Society's War on Asperger's/Autism

Post Reply New Topic

I'm not great with words whether spoken or written. I'm the kind of person who thinks of a great thing to say, but the original power gets lost in the translation from brain to pen to paper.

I’m diving into a hashed, re-hashed, re-re-hashed... well you get the idea. But I’m getting into a topic discussed so much there’s really nothing new I can say. That’s fine with me.

I believe that those who want to “cure” autism are simply eugenics lovers attempting to implement their long-rejected agenda in a more silent if not less sinister way. There is nothing to cure. However, society views us as different. We are a threat to their cookie-cutter ways. We draw outside the lines they set. It makes them feel uncomfortable. It makes them feel angry that not everyone is like them.

I had this conversation with my mother and she said it needs to be cured because of all the motor skill impairments that come along with autism. Well I’m twenty. Those went away by themselves. Sure I may not be able to throw a football like Brett Favre or run a six minute mile no matter how hard I push myself. Does it bother me? No. My body fixed itself. It’s a wonderful machine, the human body.

What society wants is a cure for the inconvenience we give them. They segregate us into special education classes. They tell us we’re different. They tell us our limitations. They tell us what we can and can’t do. They keep us down.

Never once are we told by society that our minds work beautifully. Never once are we accepted by society for who we are. Never are we told it’s okay to be different. Never are we told to take the limitations and rip them up. Never are we told that we can succeed in life without assistance.

Thinking differently used to result in being burnt at a stake or being guillotined. Homosexuality was once thought to be a disease. We need to get the message out that autism is no longer a disadvantage. It is who we are. We need to accept who we are and tell those who want to cure us of our uniqueness to back off. We cannot surrender what defines us so that we can simply fit in to a society that holds no value for the individual. A society that holds no value for alternative ideas that threaten its stranglehold on change.

Society will discriminate against us and try to change us to their image for as long as we as a group let them.

The only cure needed is the cure for the disease in the mainstream’s mind that being different is a problem.

Taverson; I feel exactly the same way about Autism as you do. Society needs to learn to accept us and "advocacy" organizations such as Autism Squeeks need to either listen to our preferences or shut down.

I'm sorry that your mother feels the way she does. If my mother believed that my entire personality needed to be "cured" just because of some motor-skills issues that I've already outgrown, it would completely destroy our relationship.

P.S. Why do you think you aren't a good writer? You seem like a very good writer to me.

I have ideas of what I want to write and then when I start to write..

Well it just fades and what I write becomes a mere shadow of what I wanted to get across in the first place.

I also don't know when to expand or when not to expand on a certain point.

That's why I don't think of myself as a good writer.

As for my mother, she has believed for four or so years that I've been ''healed by God'' of autism because I've learned how to cover up my tendencies enough to appear ''normal''. Any attempt to tell her she's wrong, she just shuts down. It really doesn't bother me too much though because I've never been close to my parents. I prefer cats over human beings.

I prefer the company of my cat over that of most other human beings too! Cats are often compared to Autistics. A book called "All Cats Have Asperger's Syndrome" has been written on the subject.

First, I agree with your original post, above.

That's something that happens to all writers. It is in the struggle to make it come out as right as you can that you learn...

I doubt I could ever get a job. Part of it is me of course, but part of it is discrimination.

I don't like that you're redefining eugenics. You are trumping up fears and accusations of murderous intentions, to command obedience from those who need change. Disability is out there to be cured. You're the one with the cookie-cutter ways, only caring for your cloistered intellectual pursuits and the resulting pursuit of further pretentiousness and arrogance in it. You want all of your success for yourselves, and are upset that the highly disabled on the spectrum want the abilities you have. You can't distract me with your phony new age hipster rhetoric.


My motor impairments didn't go away. For lots of us, our impairments remain into adulthood. The body isn't all that self-correcting.


Not that many of us can learn in the same classrooms, as the behaviors and programs are inevitably different. Get a reality check. Limitations are real. Making believe otherwise just tries to construct an alternate reality that doesn't exist and can't actually be lived in. You're keeping us down by hoarding all of the abilities for yourselves.


Aww, should that make me cry? Who is crying over that? I'm not obeying orders from those who talk like we're all babies who need to be soothed.


Oh wow. What a nice fantasy. Are you going to pay all my bills? Since I'm supposed to live with this and like it cause of you, I bet you will support me.

They don't need to accept this hierarchy. They aren't going to listen to the preferences of the very high-functioning elite. You can't stop them, and you're going to put up with this. There's lots of research out there, and they will get closer to cure.

Good for them, but they can keep their cure away from me.

Most of the time society has no way to identify who is or isn't on the spectrum. People whom present themselves as significantly different from others are viewed as different, and treated as different. This has been the case for people on the spectrum and others who present themselves as significantly different, well before there was any identified diagnosis or label. This will never change as it is an inherent part of human nature.

The folks that were raised and taught by their parents to be nice to other folks that are different, are going to be more likely to do that, regardless of labels or diagnoses, as they were taught to overcome a human nature that inherently identifies different and is cautious of it as a built in survival mechanism, as long as humans have walked the earth.

Part of the challenge here as a person on the spectrum is to understand not all on the spectrum are the same; some are challenged more from co-morbid conditions and associated symptoms of autism. If their personal differences and needs for remediation of their symptoms, or what some might call cure are different than one's own, and one cannot accept those personal differences and needs as equally important, one cannot reasonably expect others in society that see one as different to change their behavior for acceptance.

In expecting organizations to accept one's preferences over others on the spectrum or shut down, is to discriminate against the needs of others on the spectrum that are different than one's own, that stand to benefit from the efforts of those organizations.

The government provides 335 million dollars annually for the same mission that Autism Speaks contributes 18 million dollars to and a larger private research organization the Simons foundation provides 53 million dollars provided by a billionaire benefactor. If the 18 million dollars goes away, the other 385 continues to support the same research. No one can close down a billionaire, with his own dollars, and if the government closes down, we stand to lose all of our freedoms, no matter how limited they may be.

It is a more humane ideology, above base human nature, to accept that everyone on the spectrum is different and has different needs, and to accept there are different organizations that are working to meet those different needs, as no one organization can meet them all.

You were very fortunate that this happened. It doesn't happen for everyone, not by a long shot. A lot of people need help and therapy. Consider yourself lucky.



The people in special education classes, guess what. They need the extra help. I have many friends who work in special ed. They spend their days working with just 1 or 2 students because it's so intensive. One changes diapers for 9 year olds because they are so developmentally delayed they can't learn to use the bathroom or clean themselves. That's not society holding them down, that's their condition.



I believe in John Robison's quote "Celebrate the autistic mind, but cure the disability of autism."



Or maybe they realize that you can't have 1% of the society that is otherwise healthy incapable of doing anything productive because of the myriad of executive function and developmental communication issues that come with Autism.



No you need to back off. If you don't want a cure, don't take a cure, but NOTHING gives you the right to try to deprive me of a cure.

I can't deal with any more of these "Everything is ok just the way it is, bend over backwards world for us, it's great to be autistic but I want to kill myself every day because I can't get a date/get a job/make friends."

You sound like a high functioning person who overcame a lot of their issues, that is a great thing. Maybe even you will have a successful and happy life. You can't loose perspective though that there are a lot of people who are leading absolutely miserable lives because of AS and the co-morbids that come with it.

I've gone in to treat as many as my child's and my co-morbids as I can.

I've treated the GI issues, the allegies, the depression/anxiety/ADHD, the immune issues, sleep issues, and frankly if my son and I were offered a cure I'd take it. My mother treated my epilepsy.

I'd make my son take it and I'd take it too,if there were a magic pill, as he can't talk, has no friends, and I'd rather him hate me til the day I die than know that when I die he'll be alone without me. I'm autistic and I know what it is to go through childhood with this condition and be an adult with it and have no job and no friends(I'm female and in a not so wonderful marriage to a Narcissist)

Life is harsh and painful for me and I know I'm not alone b/c of my son....he's the reason I've not committed suicide.

I've looked into it and have found out it is theorized that lack of oxegen at birth could be a factor in autism......but of course not everyone with autism went through that. That implies various factors cause autism, but its not always the same factors......and some of these factors cannot be controlled so I still question if a true cure, that would actually remove someones autism and co-morbids and make then neurotypical can actually be created or not.

First off - no one is born able to write excellent pros - true some of us (humans not just Aspers) learn easier than others - However, I can assure you that practice will improve your ability.



This is a trait of many NTs - they fear and loath that which is different from them - as Asperger's we do seem to be less afflicted with this so many of us have trouble understanding such behavior. I do agree with you that there is little need of a cure - especially in light of just how badly others mental patient cures have worked so far. In reality we are no worse off than the NT population - I mean after all - the great vast majority of people going to psycho therapy and obtaining 504 plans in school are in fact NTs - Yes, they have problems and handicaps too. All too often both we and the NTs forget that we are not the only ones screwed up here. In all reality if we need curing they need curing!

It is high time that we start to advocate for our rights and acceptance - I do believe that a strong advocacy demanding fair treatment will win the day.



This leads me to the advice I love to give out -- Stop waiting for a "cure" go out figure out what makes you happy and do it!! !! Then repeat these steps as many times as possible before the grim reaper come for you. In other words - stop worrying so much - and live and by you actions demand acceptance for you as you are.

You obviously can't show that being anti-cure is just, so you go way off topic. Developmental disability can't be compared to mental illness in general. You're desperately avoiding addressing the large problem of neurological impairment that many with autism are saddled with.


Acceptance of what specifically?

My son cannot talk and has no friends either. He's pretty happy though overall - I think. I worry that will change as he gets older. I REALLY worry about adolescence.
I'm like you, if a treatment was available I'd get it for him, as would many others I think.