Autism Pride - No Thank You!

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Y'know, the word 'pride' has more meaning than "I'm, like, totally in love with my autism". It's more about getting recognition and having pride in your own accomplishments. Yes, there are autistic people who claim to be proud of being autistic or at least say that they don't want to be autistic. Well, that's their life. As long as they are not preventing research to better understand autism.

This whole "War against autism" thing is way more illogical than autism pride. How can you have a war with a medical condition? Also, why do you want to treat your life like it's some battlefield. Don't be so dramatic. I mean, I hate people who think autism makes them a super speshul snowflake, but seriously, this "War" thing is pretty immature. And how do you even begin to fight a war with a neurological condition? At least "pride" can mean "self respect" (which is how I use the term).

The world is full of rhetoric, common psychosocial conditioning and then the shampoo. My job is to find rational understanding and the conditions to resolve or create better understanding of ideological disputes to protect human rights. A collective of minds being on the same page let alone line reference of meaning for particular words and beliefs is not very possible let alone desired.

What is immature is purposely creating a new meaning out of a word or phrase for political reasons. That is what happened with the war on autism and it's similar to the war on drugs, the war on illiteracy and the war on homelessness. To make a battle out of a problem incites dedication, resolve and conclusion and in this context betterment. There will always be people that make things up to fit an agenda just listen to talk radio. I shut that stuff off some years ago because no matter side there was hardly any rational discussion just bias.

I'll assume you are including the battle you're inciting here and your own personal bias that you're promoting.

The five points I made earlier were the reasons why I am not continuing with this dicussion. It's become tiresome.

I'm out.

The battle that you think I started here was the result of prides attacks on my own rights and I am confident I have accomplished what I felt to do. Seeming pride is so diverse in interpretation and representation it is not a specific ideology. I will outline a reply to you about insecurities and the image of autism as a self-idenity that is self-chosen in politics in context to your reply to me. The difference between you and I is I am not part of any specific movement in the autism community but that of human rights generically. I see movements as colliding at times, even interpreting each-other wrongly but it's when malice attempts to destroy progress that it becomes a burden to those that are not even aware and who experience the disability and receive the label for reasons of disability.

I think what could happen and what some that are propagandists don't want to happen is coming together and determining the spectrum of views. So understanding can be more mutual and more constructive. If folks do not want to get along I think eventually they themselves will be ignored and understood as to why they may feel those ways.

One has to remember that Albert Einstien could very well have had Autism. But what this means is not only did Einstein make his achievement in spite of Autism but rather it was because of his Autism that Einstein found git of genius. This is according to the book "Genius Genes", written by a renowned Psychiatrist. What this means is that Autism should not only be considered a disability but rather it can also be a gift.

Perhaps.

Yet in terms of the diagnoses it's about disability and functionalism. When research agendas attempt to market autism as a disability label it is doing so to help. Yet when the good and bad of people with autism in context to the image of autism conflicts and anger becomes malice what should be preserved? The right to treatment supersedes in context to the social awareness for the right for treatment advancements. When Autism Speaks directly or indirectly speaks about criminality and autism in the media it is a conflict of interest simply because their bias is treatment to view autism as a condition to be treated in a way that conflicts with the image of autism and the presumption of guilt in the legal system, society who become jurors and public opinion in general.

My mentality is you got to ask for absolute proof. If someone claims to be offended by the image of autism why are they offended and what are they trying to preserve. Is it ideological biases such as abortion politics, ones own self worth, social peer pressure and common conditionings to fit in and what about ones own self worth and the image of autism and the autism identity either the autistic one or the secondary cultural awareness ones such as aspie, autie, autists and so on. When we become more personalized with the awareness of autism by means of self-identification, self-associations and in general the awareness of the label and self folks will tend to become more sensitive. The preservation of rights to adapt are not centered around the dignity of autism alone but that of many other factors and some of which I have detailed above.

I am not here for a popularity contest but in the long term even should I be long gone and dead I'd hope to have helped in a way that preserved quality of life as that is the intent of being labeled. True dignity can be part of this. However ethically there are more important factors then my own self-image relating to a disorder label.

As modern technology becomes more advanced and we have to deal with the problems of global warming, nuclear power disasters and issues of war and peace it will be imperative to our survival to contemplate resolving these problems by thinking outside of the box. Yet social constraints prevent us from doing this. It is socially unacceptable to talk about global warming if you work for a refinery. It is socially unacceptable to be concerned about the environment if you work in the nuclear power industry and likewise an environmentalist will not even consider nuclear power as a solution to the problem of global warming because it is socially unacceptable.

However the autistic with the capacity to dream and to transcend social conventions knows that in the future environmentalists will indeed embrace the power of the stars as being central to their new age ideology of clean and green energy. In the future societies will be able to solve their problems without going to war and military technology will be used for space exploration.

But the capacity to dream although instrumental in the development of any new technology is seen as a disability because it interferes with many of life's mundane tasks. A pilot who day dreams and misses his destination has his pilots license revoked forever yet without the impossible dream human flight would have never been invented.

An interesting world-view.

You think that the war on drugs was a good thing? Try telling that to a heroin addict or a prostitute. Legalization is the logical thing because then it helps to eliminate the drug dealer. The "war against drugs" has been a failure and has only helped to benefit drug dealers.

The "war" thing is illogical because of the emotional context of it. It is not a "war" in the literal sense, so you're essentially trying to change the definition of the word "war" for political purposes as well. "Pride" is not intended to be political, though. People can be proud, have pride in themselves, be proud of their accomplishments, too proud to do something, feel pride in their country.....see how the word "pride" and "proud" can have various meanings?

And how, exactly, am I fighting a war just by overcoming a few obstacles? That's insulting to those who have been in a war situation. I'm not so pretentious that I would compare overcoming the obstacles of my disability to fighting in Iraq or something. Oh, yes, it's certainly a battlefield going to college where I get to study a subject that I love *sarcasm*. It's certainly such a battlefield out there, going to the supermarket, doing mundane, everyday things *sarcasm*. And yes, I know it's difficult to do mundane things if you are severely disabled or you have sensory problems, etc, but this "war" metaphor makes me sick to my stomach. My life is not a f*****g battlefield. Nor is the life of my friend's (some of whom have severe autism). We just get on with our lives and we don't act all pretentious, acting like we're fighting some kind of war. That is what's immature about the "war against autism".

There are real children out there facing war every single day, many of whom are disabled. THEIR life is a literal battlefield. Don't insult these people, please.

I grew up in a military family. Father was in the coast guard which also has to do with the war on drugs. The only insult I see is respecting one but not the other. There are different kinds of wars and people can tell the difference. Each has it's duties, purposes and goals. The war on autism I don't think is like traditional wars obviously but people insult folks when they falsely interpret the war on autism and I know veterans that support the war on autism for the sake of improving lives.

But how far can the war on drugs go? A job was offered to me to build a Drug Enforcement Agency office. Not only would I have to take a drug test but I could not have any prescription drugs on my person or in my car. I happen to take blood pressure medicine but there are no exceptions to the rule. Of course they do not stop me taking my required medicines in the privacy of my home but if I were to forget to take my medicine my blood pressure would go up because I could not get a backup supply out of my car.

Like the DEA treating all drugs as evil, Autism Speaks treats all autistics as evil with no exceptions. If you are Einstein that is just to bad because the world can do just fine without Einstein once we have cured Autism.

Autism Speaks is in the business of improving the condition of autism. From what I know in how it is used here an "autistic" would be me and you folks as in someone who has the condition which is not always acceptable nor popular usage. If you are socially pressured, influenced or have come up with it yourself to interpret autism the label as you then that to me is not appropriate and even unhealthy. If you and others demand to view autism this way and society calls it a label to help then the psychosocial conflict is unavoidable and not the fault of establishment but a political agenda.

As for drugs. The government must respect the ADA. Find a lawyer and seek discovery for litigation or seek mediation to the matter but before hand make it a media matter with the attorney. He or she will love the exposure and the public would like to support your job as well. Government must respect the ADA. Also contact your congressman and senator.

Still sounds pretty hyperbolic to me.

Most everything is.