Aspies For Freedom

I've been going to the different Myspace groups about Autism, there's one called Autism Awareness where someone posted a thread titled "Autism is a national epidemic".  I've been arguing with the curbies there for a few days now and someone just posted this:

I tried to respond as best I could, but they seemed to just ignore my statements, anyone else have any ideas?  Actually, if anyone else has Myspace, why not drop by, there's already 2 people from AFF there anyway, the more we could get, maybe the better we could get the point across.

I guess I think it's ignorant of them to think that they are more able to identify with a child that is autistic than an individual on the spectrum themselves.  

Furthermore they appear to think it's more appropriate to pity these children rather than try and understand the perspectives of the child, and how a difference in thinking on the child's part compared to their own mental processes might contribute to the behaviors manifested.  How it's these behaviors (at least those causing physical pain or major distress) that they are basing their definition of autism on.  

They have a difficult time understanding how autism really indicates a difference in perception and thinking (certainly not a "DEFICIT") and that the problem children with autism face is a lack of proper presentation of materials.  All children learn in different ways, and how a single educational method is supposed to be sufficient for all is beyond me.  Whereas all others that cannot succeed under this method are labeled "disabled."

To say that a child is very "sick" that has autism seems to me to be a lack of empathy and perspective taking on the part of the PARENTS.  If they themselves could step out of their own experience (something that the neuro-typical community often prides themselves on their ability to do) they might begin to see how the things that THEY do and the way THEY set up the environment could be triggering behaviors they believe are "unhealthy."  

Haven't these parents ever heard about the sensory sensitivities that often are experienced by these children?  

I don't know, in a way I sometimes wonder if it's hopeless to try and logically discuss and argue such an emotionally charged topic... one disadvantage of NT's is our inability to step back from emotions, instead of letting it entirely obscure our thinking.  But I'm not a parent, so maybe that's a lack of empathy on MY part?  

:-\ ??

If anyone wants in on a really fun debate, join the Myspace Group "Autism Awareness", the top thread is called "Autism is an epidemic - a demand for action".  I'm up against a whole group of proud curbies that are so convinced that mercury causes Autism that they won't accept any governmental documentation stating otherwise.  According to them, not only do they believe the MMR vaccine story, but they believe that the FDA, the CDC, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development are all owned by people that own stock in the pharmaceutical companies, thus being the reason that the government claims to have never found a link between Mercury and Autism.  One of them even told me that I must be really new to this subject since I still believe what the data from tests conducted by government agencies says rather than reading some book by some conspiracy theorist they seem to worship like the bible.  I've even been told that I live in a fantasy land of unicorns because I keep posting information from actual tests and saying that's evidence over the news articles and opinion pieces they keep posting.