Aspies For Freedom

Dominant groups always want a way to villainize the outsider groups. Looks like some people would like to move Aspies from the comparatively benign "geek" category to the rabidly sensationalistic and sinister "KILLERS" category.

Look how the headline raises the bullshit question in sensationalistic, lurid terms. Even though the article answers the question with a clear NO, the headline seeks to plant the connection between Aspies and violence in everyone's mind...

Asperger's Syndrome, A Form of Austism: Is Violence a Characteristic?

By Dr. Deanna Lites
WHDH/NBC News Channel

You may have heard of a medical condition called 'Asperger's Disorder'. Recently, a 16-year old Massachusetts boy who is accused of stabbing his classmate to death is said to have the disorder. But is violence a common characteristic of these children?

Ajay Attenazio looks like your typical nine year old boy.

"He loves to bowl, loves to swim, loves to go to the beach," said Lisa Attenazio, mother.

Mom Lisa says Ajay also excels in school, especially in math.

"He'd do all kinds of multiplication and division and I'd sit there with my calculator trying to figure out if these answers were right and they were right!" said Lisa Attenazio.

But what's not typical about Ajay is he has Asperger's Disorder...a high functioning form of autism.

"Characteristics of kids with Asperger's is they have normal cognitive abilities, they have normal IQ, a lot of language but they have social communication problems," said Dr. Janice Ware, psychologist.

Last week was the first time many people ever heard about Asperger's when 16-year-old John Odgren was accused of stabbing a classmate to death at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. His attorney says he has this disorder. So is violence a characteristic of Asperger's?

"That is not a hallmark or a characteristic of children with Asperger's disorder," said Dr. Janice Ware, psychologist.

"Never, never violent. Never. Not aggressive at all. He's a real joy to have, he really is," said Lisa Attenazio, mother.

Lisa says she worries people will be left with a negative impression of kids with Asperger's. And she hopes Ajay and other Asperger's children are given the chance they deserve.

"Believe me if you walked up to a child with Asperger's and started talking to them and you got to know them, you wouldn't be disappointed. I guarantee it. You'd make yourself a new friend," said Lisa Attenazio, mother.


NBC News Channel

I find it ironic how they included Lisa Attenazio's sentiments, but virtually invalidated her view with that headline. A headline at the start like that will form an opnion before reading the rest, and it said "Is Violence a Characteristic?", notice the ?. So people who do read the whole thing and recognise that Lisa's child is not violent will still have the possiblity of aspie violence in their minds.
News corporations don't like to backtrack, even if they do report total nonsense.

If a newspaper ran a headline like "Is George W. Bush Involved in Cocain Parties in the White House with Naked Prostitutes" and then the story said, "Most experts agree that there is little evidence to support the charges," one would wonder "then why did you make this your headline?"

Why wasn't the headline "Violence Is Not a Characteristic of Asperger's"? That's what needs to be said in the wake of the recent school stabbing.

An interview with the child himself provides more solid proof. It isn't as if the child cannot speak for himself.

Typical - selling papers is more important than reporting facts.

....Do they not think of what they do? Ever?

"The sky: Is it neon green with brown and pink polkadots?

Most experts say that it is infact, blue, sometimes becoming purple, black, or a pinkish hue, depending on the time of day and the weather."

They use the question mark as a hook, to get people to read the article.

"Those who actually take the time to read the article will realize that violence is not an Aspie characteristic. "

Right -- so that should have been the headline: "Experts Say No Connection Between Asperger's and Violence"

Some actually quite ordinary people I've seen tend to use violence to threat when there's no obvious consequence. Morals are only for certain occations for many NTs, I guess many aspies don't see it that way.

The article basiclly says:
"Are autistics killers!?!?!! - An Aspie did kill someone once afterall!" - and then in the smallprint kind of says "Well, no... they're not predisposed to violence"

Wih seems like a rather pointless article. If someone had written an article saying:
"Are all black people drug addicts!?! - A black guy was caught smoking cannabis once!", and then tailing off in the smallprint. "Well... actually they're no different to anyone else on the planet", it'd never gone to print because it's wholely pointless and likely to offend someone.

The only difference is that sub-humans don't get offended by civilised humanity... do they? /sarcasm.

At least where I live everyone can give letters to the editor of a newspaper. I got something written in the newspaper once. Norway has alot of newspapers, along with comics.

Well, that's not entirely true....

Let's face it... reporters make a living by reporting news. And when theres many reporters reporting the same story they have to report it to be more exciting than anyone else.

And when there isn't any news, you have to make some, most likely by taking an old or largely unknown topic and making it sound exciting. Like that old Simpsons scene "Action New Weather Report! - Heavy rain has so for claimed 0 lives, but we could expect that to raise into the millions any second now!"

I am not sure if they have this in other countries but aren't there messages in a newspaper were someone might criticize a previous article?!?!???

Yup. You could write to the editor. (Of course, whether and when they publish your letter is entirely up to them. But most halfway decent papers etc are not above publishing criticism. (Even crap shows like 60 minutes have a chance for viewers to be critical.)