The reason I searched out AFF and joined was because I was so pissed off by that "committed suicide to escape the ravages to her brain brought on by Asperger's" line.
The general NT population knows virtually nothing about AS -- now they know one thing: it's so horrible that it drives people to suicide. For many readers, this will be the first time they've even seen the word "Asperger's."
I really feel there's an effort -- conscious or unconscious, and forgivable or not -- for the "spokesperson" to blame it all on Asperger's so that no one questions other factors in Nikki's life -- particularly to avoid the usual blame that the public assigns to "Hollywood parents."
I think it's reprehensible to speculate on whose 'fault" a suicide is -- but it's also reprehensible to stigmatize Asperger's and -- by extension -- stigmatize Aspies.
In this thread many seem to blame the journalist. The fault lies clearly with the parents who hired the spokesperson who authored the offensive remarks. It occurred to me that if they believe/authorize that message, they really don't "get" Asperger's and they were likely a contributing factor to the helplessness Nikki felt in coming to her tragic decision.
No one benefits when a kinder, gentler face is put on suicide.
It's like all the old movies where the gay characters kill themselves at the end because they can't live with the horror of (gasp!) their monsterously flawed identity.
Message: If you're not "normal" there's no place in this world for you.
That's a really sick, ignorant message. It's disgraceful that Nikki's death is being used to support that agenda.
(Yes, I'm still pissed off...)
"Naw, it always has to be the victim's fault right?"
No -- don't you see? It wasn't Nikki's fault! It was ASPERGER'S fault!
(sarcasm & still pissed)
I am new to this site and to the autistic rights movement, and I am still learning so much, but reading this story really "woke me up" so to speak. They really are trying to demonize us so that they can annihilate us. I formerly thought that the negative view of autism and autistic people was due to ignorance, but I am gradually coming to see that it is deliberate. They are trying to convince the public that we are diseased, disordered, substandard, and needing to be done away with....
And it's very sad that this woman died, but she didn't die of autism! More likely, she was depressed because her own parents saw her as inferior.
rossco, I think it's great that you wrote to the reporter!
I agree that when a reporter just repeats what a "spokesperson" says, that's not really reporting, that's Public Relations. A real reporter would have interviewed someone who KNOWS something about AS and included their view.
"spent years battling the brain disorder Asperger's syndrome"
don't we all....
No I spent years battling neurotypical syndrome!
NT's would logically be more suicidal because they tend to be more insecure...
Y el fine...
If a person is driven to suicide it certainly isn't peaceful and calm inside that person's soul, is it? If it was, why escape it especially by killing oneself?
Max, could you give me a few movie titles of Westerns in which gay characters commit suicide? I find the being alienated from society leading to suicide by significant, not unlike the Nazis, but covertly by suicide instead of overt mass murder, in far fewer numbers.
seconded rossco,if you need someone to talk to waldo,just message me (or him
)
The thing about saying Autism or a Asperger Syndrome made the person kill someone or themselves seems more to blame the Autism than those around the person. I was being bullied and assaulted everyday, literally spit on and the whole time I was quite down but actually did something about it by reporting it. When I reported it the VP did not do anything about it and blamed me because it would make the school look bad if police were called (for the assaults, in which I actually walked away after getting a bruised neck). My parents went above him, he's fired now after the school board did an investigation. Today I don't walk around with a chip on my shoulder but a better understanding towards everything and the fire to help people out who are going through the same thing.
Waldo, if you need to talk through PM I am more than willing to listen to what you have to say. I am pretty close to your age if that makes you more comfortable with talking to me.
How many murders, suicides and rapes are committed by NT's everyday, but yet they aren't pinpointed for being NT. I would hope that the same could be said for any Autistic as well.
They have dry clothes, but as for their own clothes.... Not quite, Johanna. Their own clothes are dried by a stove, and are dried immediately when George was never born, because George never jumped in.
That Simpsons episode in which Homer throws the starfish at Bart's "Big Brother". Big Brother drops the starfish into a nearby tank, but not noticed by Big Brother, they are immediatly eaten by a shark.
It made a difference for those starfish indeed,
George jumped in when he was born, of course, but he didn't have wet clothes when he wasn't born, he didn't have a 4F card in his coat, and he didn't have Zuzu's petals either. And he had perfect hearing in both ears.
Suicide becomes unconscious homicide when enough people reject an underclass.
Maybe that helps explain why Apostle Paul writes that hatred is murder. If someone is encouraged by the hatred of others to develop self hatred and then kill one self...... bingo.
No, wait, that absolves a suicide victim of control or responsibility.... Maybe the answer is in between