Why does everyone hate Autism Speaks?

Post Reply New Topic

So I constantly see people saying the whole Autism $peaks thing and I honestly barely know anything about them and I am curious, why do some many of you guys hate them?

...I wanna read this too but I'm the first " replier" here...........Hass there ever been any discussion/meeting between Speaks folk and articulate representatives of the " anti " camp ???????????

They want everyone to believe that Autism is a terrible disease, even worse than cancer, that desperately needs to be cured, and that if your children have it your life will be ruined. Not just their lives, yours. I know this because I saw a video they had made where they say these things. They tell parents that taking their children everywhere will be a huge struggle. The children that are shown in the video don't appear to be miserable as the narrator claims, they might be stimming a bit but they aren't acting horrible. Speaking of children, AS rarely if ever talks about adults on the spectrum. It's as if we all just vanish into thin air, or we're a lost cause anyway so we might as well be dead.

I'm an adult, a female, and I have Asperger's, it's like AS is saying "three strikes, you're out".

One person got sued by AS because they wore a T-shirt saying, "I don't need Autism $peaks, I can speak for myself". Their Facebook page no longer allows people to click on dislike or give them a low rating. People who are brainwashed by AS think vaccinating is wrong, that it will give their kids autism, and that it's better for their children to get whooping cough and drown in their own mucus than become autistic. Sometimes I even worry they may be a new brand of Nazis who want everyone on the spectrum dead and will come and force us into gas chambers like in WWII. If all of this is not a good reason to hate AS, then I don't know what is.

I think that they make a huge amount of money in donations etc. It is an NT organization that doesn't want to give up big wages while it looks like it is doing something for the common good.

This will make you sick:
http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2009/09/ ... -pay/4893/

Top Earner At Autism Speaks Paid More Than $600,000

How about this:
http://loveexplosions.net/2014/10/31/oo ... -released/

I'll post here the same thing I posted the last time this question came up.

While there are a lot of reasons why people object to Autism Speaks, there are two primary issues at the heart of the controversy.

First is their focus on cure research. Autism Speaks funding for research outweighs funding for support services by roughly 10:1. A lot of people see this as a serious miss-allocation of resources. If nothing else, it's a pretty legitimate reason why many people do not support the organization. However, it's hardly something that stirs up the kind of hate that you're likely thinking about.

For that you have to look to the second main problem with the organization, the continued use of derogatory and stigmatizing language to describe people on the spectrum by individuals at the highest levels of the organization, often while officially representing Autism Speaks. This has continued despite increasingly widespread outcry from the autism community, including the resignation of a board member in protest of the organization's attitude towards the people it claims to be working to help.

This second issue is what stirs up the anger. It changes people's perception of Autism Speaks as an organization they merely disagree with to one that treats them with, at best, indifference, and contempt, at worst. Viewed through that lens, disagreements over the organization's other issues, small and large, become much more heated. It no longer seems like a simple matter of misaligned priorities as it seems like the organization has fundamentally different values from the people they claim to be supporting.

...Can you link to a fuller version of your second paragraph's story , please ???

They want everyone to believe that Autism is a terrible disease, even worse than cancer, that desperately needs to be cured, and that if your children have it your life will be ruined. Not just their lives, yours. I know this because I saw a video they had made where they say these things. They tell parents that taking their children everywhere will be a huge struggle. The children that are shown in the video don't appear to be miserable as the narrator claims, they might be stimming a bit but they aren't acting horrible. Speaking of children, AS rarely if ever talks about adults on the spectrum. It's as if we all just vanish into thin air, or we're a lost cause anyway so we might as well be dead.

I'm an adult, a female, and I have Asperger's, it's like AS is saying "three strikes, you're out".

One person got sued by AS because they wore a T-shirt saying, "I don't need Autism $peaks, I can speak for myself". Their Facebook page no longer allows people to click on dislike or give them a low rating. People who are brainwashed by AS think vaccinating is wrong, that it will give their kids autism, and that it's better for their children to get whooping cough and drown in their own mucus than become autistic. Sometimes I even worry they may be a new brand of Nazis who want everyone on the spectrum dead and will come and force us into gas chambers like in WWII. If all of this is not a good reason to hate AS, then I don't know what is.

They have a #MS

We are #NotMssng!

They have a campaign under the hashtag #MSSNG. What is more insulting then saying we as Autistics are missing. I am right here. You are right here. We are not missing.

We are #NotMssng!

There symbol for Autism is a puzzle piece. We are not a puzzle. We are human. We are only a puzzle to them because they refuse to listen to us.

...because when it actually comes to helping autistic people they go silent.

Because so many autistics fear change and hate the idea of a successful treatment that might "change" who they are.

Meanwhile I've figured out how to treat myself and am WAY better off for it & applaud autism speaks for their efforts. In fact, I've shared what I've figured out and done with their research team.

_________________
No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.