Disgusting & Disingenuous Behaviour from Pro-Cure Member

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One of the major reasons I rarely post here now is because of the behaviour of certain pro-cure members . The behaviour I speak of is a tendency to attack anti-cure members for not hating an intrinsic part of themselves. One big reason people come here is because Wrong Planet is marketed as a support site - IS the forum functioning as such when you are asking people to justify their lack of self-hatred? I wouldn't say so. I would, however say that anyone who engages in this behaviour is extraordinarily inconsiderate and should be ashamed of themselves. It is entirely your right to think negatively of yourself if you wish to, but please don't attempt to drag those with a more positive out look down with you.

Addressing the "disingenuous" part of the thread's title, I am SO sick of reading things like "we aren't superior!" - of course we aren't superior to Neurotypicals, and Autistic supremacy is as ridiculous as any other belief that a certain group of people are inherently inferior to another, but having read these forums since July 2012, I honestly haven't ever seen any significant or widespread supremacist attitudes on Wrong Planet, and the few bigots who occasionally show up spouting supremacist garbage are quickly settled down. Something which some of you don't seem to understand is that NOT BELIEVING THAT WE'RE INFERIOR DOES NOT EQUAL THINKING THAT WE ARE SUPERIOR.
No halfway-intelligent person with the ability to think logically would think for one second that a desire for equal treatment = a belief of supremacy, so please stop equating the anti-cure movement with a supremacist movement because it definitively is not.

Kind regards,
Kuribo

I'm not sure what behaviour you're speaking of (I don't read forums other than General Discussion 90% of the time) but I do agree that promoting a self-hating attitude is as sickening as a supremacist attitude.

I agree. And honestly, even the people who think their autism makes them superior don't bother me that much, I guess good for them if they are happy. And there is also plenty of NTs who think they are superior to others. It can be annoying sometimes, but I think it might be because of the way they were raised, if their parents led them to believe they were superior to others. Or maybe some are born that way lol I don't know.

People are allowed to be pro-cure just as they are anti-cure. And I've seen quite a lot of NT generalisations/bashing. In fact I see one post like that every day. And there are supremacist types on here. They're a small minority, but they exist.

And pro-cure members are an even smaller minority, I can't even think of one. I think most of your assertions are strawmen, because I haven't read any opinions like that.

I didn't read beyond this sentence, since you don't seem to have done me the courtesy of reading my post at all before responding. I directly stated that people are entitled to hold whatever view they wish.

"It is entirely your right to think negatively of yourself if you wish to..."

Before the seventies, Homosexuality was also categorized as a disorder. Many people started coming up with cures for that too. If something like that happened today, it would be on the cover of Newsweek or something like that. I think autistics as a group, also should realize that many of us are not in need to be cured.

My opinion is that ASD is a disorder and a disability just as much as Schizophrenia and Intellectual Disability are. It is a neurological, developmental disability which causes impairment in the lives of those who have it. My ideas about potential hypothetical cures for autism are more nuanced but I am not against scientific research into the development of such. A small sub-group on this site have expressed their opinion that people with ASD are superior and/or that they are the next step in evolution. In another thread where I discussed them I referred to them as a sub-group. I strongly disagree with their view. I will express my opinions on these things. It is my right and I am in no way being disingenuous when I do so.

we are inferior in some ways ....

that is why autism sites state that ASD people should pursue only particular kinds of jobs

Actually the same is true for NTs. Different people are good and have talents at different things, and bad (or not as good) at others. That's ok tho, society needs all kind of people with all kinds of talents.

Some people are completely misinterpreting what I'm saying, and it looks like this is just going to become another pro-cure vs. anti-cure thread which was not my intention.

Goodbye for now.

That part seemed to me like an insult. In your rant, anyone who is pro-cure is self-loathing. And it seems like you're trying to silence those people by calling them self-loathing, and saying "if you think like this don't drag the rest of us down".

This whole thread is one big ad hominem.

And does viewing autism as disability mean we think it's inferior?

This whole rant is out of the blue actually, it would make sense if I had seen people say that about the anti-cure people, but I haven't read any opinions like that. Why was this thread made, in response to what?

I think the best approach is to keep an open mind as far as the science of autism goes. Its only recently (now) that it is getting decent attention in the form of research and studies. But its still got a ways to go, and I have to catch myself from locking-into any one opinion while so much still is being found out.

OP, I agree with everything you said; and you put it very succinctly.

The fact is that (it seems) some people think of Autism as a disability, and others (like myself) think that there is a whole lot more to Autism than the diagnosis and the traits that are disabling, and that only some traits of Autism are disabilities while other traits are not, and that even among the traits considered disabilities, some of them can become strengths, depending on how one uses them (sometimes you may need someone who will understand your strengths and give you that chance too).

I just don't like labels, especially negative ones. I see a nuance between being called "disabled" and being told "you have disabilities", I don't want to define myself by my disabilities. When I was 20 I got sick and had to go to the hospital numerous times, and I noticed that I was never (or rarely) called by my name anymore, I had become a "patient" ... well I didn't like that either, I was getting upset, and I was thinking I'm not a ***** (cuss word here) patient, I am a customer who needs a service, I'm still me, plus I'm not even "patient".

Maybe if we could simply respect each other's opinion and agree to disagree it would be a lot less exhausting for everyone.

It pains me to read the "I hate myself", "I hate my autism", "I want to be cured" type posts. But to banish that type of post would be hypocritical. A lot of us say we loathe Autism Speaks not only for their pro-cure stance but that Autistic opinions are not heard. The "I hate myself""I want cured today" are Autistic's opinions about their Autism being spoken. Because we abhor what they have to say is no reason to prohibit them from saying it. A desperation person who was born without social filters may not be nice about it. We need to understand that. As much as we say we would never feel that way, we are not them, we don't know their experiences. How do we know if we lived their lives we would not feel like they do?

Autistic superiority is rampant here. If not everyday almost everyday I see NT's only care about social ranking unlike us, NT's lie unlike us, NT's are stupid etc, etc.

I also noticed some kind of "elitism" or "segregationism" once in a while, some people seem to think that if someone doesn't have the same traits as them, or are not as disabled, and/or are "high functioning", their diagnostic must be wrong, or they must not really be autistic, etc. (maybe we shouldn't forget that Autism is on a large spectrum, from "severe" to "high functioning"). Sometimes there is also a tendency to trivialise other people's issues, whenever the person believes another person is not as disabled as they are.

But whenever a person goes to a doctor to get a diagnosis its because they know something is wrong and they need help, and if they were diagnosed with Autism they certainly have traits or "symptoms" of Autism (sometimes in addition to other conditions). Its not for us to decide whether they were diagnosed correctly or not, we don't know them personally, we don't know how much, or how little, their lives are affected by Autism (or any other condition), and we certainly cannot make a diagnosis online, of a person we don't even know.

Also for many of us WrongPlanet is the only, or one of the few, places where we can express ourselves freely, share experiences, etc. So it would be nice if we could simply welcome everyone who is interested in sharing their experiences and issues with us, instead of making them feel as if they were not supposed to be here because they are supposedly "not autistic enough".

Personally I couldn't care less whether a person has been diagnosed or not, or if they might have been misdiagnosed, or not, or if they are severely disabled or not, the point is this person is happy to be here and share with us, that's all that matters to me.

/gets off soap box