I AM CONDUCTING AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTISM SPEAKS

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Okay, why are you blaming for something that he might have not known and for which he wasn't involved?

I have had enough of this thread. It's becoming filled with agressive largesse again.

I liked Tambourine Man's response to the criticisms, refusing to sink to a lower level of discourse, and sticking with the positive aspects of what he has done.

What? I didn't make a post which required or inferred that you should point that out.

Just a positive comment, that the discussion is moving back in a positive direction.

I just off the phone with phone with the wife of the creator of The Laramie Project, one of the most important and groundbreaking works of modern theater. They are producing a play about the autism spectrum and want me to be involved!

I wept when I saw The Laramie Project! This is so cool!

It's moving in a random direction actually, as one can see if they look casually.

I would agree that's the general pattern throughout the thread, but my comment was directed only at the OP's last comment and my response, specifically to that comment. He could have took the low road, instead he took the high road, and turned the lemons into lemonade.

Yay, my column is up!

I just logged into AFF, only to discover that I've been banned for "concealing that I work for Autism Speaks."

I'm an employee of Autism Speaks? Why did no one tell me?! How long have I been working there?!

Ha ha. Too funny!

Well, since you maintain a blog/write articles for them, technically you do *work* for them. Writing is work. Plus, work can be unpaid as well. (as your *work* appears to be, since only you and the organization would know the terms of that)

Have you ever heard of a line of reasoning that states "if you find yourself constantly denying something, you probably have something to hide?" I'm not directly accusing you of anything, but one has to wonder...

Ironic too. One of the major issues has been censorship and better representation of individuals employeed on the spectrum by the Autism Speaks organization.

Even if you did have a position in the organization, paid or not paid, it should be cause for celebration that the organization is hiring more individuals on the spectrum.

And, the fact that you can be banned if you don't list where you work, is a type of censorship, worse than anything I have seen that autism speaks accused of. Isn't that your personal business; is it required that everyone divulges where they work over there? Are there places you can't work, if you are a member over there?

They ban people that spam over there just like they do here, but instead of banning John Elder Robison, who happens to be a well known autistic person associated with the Autism Speaks organization, they leave a scarlet letter, that he is a TMS spammer by his name and no one should pay attention to his posts, but yet state that he is not a spammer, not banned, and welcome to post.

All he did was talk about TMS research for Autism, and that he believes it helped stimulate his mirror neurons and looks promising; it's not even approved as a therapy for Autism yet, so he can't possibly be spamming something to Autistics when it's not even available for use yet.

Putting a statement by John Elder Robison's name not to listen to what he has to say, but not banning him, is also a form of censorship.

Interesting stuff going on over there. No logic behind it that I can see. Sounds like a private club of sorts, only fully open to select individuals on the spectrum.

I'd be interested in seeing what they might state as a logical explanation for these interesting ironies.

He presented a blog on the "in their own words" section of the Autism Speaks Blog Site that is open to the general public. His sister immediately reported the blog on the AFF site, and a discussion ensued on the merits of it, so there was no concealment of his efforts to promote neurodiversity on the Autism Speaks blogsite.

He presented a neurodiversity viewpoint there that was applauded by close to 80 of the parents by their comments. Isn't that what AFF, in their activism efforts, is aiming to do, put the message out that autistic individuals are neurodiverse, and should be accepted for their positive merits?

Wow, it's working, and coming from one of AFF's own members on Autism Speaks blogsite. The idea has been to get the general public to understand the neurodiversity among us.

It appears that Tambourine Man is successfully doing that and gotten reprimanded, at AFF. Not so here, at this website, and Tambourine Man reports that Ken G has translated his work into Hebrew for the community in Israel.

We point out misteps in other organizations that impact our lives, we have to be able provide constructive criticism when we make missteps as well. In my opinion AFF is losing credibility by their actions, unless they provide a logical rationale for them.

They are actually an organization that supports activism, for the good of autistic people; that is precisely what Tambourine Man is doing on Autism Speaks blogsite, in my opinion he deserves to be applauded, not reprimanded for his efforts.

Yes, very funny indeed! The AFF Secret Agent has been denied, by AFF, which proves it is another of their plots to invade Wrong Planet. Did you think the Autism Speaks Red Herring would throw us off your track?

Listen to them! Watch as they point the finger, someone else is trying to exterminate aspies. They are doing it with Science, they chip away at our sense of Safety from vauge Internet threats.

The Koch Brothers set up the Tea Party, a fraud from the git go, to undercut any opposition group filling that space. Is not Autism Speaks doing the same, and is not AFF a wholely owned "We Bought the opposition," group?

Just look at their complaints,
Autism Speaks is against T Shirts that were never made!
Autism Speaks sent a polite letter to someone who was misusing their Trade Mark!

Who is trying to set up the issues of debate on Wrong Planet, for the 99%?

What is with the idea that our Leaders have to submit a list of our Demands, to our acknowledged Overlords?

We, the 99% think that the 1% who form The Leading Organizations for and against Autism, for and against each other, are running a fraud on the 99%.

Intelligent comments are always welcome, These Press Releases for self serving groups claiming the big lie, they are the leaders of the Autism Movement, are Spam!

We have no leaders, no demands, and we own Autism. We do not want or need the Central Council of the Steering Committie to run all the Autism Funding through their non autistic pockets.

Awareness has made us targets, Research has proven nothing is known, Leadership has done nothing for us, the three million, but make money for themselves, and form groups that Spam how they are our Leaders.

Autism Speaks is a Corporation in the Science Grant Business, for a half Billlion they have produced less results than rdos. They hold New York Coctail Parties for their Hollywood friends. The guest list is Science, so they can hang out with Leading People.

The value of this to three million autistics is less than zero, as the cost is covered out of funds for autism, we pay for their parties.

AFF and ASAN are playing the role of Internet Terrorist and Street Thugs, right here on Wrong Planet, to no purpose other than to confuse, disrupt, attack, and who benefits? What are they but a Sponsored Agent Provocatour Action to discredit all of us with their Misdirection?

Whenever we Self Advocate, someone sends in the Hired Advocacy Leaders. Everything we say is wrong, and there are calls to go beat up grandmothers at Autism Walks. Free Press for who? Look what they said about us on Wrong Planet.

Disinformation programs have been run, fronts set up to shout us down, disrupt our joining as one.

We are the 99%. We are Autism.

Until there is a democratic election, we have no leaders, no program, no demands.

All self elected groups are frauds. It seems they are in fact One Corporate Fraud.

Wow, what bullies, a giant corporation sending a cease and desist letter to a 14 year old autistic girl, after she was only responding to the highly negative ad campaign that they themselves had created to "educate" people about people with autism, calling them monsters etc. That is a very fair fight, a giant multimillion dollar corporation versus a 14 year old disabled girl.

And don't forget, usually a cease and desist letter is often a pretext for legal action (usually suing) if they refuse to comply, otherwise it would hold no threatening legal value. So it's BS from them to say, "Oh we were not planning to sue" if she refused to take the letter seriously. So how would they have handled it if she simply said, "Your letter doesn't scare me" and pressed on? I suppose they would have threatened the host provider or anything related to storing the offending content, but then, that's still pretty petty of them to do that.

Many slanderous things have been said about Autism Speaks on public websites, and they have taken no action. I too wondered why they selected this one website to take action, while ignoring everything else. Inventor a member here understands the legalities related to trademarks and he has offered the best explanation I have seen of why they took the action they did:

Inventor wrote:


I wasn't around to see the website, when the website was up, but Inventor was and is knowledgable about the laws, regarding trademarks. Lawyers of organizations take care of this kind of stuff, in standard objective procedure.

It's understandable that a 14 year old would be scared and take offense to it, understandable that others would see it as unreasonable if they didn't understand the requirements of the law, and it's also understandable that the lawyers for the organization were fulfilling their duties in protecting the legal rights and responsibilities of the organization. I'm not sure how they would know she was 14 unless she stated it on the website.

I didn't see the website but doubt there was any personal information about her on that site, and doubt there was anyway the lawyers could find out the individuals age before the letter was sent, even if they tried to because of the privacy act.

Mistakes happen, autism speaks admits they are a young organization has made mistakes, apologized for offenses taken, and is open to improve their organization based on constructive input. As a non-profit charitable organization, I'm not sure what else we can expect out of them.

What we do have control over is how we treat each other on support sites. The treatment of Tambourine man in his effort to provide a bridge for constructive improvement and more autistic voices in the autism speaks organization, presents an opportunity that the autistic community can learn from and improve as well. It is apparent that some people have recognized it and are taking action to support differences in opinion and constructive effort.

Some others are more determined than ever to destroy the organization if it were possible. They have a right to that opinion, but at most it provides something to talk about, like fans supporting a football team with oppositional comments about an opposing football team, with no real potential for constructive results, other than the cohesive bond it provides within the group.

The negative portrayal of autism in the past portrayed by Autism Speaks has been hurtful to autistic adults, and potentially hurtful to autistic children as well that see themselves being portrayed in negative ways, with negative statements they potentially take to heart.

Constructive change within the organization, does mean something in improving the quality of life of autistics. If we can influence the organization to make that change to improve the portrayal of autism, it is a win-win scenario for everyone, unless one is upset they might lose the enemy that provides a common element that binds a group together.