Ari Neeman on blogTalk Radio Tonight

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Please tune in to Ari Neeman's appearance on blogTalk radio tonight and call in so he can get some friendly questions.
Link:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/AspergerWo ... odiversity

Description:
Ari Ne'eman is the founder and president of ASAN. ASAN is the Autistic Self Advocacy Network which seeks to promote the ethical standards of the disability rights movement in the world of autism. Today, Ari will talk about some of the major topics of advocacy which ASAN engages in (i.e.: employment, restraint and seclusion, adult supports, and de-institutionalization, etc.) We will discuss with Ari why the neurodiversity movement is important and some of the common misconceptions about it. Ari will further address the recent concerns of many individuals within the autism community as it pertains to Dr. Tony Attwood's affiliation with Maxine Aston and FAAAS. Ari will be taking your calls and answering your questions during the last half of the show. Our call in number is (347)637-1469 ~or join in during our live broadcast to ask questions or post your comments in the chat room. ****** 4:00-6:00PM Pacific Time ****** 6:00-8:00PM Central Standard Time ****** 7:00-9:00PM Eastern Standard Time

Perhaps Ari can explain the real reasons behind the attwood/heinault petition. I'm not sure that I want him representing me, as the attack on attwood/heinault appear to be rather dishonest, its not about them, its about FAAA as well as his ego and lack of maturity/experience.

Seeing how Attwood has long-standing associations with FAAAS, I'm not sure why you say this petition isn't about him. He is part of FAAAS, seeing as he is on the organization's "Professional Advisory Panel." He provides them with credibility, and that is potentially quite dangerous. As Ari said on the blog Radio, ASAN is not doing this out of personal malice towards Attwood, but because he has in the past been a friend to the autistic community and is in a position of power. As for dok's other objections, I didn't know that Ari was claiming to speak for every single autistic person on earth, or that you had to be a certain age/experience level to engage in activism. These are ad hominem attacks, not anything substantial.

Yes, it is about FAAAS but I don't think that it is in any way dishonest. I don't think it was ever meant as a personal attack either but rather just ASAN bringing their concerns to their attention.

Srriv345
Ari has become the poster boy for autism and has become at a relatively young age a major figure in autism politics. If Ari knew a few things about politics, he would know that simply being part of a political party doesn't mean that you agree/or have to agree with every single policy.

I'm not sure if Attwood has done anything to deserve this, well apart from being friends with people Ari doesn't like and in truth I don't like FAAAS myself, but thats no reason to go off on the deep end. Attwood is in effect being smeared by association, he doesn't believe in the CAAD diagnostic category it doesn't even appear in chapter 13 of his complete guide to Aspergers and that chapter is in my mind fair and reasonable to those in As/non-As relationships. Being in a relationship with an individual with Asperger can be problematic, yet Ari when fisking his repsonse uses the word harmful, Why? If its not about Attwood why fisk his response, why not take a concilliatory tone? Oh wait he can't it already gone nuclear.

Bringing Ari's age/ lack of experience is relevant, But for the record I'll be 28 this week, the trouble with Ari is that the petetion calling on attwood/henault to dissassociate them from FAAAs is gratutious. Attwood/Heinault and Aston may be wrong about some things or may have overlooked some things, but it doesn't automatically give you the right to launch an ad-hominum/ guilt by association attack upon them. Being wrong doesn't make you a bad person and even if Attwood/Henault and Aston break their links with FAAAs it doesn't automatically mean that they will go away and that the media stops calling them for a quote on Autism issues.

Ari is for good or ill, Autisms media star, I would like to wish him well, but the black and white thinking and GWB approach to Attwood/Henault is counterproductive, especially when there are snake-oil merchants and other assorted bullshiters that need to be taken down.

If you read the petition, the only thing actually being targeted is his association with FAAAS - there are no other claims about him. At no point does it state that he believes these things personally, merely that he allows FAAAS to use his name to promote these ideas. Tony could end this with a word, and he could have done this before it went "nuclear" - but he chose not to.

Zak, I have read the petition and Ari's response to Attwoods response. The response is rather telling as its an indicates that it is starting to get personal.

So Tony didn't do what Ari asked him to do, so what Ari doesn't have the right to pick his friends. This petition is about Ari dictating to everyone from his own ivory tower by picking a fight with some ivory tower academics who may/may not know about all of this organisations activities; they do work for a living after all and have to answer hundreds of emails everyday and may have simply missed Ari's email amongst the deluge. However, if Attwood did read the email calling on him, to disassociate himself from FAAA's, I would have simply ignored it or given him a two word reply the second word being off.

This petition is about Attwood not doing his masters bidding.

I've talked to Tony face-to-face about this issue - as such, there is no chance that he has simply missed the email (although getting him to act on face-to-face promises is another matter).

As for the latter, if you don't consider official endorsement of FAAAS to be an issue, then it's no wonder we don't agree about the petition...

What I do consider as an issue is the consequences of the petition, will Ari and his disciples go after every academic that has the temerity to associate with people that he doesn't approve of; or are simply wrong about certain things.

My main concern is that Ari is devoting his energy to attacking academics on a flimsy pretext, instead of raising awareness of the McKinnon case on his side of the Atlantic. This would be a far better use of resources than this petty dispute.

If Ari does choose to target professional endorsements of other anti-autistic groups, I'll support him in doing so, and I imagine many others will too. If that's a consequence of the petition, then hooray for consequences.

And the "better use of resources" argument is pretty weak - of course the McKinnon case is significant, but it's not a real point for or against the petition...

Is that a question? If so, I imagine that the answer is probably not. "Going after" every academic in the autism world who has questionable associations is not practical even if it were desirable. (And again, I would point to Ari's assertion that this is not a personal attack on Attwood. You are the only one who is interpreting it as such.) I think ASAN is specifically targeting Attwood because he is not just any academic*, but rather a very prominent individual who currently wields great power in representing autism to the world at large.

*Actually, I'm really not sure Attwood is much of an "academic" at all. Academics conduct meaningful research. Attwood hasn't done much of that lately--too busy making public appearances.



I don't think it's a flimsy pretext. Attwood has written the introduction for at least one book which is full of hate speech directed at autistic people, and his continued associations--and his own words--give credence to the scientifically dubious "Cassandra Syndrome." When this misinformation can be used to discriminate against autistic people in court, it's not trivial. If you've listened to the interview, you'd know that ASAN didn't start working on this issue until the organization began to be contacted by autistic individuals who have directly suffered because of the Cassandra fraud. ASAN is working on this issue because it is affecting autistic people.

As for the McKinnon case, you're free to contact Ari and the rest of ASAN's leadership with your opinion that they should be working on this. They might not agree, though. A lot of politically involved autistic people, myself included, don't think we should be addressing the case as autistic self-advocates specifically. (For the record, I'm all for being involved with this case as an American who opposes draconian laws. But I don't think McKinnon's diagnosis is particularly relevant.)

I think the case for not extraditing McKinnon is quite strong enough without reference to Asperger's. I mean even the Daily Mail has come out in his favour.

As for the foundations of ASAN's Attwood campaign, they are sound and well documented on several websites.

ASAN isn't Ari and Ari isn't ASAN. It takes input from all over the world and from all kinds of people. It is responding to long running concerns which have been raised repeatedly over the years, mostly centering on CADD, FAAAS Inc. and Maxine Aston. Again these have been well documented in many places.

What has happened, however, is that the campaign has encouraged a long hard look at Attwood, the man, his life and his work. And unfortunately, it raises some very important issues, which he needs to deal with.

I'd like to point out that Carol Grigg from ASPIA, has openly and welcoming engaged anyone who wishes to discuss these matters with her. And she has also made a sincere and meaningful apology for causing distress.

It is a model of behaviour Attwood would do well to follow.

Ari has said that the ASAN campaign isn't a flash in the pan, and will continue for years if necessary. And I for one, will be with him all the way until all of the issues involved are resolved to the satisfaction of everyone involved.

As ever, and forever:

Nothing About Us, Without Us.