Aspies For Freedom

Natalia, but she's not active at this forum. Think she's on WP though.

http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/showthre...6#pid58696

She's banned from here now though. Don't ask me why, I've no idea, but I think has something to do with a "droopy-attack" - don't ask.

Donna Williams trained as a teacher (see Somebody Somewhere). I suppose that's what she'd be doing now if it hadn't been for someone finding her manuscript discarded in a tea-chest.

Vernon Smith's some kind of teacher, isn't he?

Economics professor, not a schooteacher.

Um, this is the guy who thinks Autism is God's way of creating a race of prophets.

You honestly don't see how that's not only bullshit, but a dangerous, exclusionary, and demeaning philosophy?

It is demeaning because it denies autistic people the right to be normal, denies them their free will, and forces them into a stereotype against their will.  

It is a form of Othering, reinforcing the stigma that Autistic people are different and cannot be a part of mainstream society.  It is different from the "Indigo Child" theory in name alone.  It reinforces the idea that we're special icke angels rather than real people.  

It denigrates our problems - after all, a child with Aspergers can get accomodations in a mainstream classroom in any reasonable society (note the word REASONABLE) but how can you expect the education system to take you seriously if you rock up and say "my child's the earthly manifestation of the divine"?

It can also lead to abuse and neglect, through denying autistic people help they need.  An autistic child is bashing his head in pain and frustration, but receives no help because he's just communing with angels and it's God's will that he be this way. He's not really suffering, he's not really in pain, because he's not really a human being - he's just a piece of flesh that God's using as a mouthpiece.

And let's be brutally honest here - I am autistic.  Officially.  And if you think I'm some sort of spiritual messenger you need your head examined.

I'm not going to go trawling through a million old posts to find it, Lucie.  I know what I read and if you don't believe me it's no skin off my nose.  But you might like to know what a person is actually saying before you stand up for them.

My religion explicitly forbids interferring in another's free will.  If someone starts ramming this "autism is a sacred vocation" crap down an autistic person's throat, and trying to "encourage" them to take on a path that's not theirs, because it's what the encourager thinks is "God's will", I call that interferrence in free will.

Quoted for truth.

Thank you, Zakkie.  I find it increasingly difficult to have a sensible debate, because what I say is going to be immediately suspect by virtue of the fact that I'm big bad mean Ethel, regardless of the content of what I'm saying.

And to impose your spiritual beliefs on another is an interference in free will.   Your right to believe whatever you want stops where you stop and I start.

I'm really sorry to the originator of this thread - we've not so much wandered off topic as hijacked it, beaten it over the head and thrown it in the bushes.

Well, Lucie, since you mention it...

There have been several instances lately (one of which was in one of ATM's thread about the lad he's helping) where I feel you'e gone out of your way to contradict me and argue and make me feel bad.  I feel this is not because you don't agree with what I say, but because you personally don't like me - you think I'm a big bad mean bully and a part of Max's imaginary gang.

Oh, meow.  Handbags at seven paces.  Claws are out again, I see.  

ATM, the point that bothers me is that you'd decided this kid had a "holy" purpose before you'd even met him - you were discussing a list of "rules" you were going to lay on him before you'd even got the job.  To me, that is not respectful of his free will.

Hey Zakkie, if nobody else minds can we lock this sucker and let it die?

Because persevation wants me to respond to Lucie's latest pathetic attempt at winding me up, and I know I shouldn't but it's hard not to.  If this was locked it'd stop this turning from a fight into a feud.  (Or is it already a feud?  The politics round here defeats me.  Island inhabited by Aspies?  We'd tear each other to pieces with our bare hands inside a week.)

Apologies again to the OP.  Should we try again?

Argumentum ad Hitlerum, oh dear...

Not exactly. The Peter Principle states that in a hiearchy every employee rises to the level of his/her incompetence. In this context it would mean that good teachers get promoted to management roles where their teaching skills are no longer relevant.