I find it interesting and dismaying that until Bethduckie and Briana (who are apparently not themselves autistic) no one had spoken out with the slightest hint of sympathy, even in passing, for what parents of autistic children go through. No one, from what was written, was moved in the slightest by their heartfelt and real emotion.
All the comments went from being bizarre ("this is part of a deliberate plot to kill all autistic people") to merely being totally self-referential and self-absorbed ("this real footage of autistic behavior makes me look bad").
I hate to sound provocative, but it somewhat reminds me of the apparently greater on average difficulty autistic children have in forming emotional attachments and empathy for others (even their own parents), and exhibiting or perhaps even feeling concern for anything apart from their own interests, needs, and demands.
Many of us here are parents of autistic children, including myself, we are also on the spectrum. I know what parents of autistic children go through, and it not genuinely portrayed in that video.
It shows each child at their worst, with the most extreme behaviours.
You seem to be showing the typical NT pattern of behaviour known as 'NT logic paradox'.
It goes thus: as we are autistic we are not allowed to comment on things to do with autism, such as this video, only NT comments are valid and real. Precisely because we are autistic we cannot understand things to do with autism, only NTs can.
In actual fact YOU should listen to our comments and learn something from it, those of us who are autistic, and have autistic children know exactly how 'Autism every day' feels, yet you are dismissing our viewpoints.
Isn't that something you should learn from?
NTs need social interaction, warm feedback.
We do not need a lecture on what NTs need, why don't you study what autistics really need before coming to an autistics forum and preaching to us.
You are showing zero empathy to us, that fine, but then don't be hypocritical and expect us to pity people doing something actively against autistics as a group.
You say on the one hand that they need to urgently push research, then you say ideas of mass abortions are paranoia. What do you think the research is for???? They are researching an autism prenatal test, one has already been made but is not being sold to the public yet.
If you cannot see the reason that we are concerned about that then you probably have lack of empathy and a limited imagination.
Sadly, the posts after mine have totally confirmed what I said.
While I sympathize strongly with people who have been bullied, or who have heard painful things said to them or about them, I have heard not a scrap of sympathy for the people in this film and what the anguish that they have had to go through.
Mostly what I've seen instead, again is, total self-absorption, and ludicrous attempts to impart the worst possible motives for both the producers of the film, and of the people who share their feelings in it.
I know many people in this forum no doubt bristle at the idea of someday being able to cure autism or at least prevent its expression somehow in people who may be genetically predisposed. I've seen a lot of happy talk about it being just an alternative way of being wired and (non)interacting with the world, etc.
One thing this film tries to do is break through that, to convey the reality that autism in a family extracts an ENORMOUS cost on everyone else in it.
And the motive is NOT to make people with autism feel bad about themselves, but to impart a sense of urgency in researchers, donors, policymakers, and the general public about finding such a cure.
Bizarre paranoia about mass-abortion plots does not reflect well on those who engage in it.
NTs need social interaction, warm feedback. It hurts terribly when a child doesn't smile, doestn't coo and play, doesn't talk. It hurts terribly when the high hopes that one had for a child are replaced with the grim realization that to get to the same place will require a mountain of effort. That's NOT "bigotry" or "ignorance" - it's an expression of a completely understandable pain at experiencing cruelly dashed expectations.
And calling for punishing a child for wishing that he sister were not autistic just leaves me speechless.
A parent who states that they have fantasised about driving off a bridge with their autistic child and only did not do so because of having another (NT) child is not fit to be a parent to any child. If she had said this about an NT child she would rightly have her children removed for safety reasons. This woman will get no sympathy from me.
Autism IS a different way of being wired, it is not bad in itself. Though there are comorbids which can cause problems for some individuals on the spectrum, these comorbids are not the core of autism. Note the use of the word "some". Some black people have sickle cell. Should we cure blackness?
A women with breast cancer would seek treatment for breast cancer, but not for being female.
"And the motive is NOT to make people with autism feel bad about themselves, but to impart a sense of urgency in researchers, donors, policymakers, and the general public about finding such a cure."
let me rewrite this:
And the motive is NOT to make homosexuals feel bad about themselves, but to impart a sense of urgency in researchers, donors, policymakers, and the general public about finding such a cure.
or:
And the motive is NOT to make black people feel bad about themselves, but to impart a sense of urgency in researchers, donors, policymakers, and the general public about finding such a cure.
The only cure that is realistic is a prenatal test and screening. This has already happened for downs.
"And calling for punishing a child for wishing that he sister were not autistic just leaves me speechless"
Replace autistic with gay/black/<insert other minority group here> and you'll see why it's bad.
I will never have sympathy for people who manipulate the public perception of a whole group of people by showing nothing but the negatives. There are many negatives to being NT too. I will never have sympathy for parents who fantasise about murdering their children.
ALL children are challenging at times, something that "autism every day" does not show.
You want to get rid of autism - this automatically involves getting rid of autistics. The same as getting rid of black skin involves getting rid of black people or getting rid of homosexuality involves getting rid of homosexuals.
I've also been falsely accused (Amy) of saying that the opinions of people with autism should be dismissed.
You have previously posted:
All the comments went from being bizarre ("this is part of a deliberate plot to kill all autistic people") to merely being totally self-referential and self-absorbed ("this real footage of autistic behavior makes me look bad").
I said "In actual fact YOU should listen to our comments and learn something from it, those of us who are autistic, and have autistic children know exactly how 'Autism every day' feels, yet you are dismissing our viewpoints."
That is not a false accusation in lieu of what you had posted.
This double talk is classic troll behaviour.
I've also been falsely accused (Amy) of saying that the opinions of people with autism should be dismissed.
Amy wrote:
That is not a false accusation in lieu of what you had posted.
This double talk is classic troll behaviour.
All the comments went from being bizarre ("this is part of a deliberate plot to kill all autistic people") to merely being totally self-referential and self-absorbed ("this real footage of autistic behavior makes me look bad").
As you can see, what I said was that in this discussion, from the people participating in this discussion, I observed up to that point a troubling lack of sympathy for the parents, an absence of concern for any one but one's self or one's group, and a willingness to engage in extremist conspiracizing.
Instead of responding to the specific points I made, you sweepingly and unqualifiedly accused me of wanting to dismiss all opinions offered by autistic people in all circumstances, simply because they are offered by autistic people. That IS a false accusation.
What's the point of wasting everyone's time with unfair inflammatory accusations that are easily refuted?
I suggest actually making an intellectually honest effort to engage with the points I've made instead.
I never posted that you dismissed all autistics opinions in all circumstances, its very clear that I said no such thing.
Can you make an honest answer or post without this nonsense? We may be autistic but we are not stupid to the exploits of trolling, double talk and dismissals.
The explosive frustration often exhibited by autistic children struggling to communicate their needs to ordinary people suggests otherwise.
Dear oh dear, you have fundamentally failed to realise that it's because an autistic would be talking to someone like you, that people like you make communication hard for autistics, with your subtle and unsubtle put downs, dismissals, and continual complaints.
If any of us show annoyance it will be then stated by you 'well autistics have emotional outbursts' etc.
You would not accept that you are causing it, or bear any responsibilty in it.
bethduckie, Greenlion has twsited everyones words, thats why this thread was split off because they aimed to cause a distraction from the main issue of discussing the video, to one of having to defend our own thoughts and feelings.
They have espoused all the nasty negative stereotypes that curebies love to thrown in our face, with no regard for our feelings.
You haven't done anything wrong at all.
Greenlion said "The purpose of the video was specific and narrowly tailored: to emphasize the costs and burdens of autism and to drum up support for a cure."
Are you involved in the making of this video, or in the distribution of it in any capacity?
We can't waste time fighting, GreenLion, don't fight us, work with us to build a brighter future. Come and celebrate the fact we exist.
Hallelujah to that.
GreenLion:
I find it rather amusing in some ways that you yourself have autistic traits and still insist that a cure would be a good thing.
Would you like to lose your interest in trivia, your interest in computing and your ability to focus on tasks for long periods of time?
Speech therapy by force would simply not work and would be rather pointless. I recall having speech therapy for years and I would not have got anywhere had the therapist forced me (I can't even imagine how that would work - being forced to practice phonetic sounds).
This is a very old thread from 2006, Greenlion is long gone.
If we locked all old threads it would be too much pointless work
How would you feel having someone shoving a toothbrush in your mouth?
Funny enough, I have a few memories of exactly that. I also found out later from my dentist that the way my parents taught me to brush (back and forward until your gums hurt) is extremely damaging. Nice.
Please also don't respond to green lion anymore, this is an old thread.......
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