I Am Autism - The War On Autism

Post Reply New Topic

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

As anyone who has come aware of my analysis you will find I purposely don't agree to agree. Moreover for those insulted by this film I want you to think about it and try to explain to me why. I do have a diverse analysis in the making to explain why people are insulted, may be insulted and are not insulted. The intent is to not argue per say but share feelings.

Please contribute by writing a reply no matter how you think others might not like or agree with what you say. No need to be shy. No one should feel threatened for thinking for themselves.

Nathan Young

I sing about this. Not especially well, but there it is.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXYN5kZrgyo&feature=related[/youtube]

I've listened to your video before in my studies..

"I am autism" etc. - No, the speaker is not. That is the voice of an outsider, someone who has no understanding at all of what we are like inside, no sympathy at all for us, no decency. It is the voice of a bigot, a propagandist, someone who would destroy all understanding.

Yes, I am angry at the things said in that video. I am angry because they are untrue, at best they are distortions, and they portray me unfairly and wrongly. I am angry because it pretends to speak for me, and it does not speak for me.

I'm not offended that you posted it for discussion. We need to be aware of these things, to discuss them, to counter them. But I am angry that it was ever made. That video is the voice of hatred and intolerance.

I happen to agree with the video.

I am furious that after all the suffering and lost opportunities I have endured during my life that some people try to tell me that it was all really a gift instead of the horrible disease I know it to be. I want Autism to be eradicated so nobody will have to go through what I have endured.

I think you are very brave to say what you said.

I'm sorry that you feel that way - and I can't tell you what it has meant to you. Whatever you choose to say about your own life, you are the expert. And, yes, you are brave to say what you did, on a forum where many will disagree with you. However much I disagree, I do respect your bravery and your right to speak out of your own experience as you see it.

But... someone who is not even autistic has no idea what any of our lives are like. They are on the outside. And even your opinion is only really valid for you; who are you to say that I am wrong if I do not wish to be eradicated? Just as I can't speak for you, neither can you speak for me.

I do wonder how much of what you have endured is due to the very attitudes spread by those who want to eradicate autism, though. I'm sure in the 1800s, many black people wished they had never been born black - not because there was or is anything whatsoever wrong with being black, but just because of how they were treated by others. I haven't lived your life, so I don't know how often this was the cause of the suffering and lost opportunities you mention - but I've had quite a bit of suffering and lost opportunities of my own, and in my case, I am very sure it was society's attitudes, far more than anything inherently wrong with me, which caused the problem. So - although I cannot say for certain - I wonder how much you have this attitude because you were taught to have it by the very people I'm opposed to. I'd at least like to see society change, so we could all find out. (And, yes, it sounds as though it would be too late for you. I'm truly sorry about that. But it won't stop me worrying about all the kids whose lives may be warped because of that video and others like it.)

Last edited by theWanderer on 13 Dec 2010, 9:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I am Autism (And so are you!)

About the Author:
Mindslave is Autism.

I disagree.

AFIAK, most of the people from autism speaks are parents/family/friends of severely disabled children and they know all too well what the lives of those children are like.

Nobody is going to force a cure on an adult who doesn't want it, stop pretending that they are coming after you.

They have every right as parents to fight for a cure and decide that a normal life is better for their children.

A lot of normal parents, unrelated to and often even not aware of of the neurodiversity movement, left Aut$pks because they thought this video and the harrowing way it portrayed autism was horrible and unreasonable. It is not merely because of a thin skin or rose colored glasses that many people find it disgusting.

Cure does not always mean abortion or forcing change. Treatments are cures and personally to redefine that for sensitivity reasons seem akin to breaking wind for the holy jolly of pulling another's finger. As for the video I have mixed feelings about it and will write it up soon. There is good and there is bad.

I am not autism. I'm an employee, volunteer, aunt, Toastmaster, Canadian citizen, Kinks Fan, loyal friend and the list goes on and on.

From the outside. I can guarantee you, my parents had almost no idea what my life was really like.



You have no more idea what anyone may do in the future than I do. In 1932, just about everyone in Germany would have said - and, often, did say - the same thing to any Jew worried about the possible rise to power of the NSDAP. And, as someone who as another condition (ocular albinism) which would have qualified me to be rounded up and eradicated in Nazi Germany, I have every reason to assume that anyone who spreads propaganda which will cause me to be seen in a negative light just may be coming after me.

I am not "pretending". One of my longest standing special interests is World War Two and the Holocaust. I know pretty exactly what type of propaganda was used to bring people to the point where, when they started coming after certain groups, most of those watching applauded. And that video is just that sort of propaganda. Either they are malicious - or utterly irresponsible, if their intentions are truly different and they fail to understand the forces they could unleash by using such propaganda. Whichever is the case, I am terrified to find myself living in a society where such propaganda is actually an effective fund raising tool.



They have no right to spread propaganda which spreads bigotry and endangers others. Not for any reason. Anyone who does that, against any group, should be immediately and vocally opposed by every decent human being. Silence in such a case is acquiescence.

I agree with what you're saying, but if anyone is going to "represent us" publicly, I'd far rather it be you than the voice in that video.

I am far more than autism. So are you. So is every one of us. You are utterly right to insist on that. Yet, if a group takes it upon themselves to "speak for autism", then we must shove them aside and speak for ourselves, not because we "are" autism, but because we are the individuals the world will judge by whatever is said about autism.

My point has nothing to do with what a cure might actually mean. It has to do with the feelings aroused in the public by this video. It paints an unrelentingly negative portrait of us. Nothing can justify that. If those behind that video are not seeking to destroy us, then they are both stupid and irresponsible for failing to recognise where stirring up such strong negative feelings can lead.

Then we are both perhaps persistent intellectuals that will discover victory but never get entirely what we want but some things. In public relations it is like war. So you have wins and you have loses. Even dogs lick their wounds and sometimes females call men dogs and I don't necessarily disagree all the time.