Aspies For Freedom

I wrote in response to one parent here who was asking for people's opinion is she should have another child because she had already one or two on the autistic spectrum.  I told her that anything could happen to her normal child and she would not want them dead.  She responded that I was "very rude".  If she had just asked what were the odds of having another child with autism, it would have made me feel better.  I was angry.  Do people all think we wallow in self pity about our autism?

Life is about taking risks and dealing with unexpected outcomes.  Why do people join up to some cult that believes they "attract" what they will from the universe.  They think they can plan their whole life.  They say to me "you would have a job if you didn't put out so much negative energy to the universe.  You must be attracting all that bad luck".  Is this why there is a lack of philantropy in America?

I would say The Secret is a bunch of bourgeois nonsense (and since no one is likely to make me read that sentence aloud, I can say it.)  A useful philosophy for whiny middle-class people so long as they only apply it to themselves.

As to 'perfect babies,' I can see where people would want their offspring (who are, in part, a continuation of themselves) to have at least all the advantages they did, more if possible.  Also, raising a disabled child would be difficult (though raising a regular child could easily be just as difficult, possibly more, but most parents probably don't take this into account.) I don't agree with this, but it's useful to see where the other side comes from.

Tigger, the solution to that - really - is to ban abortions, except in the cases of medical emergency (a threat to the life of the mother), or in the case of a pregnancy resulting from a rape. And in the case of the latter it can only go ahead with a report to the police of the said rape, and carrying it through to conclusion.

OK, that may be extreme to some members - but that's the way I see it.

I hate for this thread to become a debate about abortions.  

It comes down to this:  there is a total lack of respect for human life on this planet.  

Whether it is using money to buy guns and not food to feed starving children, aborting babies because they are not male or have a chromosomal "abnormality" or men raping women or other men is because they don't respect human life -- or even hate it.  

I remember one woman at work.  We were talking about how some little toddler fell down a well and how all the rescue workers were trying for two days to rescue her.  Even if a dog fell down a well, people would try to rescue it.  She was amazed.  She asked whether the girl had been the daughter of some important man like a politician or rich man.  We told her that she was just an ordinary child.  She said in her old country (Iraq) that no one would bother and she would just be left to die.  In some countries, people are worthless.  In my country, people stop traffic to let a family of ducks or geese cross the highway.  The chicks will be rescued if the parents fly away.  I have witnessed this.

M - I like your distinction between empathy and compassion  - intellectual identification of oneself with others vs. sypathy over the distress of another. I had to look up empathy as I previously thougt empathy- root word pathos /latin feelings, as the same as compassion.  I never noticed the distinction befroe thank you.  

I agree with you that there is a tendency towards a lack of respect for human beings these days.  A seeming epidemic of disability in the brains of many, an inability to be accepting and amenable to others outside of their own narrow definition of worthy or worthwhile.

I don't know if she was or not, but I have been on CNN about autism three times now, and I have not been paid at all (nor have I expected payment).  Of course maybe things are different for celebrities, who knows.

anbuend,
  Probably not; the public exposure that they get is the 'payment'. This is why we see so many celebrities - even celebrities that have traditionally shied away from that spotlight - on talk shows these days. It's a *lot* cheaper to go on talk shows to promote a movie, TV show, social/political issue, etc., than it is to *buy* media advertising...

  -BobB

Hmm... I pretty much agree. Except that I wouldn't include rape as grounds for abortion, and the termination of pregnancy to save the life of the mother should be done at the latest possible stage to maximise the chances of both parties surviving. And don't assume that it is 'left wing feminists' doing the demanding; I actually believe that abortion denigrates being female and certainly isn't a socialist ideal. In fact, I think that it has been a monstrous wrong perpetrated on the women's movement, to persuade women that we can only be regarded as true equals to men if we are prepared to kill our own children.

If feminism really is, as I believe, the premise that females are of equal value to males, then the corollary to that is that we are all of equal value regardless of any other difference. A true feminist must surely be anti-abortion, anti-capital punishment, anti-slavery, anti-eugenics, anti-discrimination, anti-euthenasia; and pro-life, pro-diversity, pro-rehabilitation, pro-freedom of thought, pro-care; anything else defies logic and gets metaphorical knickers in a twist.