Friday Night Rants: Jenny McCarthy

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I didnt really edit it this time.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txLDCIEzFyY[/youtube]

Reviewed her book here:

http://chaoticidealism.livejournal.com/47493.html

...yeah, I got snarky.

I wonder why people are even listening to her; she acts as though having an autistic kid automatically means you know everything about autism. The only kind of expert an autism mom can claim to be is an expert on her child, and it seems like McCarthy isn't even that.

The interesting thing about her book is that she doesn't seem to realize that before Evan's diagnosis, she thought he was cute, autistic traits and all; afterwards, it was as though she'd completely redefined his behavior as unacceptable. It was like she stopped being a mom and became some sort of sick "anti-autism" fighter. That said autism happened to be part of the boy she used to think was cute and wonderful totally escapes her.

Oh, and he was obviously autistic before the seizures and vaccinations, too, if your read the parts where she describes him as a baby. Evan was definitely HFA before the seizures, had a regression due to the seizures, and then recovered skills afterwards when the seizures and irritable-bowel syndrome were controlled. It's an obvious case of a comorbid condition causing problems in an autistic person. If you can get that from a book written by a woman who thinks the vaccines did do it, I wonder how much more obvious it must be from an objective viewpoint.

I think personal attacks are not the correct way to go about criticizing MMR conspiracy theorists, even though you can't fight ignorance with reason, at least you don't lose your integrity if you try.

Lay off of her. She's turning/turned the home next door to her into a place where Autistic children can come and have a safe haven, while being helped along in their development. She's putting a lot of work into the well-being of Autistics. She cares, she's not just going around parading for a cure.