Who Finds This Extremely Offensive?

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I don't know whether to laugh or to be offended at this.

back in the early 80's I gratefully found alcoholics anonymous and was stunned to know I was an alcoholic. I was mentored by grizzled elders that had learned the program the hard way in the college of hard knocks. As the months sober added up to years, they changed the insurance laws in my state and alcohol treatment became payable by insurance and all of a sudden it was trendy to be 'in treatment' and spend months at some new treatment center where you got your health back and talked about your feelings endlessly. Going to plain old geezerville aa meetings was part of the charm of their alcoholic treatment adventure, and we wanted to welcome them, of course, but it became relentless.

It was cool to be a social pariah.

There was a song called "I Was Country before Country Was Cool" I know. It's like loving Bob Dylan before he was all the rage.

Just remember in twenty years they will barely remember their fling with Asperger's Syndrome and we will still be us.

Merle

Who else is next to be hated by "normal people"?

I think the article was intended to be critical of the folks who have picked up on the term and use it to excuse their rudeness, and those who like to arrogantly trumpet the idea of aspie superiority. It's very clumsily written though, and seems to be insulting to us as a whole. My main concern is that people reading this will go away with a very negative opinion of any and all AS sufferers.

I was diagnosed in the mid 1990s, and back then I had most of the signs of classic autism. Since then I've been through several mental breakdowns, tirelessly working on my social skills. People still see me as a little strange, but not enough for them to admit it. With that type of progress, I could see how someone would assume I'm faking.

The funny part? If we never worked on our social skills, nobody would dare question our autism. The more we work at it, the less patience people have for our remaining deficits.

Of course, the general public doesn't realize that fakers tend to exaggerate symptoms, while real sufferers make efforts to keep them hidden. It's more likely that the guy flapping his arms is a fake, and the man with an odd gait is telling the truth.

This is something I thought of when I read recently about what is being found in studies with making robots more sociable.

The robots that are more "human" and empathic in their behaviour are more liked and get a more positive response until some sort of threshold is reached when the reaction becomes negative. It is as if they get treated as "human" if they get close enough but then suddenly the entire NT mechanism kicks in and they are being interpreted as odd/creepy/just off.

This made me wonder if this is not also what happens when one moves to the higher functioning end of the spectrum and you come close enough to almost pass as normal and this just leads to the normal filters being applied and then the whole thing falls flat.

This pretty much sums it up for me. Sure, there are ppl who will use AS as an excuse, and maybe even a few NTs who co-opt it to excuse being an a**hole, but that doesn't mean we're all doing that, or that it's not real.

~Kate

The real people making excuses are the ones who wrote the article. They use a negative stereotype of AS as an excuse to be really nasty to us. So what about the actual autistic people quit making excuses for the bullies? Going on about "the ones who use AS as an excuse" won't save you from them anyway. Neither will equating those of us who can't pass or don't make an effort to pass with fakers (the idea that all real autistic people hide it is offensive to those of us who can't or won't, it's not like hiding it makes you a better person). When autistic people perpetuate those stereotypes they're just helping and excusing the behavior of the bullies and trolls. And that's not okay. There really are not huge bunches of people claiming to have AS to excuse their behavior, nor are there huge bunches of fakers. Those are both very old disability stereotypes wrapped up in a brand new package and it would do us better not to act like they're real.

Damn. I have already had one vicious rage today.

Yes exactly.

Right cause y'know....they don't already as it is...

I've thought of that again and now agree with you. Anyways I felt strange reading that article.

Much the same as the Encyclopedia Dramatica article. Since it's referring largely to excuse mongers with e-diagnoses' - No, I found it funny. That, and I think the pride thing is ret*d.

I'm self-diagnosed, I admit it, I'm the cancer that is killing Autism. But I certainly haven't joined a "pride movement" or told anybody in real life except my mother in the hopes of seeing a doctor about it, it didn't happen, but I tried.

So, what exactly is this movement about? I've heard of it, but not really seen anything about it on this site. It sounds stupid to be honest. The problems that I have aren't anything I can see pride in.

The issue isn't even in being self-diagnosed, more about the self-diagnosed people who use it as an excuse. That, and it's nearly become condition of the month. Not that there aren't people like that with a professional dx as well. It's just that there are too many people who do nothing but whine about the evil NTs keeping them down, all while having nothing to back-up their own claims of having AS.

The 'movement' was supposed to be about awareness, rights, acceptance, difference not disorder etc - Which would be great if it hadn't descended into NT bashing, AS superiority and forgetting about the existence of lower-functioning Autistics.

Yep I agree 100% with you here. I loved both the ED and uncyclopedia articles, since they all have an element of truth in them.
And I don't see why anyone would be proud of being AS, since it's such an annoying thing to have. Any actual AS-er would know that.

And to avarice: LOL at the "cancer that is killing autism" I liked that
And like nothingusual said, people that suspect they have it are fine with me it's just the "OMG im awkward so I'm aspie and I'll tell EVERYONE how awsome I am" idiots who I don't like, sadly there's been too many of them recently.