Aspies For Freedom

Hi Wilky,

I always used to think your posts were insightful, and I even nodded in understanding when you pointed out that John Best actually cared for his son. At the time though, I believed you were promoting the idea of trying to understand that his posts were borne of frustration - not that you were actually pro-cure.

This maybe hard for others to hear, as you've been around for a long while, and as many have pointed out, your posts seem "nice" and "friendly", and many people have built up a friendship with you over time.

But underneath all that, you obviously have no real respect for us, and have no interest in the basic human right to exist.

Many people have asked you to explain, or have sought to defend you as a "nice lady". I urge these people to understand that the ideas she is supporting are responsible for the negative way society treats you, and will effect your children, their children, and even the fate of Autistic people as a whole.

In other words, Wilky, get lost. You are not welcome here.

And for the record, I actually posted asking people to offer helpful suggestions about John Bests sons self-biting behaviour.

This has nothing to do with basic compassion, which I strongly believe in - it has to do with supporting a "cure".

Hi Quickduck,

Your reputation didn't even get a scratch. It's entirely understandable that you'd want to support a longtime friend in a tough time - this I can respect, even if I disagree.

I know that some people on the forum that come under fire for supporting offensive posters as people, even after they've stated that they disagree with the offensive idea.

But all it means is that you've got a kind heart, and dislike anger.

Come back soon!

It's nothing to do with a personal choice - if an adult capable of making an unbiased decision chose to accept a cure, I'd support them.

Pro-cure means making the choice for someone else.

And yet you're still posting.

First off, I personally haven't attacked you for being critical, so it's not really relevant.

Secondly, finding a cure for autism would mean that autistic people no longer existed - hence her essentially stating "you all have no right to exist".

Third, where this conversation is taking place is relevant. If I met a curebie on the street, I wouldn't mind having a civil debate. I even give some leeway to new members here who may not know what we're about. But this website is about an anti-cure political movement, and she's been here long enough to know that her post was deliberately offensive.

To put it another way, I'm a Greens party member. If I talked to someone with right-wing views in my everyday life, I'd be happy to listen to what they had to say. But if they infiltrated the party meetings, then tried to convince us that we should all join their party, I'd tell them to get lost too.

And Simen, I know that you love a good debate, and I even admire you for continuing to argue for your beliefs when others dislike them, but you have to understand that the cure debate is firmly off the table.

There's plenty of sites that have endless threads over whether or not autism is a disease. This will never be one of them.

Well, yes. It's not surprising - to put it simply, you hurt us. You pretended that you liked us as people, when you'd really prefer to replace us with "normal" people.

There's nothing like someone wanting to wipe us out of existence to bring out the "venom".

Negative statements often have a place in these sorts of arguments - In that it ensures that once bigotry gets to a certain stage, it is no longer tolerated, and the person is no longer welcome - and also ensures that those reading along know that these statements are not tolerated.

By outing herself as pro-cure, Wilky has ensured that she has no further place here, and nothing to offer. In fact, she's stated several times that this was her intention.

If you're interested in finding out more about the curebie mindset, there's plenty of parent blogs complaining about autism that you can gain insight from - but this place is supposed to be a haven from all that.

I know that you like being a peacekeeper. Just remember that sometimes keeping the peace means keeping the bad guys out.

The post she's talking about is about his sons self-biting activities, and how desperate he is to find a solution - I even tried to offer some advice, as I think compassion has to weigh out over anger.

I don't doubt that he cares about his son - that's not the problem most of us have with him. It's quite simply that he believes there's a "trapped" NT version of his son "behind" the autism. He ignores scientific or experiential evidence to the contrary, and he insults anyone who disagrees.

It's really quite sad, especially when you think that if he hadn't spent so long trying to "cure" his son, he may have actually been able to help him with many of his problems.

Actually, I'm with Simen on this one - he hasn't actually been offensive at all.

That being said, I think it's a good idea to let this thread die - we're just going round in circles on semantics.

Because there's a 20 post per day limit - The same reason you'll see an "EvilZakkie2" floating around every now and then.

The signature line for "EvilZakkie2" reads "If you're reading this, I've been far too busy today..." *grins*

Okay, this thread isn't going away anytime soon, so I might as well weigh in. I can't speak for everyone else on the thread, but here are the reasons I attacked Wilky to the degree that I did.

For starters, I don't believe that she was a horrible parent, a horrible person, or even that we shouldn't feel compassion for her aim to seek a better life for her son. I don't even mind if people want to introduce "food for thought" arguments into a cure debate, like Simen has been.

Her post, however, was deliberately designed to offend. I feel that I have a right to express anger at that fact, and let her know that if she chooses to deliberately offend the beliefs of people on the site, she will not be welcome here.

There is a big difference between being a "parent sticking by their child", and just being insulting.

For those that are newer to the site, while it's often used as a support forum and a friendly conversation site these days (which is fine), the main reason it exists is as a launching pad for the Autistic rights movement.

Wilky offered no insight into her own beliefs, merely saying that we should be "ashamed" for having ours. This is why the I believe the post was deliberately offensive.

Also, as this thread has become somewhat a cure debate, I'll add in a few fun facts for parents that may be reading along.

For starters, the only form of cure that isn't science fiction is prenatal testing followed by abortion. In other words, pro-cure organisations will not help your child.

Pro-cure organisations say that they are raising money to help families, yet divert over 90% of this money into cure research rather than support services. They also lobby for government funding to be put into cure research, rather than support services. This leaves autism support service charities starved of funds. In other words, pro-cure organisations are the reason the autism support services you need are underfunded.

To push their agendas, pro-cure organisations have to promote an negative viewpoint of Autistic people. What this means is that pro-cure organisations are one of the reasons society will discriminate against your child.

Many breakthroughs are being made in facilitated communication and other methods of skills training for Autistic people – however the funds needed to supply these techniques are unavailable due to being diverted into cure research. In other words, pro-cure organisations may be the reason that your child is still uncommunative.

Food for thought.

Yes, I'm a cowardly person & I certainly had my ego beaten into oblivion whilst growing up.

The same here, some people appear to view me in a different light, but I feel like the eternal child.