Aspies For Freedom

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2142946,00.html

I was interviewed for this months ago and it finally got printed today

Not bad Gareth! Not bad at all. Love the end quote. Very pertinent.

Excellent…very impressive! Just the sort of thing we need. Well Done Gareth!

Good that the article's out there, although I think it exaggerated both my position in the USA and AFF's position in the UK.

I liked that it gave more than one perspective.  Often the autistic community is portrayed as if we only have one.

I emailed the author of the article to thank her for writing something so balanced. Baron Cohen it seems is one of the most autistic-friendly professionals around and has expressed sympathies for our cause many times before. As to my age - I was indeed only 19 at the time of the interview, i'm now 20 having had my birthday recently.

I would say it excaggerated when it called me a radical, but to some people AFF and the autism rights movement as a whole is incredibly radical. I also disliked the focus upon myself as if AFF was me alone - much of my work is in maintaining this site and organising various campaigns. Besides that it was indeed a great article.

Does AFF really have over 20,000 members?  Yikes!  I remember when we had a betting pool for when the membership would hit 1000.  I feel special, being member #840 (I think).

Good for you, Gareth!!!! I'm glad that you're mostly happy with the article.

The 20,000 figure is too high - approaching 6000 now. I think perhaps she misunderstood one of my statements in the interview.

Her first born was fathered by her first husband, I think.

Not really making a whole lot of sense, or getting a message across, that I know.  Seems to confuse and conflate several things and contradict itself, at least as currently worded, although I'm sure you didn't mean it to sound that way.  So I have no idea what you're actually saying, nor am I sure that what you are saying is actually a response to what Mike said.

As far as autistic people tending towards selfishness, I really haven't seen it any more than any other sort of people.  And I've seen a lot of autistic people.  I don't like watching autistic people stereotyped in that way, even if some autistic people fit the stereotype, and even if someone who fits the stereotype (or thinks they do) is the one promoting it.  Sort of like Temple's "all autistics think in pictures" thing (which I know she's revised since then, but I'm talking about before then).  It doesn't go over well with the many autistics who don't.

Nice one, Gareth.  It was the article that you and Amy did that was published in New Scientist that got me into AFF in the first place.  I'd been diagnosed, but still had that "autism = mental retardation" mindset from my youth, so it was wonderful to find out there were others like me (HFA) and that they were out there making a difference. Thank you and Amy, you both made a huge change in my life.
Alison

Mike welcome to the forum. I agree that constructive help to deliver benefit to the autistic community is naturally a result that is worth pursuing. Now ought autistics close ranks and try to become a secretive exclusive community trying to take on society and demanding their rights whilst spurning any attempt from Neurotypical well-wishers? I may be misguided in thinking that doing this and excluding the 99% of society from any efforts to further such causes is ridiculous and counter-productive....but I don't think so. In fact I think if anyone was to think this they are in fact misguided and simplistic in their approach. An approach that is truly doomed.
Now the real issues are a little more complex. How can we invite such sharing and importance to people who may wish to help but have little emotional investment or appreciation of what makes an autistic person tick?
Another point is in letting neuro-typical involvement do we risk it being taken over and run by people who do not intrinsically understand our condition?
Can we use infrastructure in society that is dominated by neuro-typical people? (Social capital, political bases, Media networks, Financial and charitable social stratum) If we do what is the trade off for us? Is it worth it?

I think we must and I think that there are some autistics who, beyond all sense and reason, use exclusivity, separatism, fear mongering, elitism and such to exclude a terrific opportunity, to allow credibility, momentum, social networking and influence to filter into autism rights movements.

If society is made up of 99% of social NT's and 1% socially inept autistics why would you exclude the 99%? It is faulty reasoning and ought not be considered.

Well done Gareth!

Brilliant article.

Was there anything that you said that the Guardian edited out, or did they produced it more or less verbatim?

It's interesting how when any sort of people people say we want to be at the head of any movement about us, someone always almost deliberately-seeming misinterprets it as meaning that we are "spurning" them entirely.

Reminds me of when I told someone I wouldn't talk to her about a particular topic.  She accused me of shutting her out entirely.  I told her to rethink her priorities if she really believed that not talking about that one topic (which is not the only topic she can talk about) is shutting her out entirely.

I think it is a very good article,  although as the Guardian is read by middle class liberals it is likely that it would be sympathetic to us.   Now if a similar article were to be published in a right wing tabloid, that would be surprising.  

The paper copy has a full page colour photograph of Gareth  - the aspie pin-up boy - sitting on a log;  a half page colour photograph of Larry Arnold standing in a clearing in a wood or forest;  and down the centre of another page three images in colour from 'In My Language'.