Why does everyone hate Autism Speaks?

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In the video I watched a mother never said she wanted her child dead.

How to treat autistics -- Whenever they're uncomfortable, deny them any empathy and understanding you would afford a normal person, especially if you previously led them on by letting them believe they could trust you. Get defensive, criminalize them for every little inappropriate thing they do, and seize the chance to trap them in a vicious cycle of being increasingly uncomfortable and at fault. Make a big show of it, film it and let as many people as possible see it so they know what an undeserved calamity has befallen you. Never teach them anything; instead, keep them ignorant and helpless, belittle them whenever they try to reason with you, as you reserve your right to be reasonable only to worthy, mentally healthy people, and learn how to push their buttons to trigger meltdowns at the best moments to make them publicly look as bad as possible. Exploit their lack of innate social skills to screw their lives by exercising yours.

There is definitely one where a mother talks about driving her kid off a bridge. If it's not that I'll have to find it when I next get on my computer. I thought it was that one. I'll find it in a while and link it here.

From 6:12 to 6:31 are the remarks in question. They were made by Alison Tepper Singer who was an executive at Autism Speaks in 2006 when the film was made.

Sorry, you're right. I watched the video again. That is f****d up, she smiled while she said that she also said the reason she didn't do it was because of her other presumably NT child. That video is horrifying, it is disgusting.

Yeah, pretty messed up. I know it's already been posted but if you're too lazy to skip here's the exact url starting where she stated that:

https://youtu.be/O0vCz2KWMM0?t=6m13s

And yes, sounds like if she didn't have an NT daughter she would have killed herself and her autistic daughter. And autism speaks supports this. I'm not sure exactly how marketing works but I can't imagine that'd be too beneficial.

I haven't seen the video yet, but I guess it's about a mom who wants to kill her autistic daughter (according to the previous comments)?

Nevermind, I read about it on Wikipedia and it said the mother wanted to drive her daughter off a bridge? What kind of mother is she?! She should be arrested!

That's a very precise calculation, though I'm afraid your answer is inaccurate. How did you arrive at the result?


I think it's very brave of you to share that here, though it would probably be better in a separate thread about affective empathy. It must be very hard to lack it. Are you sure you aren't trying to cure the wrong thing?


Nor have I accused you of doing so. If you read what I wrote carefully, all I said was that A$ is pretty powerless to force anything on me (and by extension, on many of the people here). My logic is that in many instances, there's no grounds for this supposed "fear of change" because many of us know perfectly well that we're in no danger of being forcibly changed by A$.


This not caring really seems to be a recurring theme for you, doesn't it? It's your choice of course, though I rather suspect there's a better way of seeing things. I disagree with your insinuation that there is necessarily some great life-improving treatment that we're afraid to look at. Personally I'm always open to looking at new ideas for improving my life, as long as they make sense and the benefits seem likely to outweigh any downside.


But you replied to the question "Why does everyone hate Autism Speaks?" with the answer "Because so many autistics fear change and hate the idea of a successful treatment that might 'change' who they are," which is saying rather more than "A$ can be useful to curebies." People have a right to reply to your assertion that their only problem with A$ is irrational fear.


That seems a very odd statement, to say the least. Last time I looked, I was a member of WP with as much right as you or anybody else to post my views. Nor did I say that A$ shouldn't be carrying out research that could benefit curebies. My exact words were "I'm strongly against a number of things that A$ does."


Well, your post didn't strike me as very sharp, that's for sure. Nor is what you've said a valid way of debating the issue, as far as I can see, and it make me wonder what your purpose here really is. You haven't explained how your self-administered "cure for AS" has rid you of the trait, in fact it looks pretty clear that you've demonstrated once again that you still have that problem in spades. Though like I said, I think you've got a different issue going on, hence your odd statement above. I wish I could be more specific, but I'm no shrink. Possibly you have an anger management issue, or just a low opinion of people who disagree with you, which might point to narcissism.

This is a valid question. For the record, all I've ever seen him do here is (1) promote a tiresome and highly questionable theory of what causes autism and how to relieve the symptoms, and (2) debate anyone and everyone who questions him with bogus science. By responding to his bizarre and provocative comments, you're only giving him the chance to repeat this unending cycle.

You can't be arrested for saying you want your autistic daughter to be dead.

I found it kind of fulfilling to unpick his strange statements, but you're right, it's likely to get tedious, as it was getting so easy to do towards the end.

7:11 to 7:16 is pretty offensive also. Allison says she sometimes forgets her son also lost his sister to Autism and her son says "I wish I had a sister without Autism" . The we lost our kids to Autism theme continues in 2015 with the #MSSNG campaign.

Lauren... is a boy? I thought she had two daughters.

But I really doubt the kid understood what they were saying. Been told to say it perhaps.

I am not blaming the kid who was very young at the time but the mother for feeding him that idea and the mother and filmmakers for not editing it out. The kid is now a teenager who is probably horrified that his old remarks is out in public. My fault for putting that out without further explanation. I do owe Christian an apology.