burden on society. Resisting institutionalized violence requires perpetual vigilance.
And community tweets to explore:
We expend MONTHS of our lives trying to spread understanding of autism then some well-meaning but ignorant huge name celebrities come along and trash it all by encouraging support of charities that advocate for the 'prevention' of our neurotype.
— Pete Wharmby (@commaficionado) April 19, 2021
FOR GOD'S SAKE APRIL
Are you tired of explaining why many well-known autism charities are bad?
— @AutSciPerson@mstdn.social (@AutSciPerson) April 23, 2021
Well then do I have a diagram for you! (alt-text included).
Don't #ColorTheSpectrum #AutismAcceptanceMonth #ActuallyAutistic pic.twitter.com/8K8l1f5FgB
i still can’t believe as a society we ever trusted allistic people to diagnose autism
— tilly | autistic+adhd (@wonkypeppers) April 23, 2021
April is just a month of autistic people explaining the difference between advocacy and eugenics.
— Monique Botha is actually they/them 🤷🏻♀️ (@DrMBotha) April 22, 2021
Dear Neurotypicality Research Inc, my neurotypical person gets very embarrassed when I walk on my toes, or walk with my arms up like a T-Rex 🦖. It's just comfortable. How do I help my neurotypical person get over their fear of social stigma? Signed, Toe Walker
— Victoria Duncan (@SNeurotypicals) April 22, 2021
👇
https://twitter.com/slooterman/status/1384140974067130375?s=20
https://twitter.com/slooterman/status/1384138126331809793?s=20
https://twitter.com/slooterman/status/1384136442184560643?s=20
https://twitter.com/SaraAnnedipity/status/1385226237845573633?s=20
You should be doing an episode on the autism industry, @iamjohnoliver, not endorsing it.
— Ryan Boren (@rboren) April 22, 2021
There are so many autistic writers, @iamjohnoliver and @LastWeekTonight, who could help y’all make a much needed episode on the autism industry. So many angles to explore. Here’s one:https://t.co/DPF1fa036n
— Ryan Boren (@rboren) April 22, 2021
For autistic people, April is a parade of eugenicist nonsense endorsed by celebrities with huge platforms. We can’t be online at all and avoid it. So stressful to have society rally around the demise of your neurotype.
— Ryan Boren (@rboren) April 22, 2021
In light of everything going on with #ColorTheSpectrum I would like to take a moment to talk about why #AdvancedBehaviorAnalysis is abuse.
— Lillian Carrier (@LillianCarrier0) April 21, 2021
When supporting the #AutisticCommunity this should be the second thing you check you aren’t funding. After just erasing us from existence.
Things like #ColorTheSpectrum are the reason why so many autistic people avoid the internet during April. It is incredibly disheartening to see people donate so much money to eradicating autistic people when that amount of money could change so many autistic lives.
— Brooke Winters (@brookewinters33) April 18, 2021
I think we're just going to have to let the term "evidence-based" go. There seems to be an inverse relationship between the extent to which a practice is described as evidence-based, and the quality of evidence supporting its use.
— Kristen Bottema-Beutel (@KristenBott) April 9, 2021
https://twitter.com/slooterman/status/1378724662457339905?s=20
https://twitter.com/MxOolong/status/1378654076834091008?s=20
Autistic People: "Autism Speaks is a hate group."
— Myk – 🇺🇦🌻🇵🇸🍉 – Here To Help (@mykola) April 3, 2021
Allistic People: "Are you sure? Because I've, like, heard of them and stuff. They're really big. Are you sure you're not being dramatic?"
Autistic People: "Yes, we're sure."
Allistic People: "OH WELL NO WAY TO KNOW"
Leave a Reply