I'm about to. If it says Harry Graham has sent you a friend request, that's me.

I've sent you one - it says, as a message, Hello from the Autist World of Great Britain...

I've just reported something they put on the discussion board, but I doubt anything will happen so I'm going to post something instead.

I've just posted something. It's not that good but it's a start. As it says in the post, the things that I want to say about Autism Speaks would get me banned from Facebook.

How can Autism Speaks ban someone from Facebook? That doesn't make any sense to me.

I could not read the conversation on your wall because we are not "friends".... I will add you as a friend, if that's okay. I did notice that there was a lot of information that I could see about you, essentially as a stranger, including your work history, and your date of birth. I don't know if this is intentional or not on your part. I am pretty paranoid about people knowing this information about me...

Oh, and I'm more or less "out", but as I'm not formally diagnosed, I don't talk about it a whole lot unless it's with close friends. You can write anything you want on my wall, though!

If it's me, the work history thing is a joke. One part of my school is a joke, but I did wish that I went to Hogwarts...
The reason why my accont is like that is. Loads of people who are at my high school and my other high school also ahave facebook, it's to prevent cyberbullying.

This post was last modified: 09-03-2011 11:24 PM by Some_Bloke.

They replied to my post...


Here is what I put...

Then they put.

It took them this long to come up with a response. This long to come up with more bullshi* lies.

This post was last modified: 10-08-2011 08:40 PM by Some_Bloke.

*implied
Sorry, I had to correct that.

They've actually made the mistake, I copied and pasted it from Facebook.

And this is what they put on their wall...

ASSHOLES!!

*Coughs* BULLSHI* BULLOX A LOAD OF CRAP *Coughs*

Now, I'm off to rant... When the Nazi replies, I'll post it here...

This post was last modified: 10-10-2011 04:48 PM by Some_Bloke.

This is what I put, just waiting for the fuc*ers to come up with more bullshi* lies.

There are parents using the autism speaks support page on facebook to find support amongst each other.  It doesn't mean they have to align themselves with the organization's goals.  Autism Speaks supports vaccination and there are still some parents that go to that site that discuss they believe vaccines may still play a role in causing autism.  

The parent you are talking to is expressing a neurodiverse point of view about her son, that has changed since she first posted there.  She doesn't have to believe in a cure or anything else that it is believed that autism speaks stands for, just because she is on a support site that many parents use to talk amongst each other.

The more parents that think like her that express this opinion on the support site, the more likely it is that the autism speaks organization is going to move toward a neurodiverse portrayal of autism.  That's a good thing; it could help people understand autism better, and hopefully autistic people will be understood and treated better in the world.

A person is not required to donate to autism speaks, or even support autism speaks to talk to other people on that website.  They don't even have to understand anything about what autism speaks does.

There are diverse people that come to the AFF site with diverse opinions about everything in the world.  It's the same on any internet discussion board.  We live in a free country with freedom of speech, as long as we play by the rules of private discussion boards.

It's a support site for people associated with autism provided by autism speaks, not a support site for autism speaks. Rarely do you even hear anyone talking about autism speaks on the support part of it. Just a bunch of people getting support from each other, like they are here, at WP or any other autism support site, designed for the public.

In my opinion you are fighting a dog that is not in the fight.

You are calling this lady a bunch of nasty names, here, and she isn't saying anything to you to deserve it, on an objective basis.  It's obvious to anyone that reads the correspondence from an objective point of view.

If one disagrees with Dana marname's quote on the epidemic of autism, they can call her out on it, by emailing her directly.  Parents don't pick the hyerbole slogans these marketing folks use, but if enough people express that they don't like them, the slogans will change.  That's marketing 101, if they don't respond appropriately to customer input, they won't last long in their jobs.

I could care less what hyperbole expression is used regarding epidemic,  I have enough sense to know that autism numbers are going to increase because of better diagnostic procedures in the future, instead of decrease. There is no objective proof of an epidemic other than statistical numbers that are in fact at least part of the result of better diagnostic procedures, and improved methods of gathering data. Those methods and diagnostic procedures will improve in the future, and greater numbers are almost inevitable.

But, if I wanted to stop the hyperbole expression I would email Dana Marname directly with her autism speaks email adress and state: Ms Marname, VP of Public Relations, Autism Speaks,  In light of the recent interview that you provided to the autistic community regarding a cure and eradicating autism, since you recently publically stated in that interview that eradicating autism was not a goal of autism speaks, your slogan listed by your bio, on the autism speaks website, states "we are going to end this epidemic of autism" sounds like your goal is to eradicate autism.  I and others in the autistic community find that statement offensive and suggest you remove it from your website.

If ending the epidemic of autism does not mean eradicating it, what is it that you mean by that statement?

Respectfully, ******