Please stop Steve Silberman from speaking at the ASA Meeting

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Hear, hear.

I won't sign either. Even if I hated the man and his message (which I don't), I wouldn't support him being harassed or boycotted over petty personal dislikes

I do not agree with the petition, so my signature will not be appearing.

Steve, I recently bought your book and thought it was excellent.

Just read some of the comments. It's getting signed by a bunch of curebies and anti-vaxxers. Wonderful.

I don't agree with everything Mr. Silberman says...

...but I'm not about to sign a petition begging to silence someone who's making an argument for my essential humanity and value as a human being.

I was so impressed and moved by the speech Steve delivered to the UN on 1 April 2016. You can find video of it by googling "Steve Silberman UN speech 2016". There are text versions online too. Didn't notice a single "dangerous lie" that the OP in this thread seems to be obsessed with, only very cogent reflections on the past, present and future for ASD people.

I haven't finished reading it, but I remember the titular character in the chapter "The boy who loved green straws," and some other characters being impaired by autism. I think his balance of HFA/LFA representation is within reasonable range of reality.

I have not read the book, but judging by the comments made by those who signed the petition (and who didn't read the book) versus the comments made by those who didn't sign (and who actually read the book), it would be worth the fare and ticket to be there in person the hear what he has to say.

He does not warm the cockles of my heart but I cannot sign to silence anyone even if he is the biggest Nazi or moron in the universe.
But on that note I would think that vaccine naysayers, gmo naysayers and Scientologist saying we just need engrams adjusted should also be allowed to speak on campuses and at public events. If our kids are so lost to critical thinking they fear a non-standard message can "convert " them all with them never doing research? Then Universities need to stop getting all public funding and thin the herd down .

There are plenty of youtube videos of Silberman's speeches.

So far 88 signiatures. The only people this petition is impressing is its authors, petition signees and some Wrong Planet posters.

Who's stopping them from speaking? Some are actually quite vocal.

On the other hand, you can't force anyone to invite them to speak, public events usually invite people that the organisers see as having an interesting, relevant and/or informed opinion (or one that aligns with their own views and agenda, true that), not just any random person who happens to have an opinion.

Interview with Silberman by
ASA

Silberman does answer critics

I feel these words are most needed at this time

While the situation is different the basic idea still applies to teens or young adults who have no friends, no job and have never had sex or relationships of any kind

Perhaps Silberman's follow-up book to NeuroTribes will be about the variety of autists in world history and today ... more of a socio-political history than a clinical or diagnostic history.

Meanwhile, I hate to do this, but, I believe that when Silberman states that "[...]people who continue to claim that the MMR vaccine or mercury-based vaccine adjuvants triggered a global autism 'epidemic' — despite all the scientific evidence to the contrary[...,]" he is failing to consider ordinary adverse drug reactions (ADRs). A simple Internet search for the terms "adverse drug reaction" "mimic" "induce" "disease" and "disorder" results in many legitimate sources which describe certain diseases and disorders that, if they aren't sophisticated enough to know the difference, clinicians and diagnosticians might be convinced that they are seeing the real diseases or disorders, not the ADR effects of induced or mimicked diseases and disorders. This phenomenon is somewhat pervasive among such diseases and disorders, so why would autism be the only such disease or disorder to not experience mistaken diagnoses based on ADRs? Of course, it wouldn't be so, and isn't. While I agree with (and thank) him for his popular reiteration of the effects of the expanded diagnostic criteria in the 1980s and 1990s, the claim ignores these ordinary ADRs (and resulting mistaken diagnoses of induced or mimicked autism) that would seem to account for the relative handful of claims that children "changed" immediately after a scheduled vaccination. So, in my opinion, it isn't a matter of "autism is caused by ADRs" or "autism isn't caused by ADRs," but, instead, "autism is equally susceptible to mistaken diagnoses based on the relatively rare induction or mimicry of ADR-related diseases and disorders."

I don't think this is fair. Why should Silberman (or anyone else refuting the bogus claim that MMR vaccine caused an epidemic of autism cases) refute a different argument. No one is saying that no child (or adult) ever has an adverse reaction to vaccines, that's not the point. I doubt very much that Steve "failed to consider" ADRs --He's just staying on topic.

It's part of the Michigan Mindset.

When I was growing up in Michigan - in a town just outside of Lansing - I realized that, instead of engaging in thoughtful debate with a person whose opinions differed from one's own, most people in the area seemed to resort first to any means (including violence) available to get the opposition to shut up.

There was no exchange of ideas, no give-and-take, and no consideration given to the concept of free speech. No, instead the prevailing attitude was more along the lines of "I am right, you are wrong, so you should just shut the f*** up before I shut you up!"

I blame the pervasive influence of the UAW and their adversarial attitude against anyone with wealth, intelligence, and a college education.

^
I've never set foot in Michigan, yet I'm very well antiquated with this mindset.

Why would you want to stop anyone from speaking somewhere, when they have something to say about the topic? Just because you don't agree with them doesn't mean that others shouldn't get the chance to make up their own minds. Suppressing opinions and other theories or schools of thought isn't a very good idea, especially when those opinions etc aren't out calling for harm to come to people.