Article on Autism featured in this month's WIRED magazine

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I just wanted to comment on the most recent issue of WIRED magazine 16.03. The headline reads "The Truth About Autism: Everything You Know Is Wrong". It was written by David Wolman. My mother, my younger son, and I have Asperger's Syndrome. I was compelled to read the article the instant I saw the headline.

It raised the question of how Autism, and Asperger's for that matter, is viewed by science in general. What I found helpful though, was the mention of a need for new diagnostic criteria and a review of its classification in the DSM-V as a disorder, as opposed to a new condition without a negative context.

It was a decent article in my opinion.

Many thanks for that, Jet.

The article's online here.

The article is about Amanda Baggs, a member of Wrong Planet. It looks great.

It's always going to have a negative context when the majority of those with autism/Asperger's need to rely on disability services or family to survive in society.

How do we break the negative connotation? I know, and it's nothing to do with the diagnostic criteria, it's government programs, apprenticeships that rely on order and structured training for those with autism/Asperger's in their specific areas of strength. If an "aspie" can recite every fact about dinosaurs, but cannot complete a university degree--throw them into the midst of the paleontologists and they can aid them immensely. This transposes over everything. You then have an individual who's productive [to society], earning money, and doing what they like, but what they never could do due to their "disorder".

Less focus on "social" and formal education, more focus on practical abilities and education that focus on our strengths rather than making us hide the strengths in our weaknesses (they'll never show then).

danielismyname: I agree. There needs to be more focus on the strengths that people possess, rather than the perceived weaknesses, most of which which are based on an outmoded social model.

Part of the article is about Michelle Dawson's work, which is important because it deals the particular cognitive strength of autistics.

Comparing the Autistic to humans? Times are changing.

The other side of the question, what is Human?

The largest broad studies of humans, such as The Department of Defense testing of every warm body they might draft during WWII, showed an overall result of, intelligence, education, at halfway through the Eighth Grade, with a C-. Most were High School Graduates.

Training and manuals were directed to this majority of the population, the Normal.

The few who fell outside this Normal were either rejected as mental incompentants, or made Officers.

Later studies confirm that even with the decline of education, Eighth Grade, C-, IQ 100, fits most.

In planning for employment, the main use of the Normal, do not depend on IQ 100, for that is on a good day, and peak behavior cannot be expected all the time. A 10% to 15% fudge factor is normal, design the job for an IQ of 85 if you want continous production.

For you smart folks that don't get it, two quotes:

"There is the right way, the wrong way, and the Army way."

"Keep it simple stupid. KISS"

Smart People Syndrome, which Autistics share, has a complete lack of an ability to understand the mind of others. Smart people lack the ability, the TOM, to believe that others are different, and it is not just lack of knowledge. They do not understand, nor can they function in, a Normal World.

The only Profession that truely understands the Normal Human mind are rare specialists,

Marine Corp Drill Instructors.

"No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American public." H. L. Menkin

This reminds me of a Gary Larson cartoon, dolphins in a tank, saying, Habla Espanol? Parly vu francis, and one researcher saying to another, they have no intelligence, they just make meaningless sounds.

Those who fall outside of the Normal Spectrum form two groups.

Group one: sees that everyone is insane, complains about it, are are locked up for being mental defectives.

Group two: sees that everyone is insane, and are amazed that any system could work. They are made Officers.

This researcher who has an autistic correct his work is Officer Material. No care about right and wrong, just what works.

danielismyname understands. This Army has a job for you, where through testing, your best skills will serve all, and your worst performance will be hidden.

Civilians, as usual, have made a mess of things. The main problem is Normals have taken the position of Officers, except they think Normal is right, and the best for everyone, instead of seeing it as it is.

HFN's, High Functioning Normals, have some common features. They are a twenty-five watt bulb with a thousand watt darkness. It is not enough to light the world, which most of them try, but it can light one small spot well. By intense focus on a narrow field, and now more a sub-set of a field, they can learn to function, and repair small engines, or become a Psychologist.

It is not to be expected that either will have a knowledge of History, or an overview of human life.
I have developed a treatment program to make people Historically Correct, which involves drugs and electroshock. We can cure them, Drill Instructors do it every day.

The Human Problem is simple, none can understand another. Normals are not wired to understand smart people, or they would be one, and smart people cannot understand normals, for they seem real, till you try to talk to them. Then the lack of a knowledge base, and logic, shows.

The Army Way it does not matter. Class, Wealth, Education, are meaningless, all start as a Recruit.
The Army is not Creative, it cannot make people into anything.

The process is, rip out the Mommie, Civilian, psychobabble, Individual, and deal with what is left.

This is not as harsh as it sounds, the process only takes six weeks, almost all survive, and then take pride in being freed of their past.

Everyone starts the same, fresh out of Boot Camp, made in the image of the Drill Instructor. Many stay that way, but some get rank, because they work for it, deserve it, and are better than your Normal Grunt.

The Civilian world says Drill Instructors lack empathy. They do.

I bring this up as a contrast to the Civilian world that seeks to cure the same traits that the Army seeks to develop, while curing civilian tendencys.

All Humans are blind.

Only the Drill Instructor knows that whatever gets off that bus is going to be squared away, cured of their past, and made into something useful, where they can provide the most service, and cause the least trouble. The Drill Instructors have a 99+% win rate.

Normal can be cured.

Nothing that can be cured should be used as a standard to judge others.

The only view that works is all people should do what they do best, and avoid what they do worst.

It is the only way to deal with insane hairless ground apes.

Anyone who reads it, please note they at one point quote me as saying something, when I was actually telling them the story of what D.J. Savarese once told an interviewer. That's the "treated with respect" part. I was clear that it was D.J.'s words when I was talking to them, but their tape recorder broke so they had to do it from notes and forgot to ask me about that quote. So I just want to say that the "treated with respect" line comes from D.J. and I could never have come up with it. (This oddly happened to me once before -- again with a quote that I'd directly attributed, that time to Sandra Radisch, but it was quoted as if I'd said it, even though I put an attribution to her both on that page right after the quote, and on the credits page, and even though the quote was written in blockquote and separated from my own writing.)

I found one part very intriguing.... that the autistic brain tended to reach some answers approximately 40% faster than the NT brains.... note that BOTH came up with the correct answer, the autistics just did it first. I correlate that with the reports I've seen saying we tend to have a higher proportion of white matter to gray matter than the NT brains.... More interconnections, faster processing time. At least to the casual observer. And I'm VERY glad to see someone is actually working on this sort of thing instead of blindly parroting the cure viewpoint. Maybe we'll finally start seeing some real progress.

Too bad they didn't give DJ credit for that line, it's a great one. I hope that people can see that no one was saying that autism is not ever a disability. The author makes it clear that both you and Michelle Dawson have real serious real-world impairments, but then a couple of "experts" (one of whom has a bad reputation for having abused Tito M. by experimenting on him and not giving him a report of what they found as had been agreed), whine, "But they can't say autism is all hunky-dory and not a disability and stuff... 'cuz then our research funding will be cut. We're making a good living off of pushing the idea of it being a heinous medical disease and som'junk, and that we can like cure it and stuff!" or words to that effect.

Overall I give a 4 and half stars out of five and hope that the mercury malicia won't try to boil the author alive in thimerosal.

Like they've been trying to boil Richard Grinker? He seems to be taking it rather well. He was positively upbeat when I chatted with him last week. Great guy.

Very interesting article. I hope Amanda keeps up the good work. I know I would be extremely stressed dealing with so much attention. I can't help but wonder just how many who have been classified as low functioning are in reality just someone who's language we haven't bothered to learn.