Boycott Autism Speaks

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A problem is that people seem to have real trouble empathizing with children, but easily empathize with parents. Even abusive parents. It's disturbing because of what it makes excuses for.

Again, you're mistaking the woman in the video for making murderous comments vs. being transparent about the horribly stressful & depressed situation she was in that had her thinking and feeling terrible things. It's a bit ironic that you (likely) want others to accept and sympathize with your neurological shortcomings, yet you cannot accept/tolerate/sympathize with someone being extremely depressed/stressed etc to the point that they had horrible thoughts & feelings which they're being transparent about and sharing openly. The words she spoke are not those of someone of sound mind, they're those of someone who was once at their wits end due to dealing with raising an autistic child. Surely you can see how dealing with raising severely autistic children can be very mentally & emotionally taxing for any parent. Clearly she's one who's capacity to deal with it all was once taxed to the absolute max. I feel for her AND her family. It's not child abuse to be transparent about depressed thoughts. If anything it teaches people to be open about mental health concerns so that they can be dealt with appropriately vs. taking drastic irreversible actions instead.

I'm not apologizing for Autism Speaks. IMO they have nothing to apologize for. OK, so don't talk to me - not going to bother me any. And just because I have an opposing opinion to yours does not mean I'm on Autism Speaks' payroll.

In one poem that was banned they plainly said autism ruins lives and the parents taking care of these people live a life of misery. I'm friends with a mother of a severely autistic boy and she is against Autism Speaks.

I just think they play up the whole sympathy card to get more donations and the facts are being lost because they do not give a balanced view.

I have autism and it does cause me problems but there are also parts about it I would not give up. I'm not a major player in the anti-cure brigade but I don't think people with autism should be eradicated, if someone wants to be cured it should be up to them. Autism Speaks focus more on the families pain and describe people with autism as though they are toddlers.

I still have Autism Speaks on my Facebook news feed because I have mixed feelings about them. They still raise awareness for autism and it's not always about a cure and how terrible living with an autistic person is. However their media campaigns seem to be about that stuff so it really confuses me. It seems to me every post they make is just more manipulation to get the parents on their side. They even go for the whole gut theory thing.

I just think Autism Speaks is rather annoying but I'm not as against them like most people here. They are plainly obvious money grabbers.

Because it's not just a theory. It's very real. I've lived it.

Yes, they do. They partially sponsored this study. It is noted at the bottom of the article
http://www.caltech.edu/content/probioti ... viors-mice

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 29 Dec 2013, 2:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

While nothing in ads specifically says I hate autistic people the tone and approach of the ads probably will cause people to hate or more likely validate and enhance the hate or suspicion they already may have towered people with autism. People act upon suspicion and hate, that is the way of the world as you would put it. Since this is an organization with great access to the corridors of power the people that may acting upon that will be them. History as shown time and time again zealous people do very bad things in the name of love all the while thinking they are doing the right thing. History has shown time and time again people misinterpret things, do not act upon literal meanings, but perceived meanings. You can invalidate me all you want, say it is my Autism stubbornness etc perverting my thinking all you want you can't deny this history.

It's very political of them, isn't it? They're not being blunt about it, and they can truthfully say that they have never said that autistic people are worth less than neurotypicals. The trouble is, they imply it.

Maybe that's how they bamboozle some autistic people. They never express their prejudice literally and bluntly, and it flies over the heads of people who can't easily interpret social subtleties, connotations, and emotional messages. But the message is there. They paint around it, leaving the outline of it there for everyone to see. Many of us, when we were little, were bullied without even realizing it because the bullies knew how to keep us in the dark about how we were being made into the butt of jokes. Well, these aren't schoolyard bullies; they're NTs, and not just that but NTs who are particularly good at communication, good enough to make careers out of it.

When you listen to the rhetoric these people use, listen to it twice. First listen to the literal message. Then, treat it like music or poetry. Focus on feelings, implications, even the rhythms and tones in what's being said. It's going to frustrate you, because the minute you come to some kind of conclusion about the connotations, you're going to want to analyze it logically and figure out why, only to realize that what was implied was never actually said, so there's nothing for you to counter. But that's the point--they don't want you to think about it logically. They want to go around your logical mind and grab your emotions--your fear, your pity, your discomfort with the unknown and the different.

Neat little trick, isn't it? Go just far enough to make people fear autism and pity autistics, but not far enough to raise too much of an outcry, because Autism Speaks's allies can always claim, "They didn't really mean it that way; they never said that; they don't really think that."

An interesting message, Callista, but I would like to point out that you are kind of doing the same thing you are accusing them of doing.

I don't really think so. In this autism speaks video when they personify autism,if you watch the whole video to the end, that is not the message, as the autistic children are with the families, as I recall, so they are part of conquering autism. (I don't like this video at all by the way. Imo it is an extremely amateur piece of work and does have these kinds of subtle implications, but at least they made a video and they did it out of love, not to fool people. I think they really do feel this way about autism, and if you have never taken care of autistic child, who are you to say how they perceive autism?
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This comment implies that they are deliberately and consciously attempting to bamboozle autistic people. I do not believe this, and it seems to me that you are, without realizing it, attempting to bamboozle autistic people by saying this.

Prejudice is a really strong word, though of course we all have our prejudices we are unaware of. Are you saying they do not love their autistic children? It does sound like you are saying this.

Here you seem to be equating these people to bullies, but it seems to be that you are in a subtle way using the same tactic toward them that you are accusing them of doing, such as personifying that organization into "bullies." I do agree a certain message you are talking about is subtly there in that video if you slant it at a certain angle and look at it from that angle, such as focusing on only the first part where they are personifying autism, but if you look at the entire video, it does not present that message. And again, I do not like that video, but I do get the point it is making. I suggest you give these people some slack and if you do not like the way they are doing things start your own organization for providing services for families with autistic children, (which for all I know you may be doing, though I doubt it) as this protesting alone is really kind of lame and imo all this infighting between organizations is giving the general public a bad feeling toward autistic people. .It will create a backlash.

This is a good recipe for listening. Everybody should do it; however the problem is that when one is listening from a certain angle )subjective bias), they tend to miss their own hidden and unconscious agenda for listening from this angle.

Another problem here is that you are telling people the conclusion they are going to come to from listening in this way. Would you not call this authority? And are you not kind of doing what you say they are doing?

Yes, agreed. That is the function of this kind of rhetoric, especially around fund raising..They want to keep it simple. Myh guess is that if you were the fund raiser you would not get much money. Plus I do not know that much about the exact activities of that organization, but it seems as if they are actually doing something or other to help people.

Outcry against what??? You are doing the same thing in your own rhetoric you say they are doing. We all need to to watch out for doing this. You are overlooking and trivializing the services they are providing in much the same way you are accusing them of painting autism..Imo fighting Autism Speaks is not at all a very good way to help autistic people and their families. I know you and some other just feel it is in just the way they feel their own approach is. Except they are actually providing services to a whole lot of people, and many people are grateful for these services.

Am I advocating for Autism Speaks? Not really. My organization to help autistic people and families would be a lot different from theirs, except I do not even have an organization.

Last edited by littlebee on 30 Dec 2013, 1:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.

if they don't mean it, why does their about page say that their goal is to get rid of autism? they need to be more serious if they don't mean it and if they don't want to do that, then they're being inconsiderate.

This is the quote:



Of course their goal is to eliminate the frustrations of Autism. That's the purpose of discovering the causes, preventing it, treating it, and potentially curing it. I see nothing wrong with their goal nor the wording in this paragraph. I'm glad they mean it and are doing good work towards their goal. Autism sucks. They're being extremely considerate of those who want treatments or a cure, as well as of the families and friends of Autistics who have to deal with the stressful and frustrating negatives of the condition.

Again, if you're truly happy being who & how you are, then don't take any treatment or cure for yourself. It's as simple as that. IMO it's inconsiderate of you to fight against an organization that's doing good work for those who want the results of their work. who are you to try to prevent others from having treatments or cures if they want them for themselves or their family?

Autism does NOT suck and i agree that your view of autism is really skewed.

In personal experience with Autism, yes, yes it does suck. It makes social interactions much more difficult than they need to be. Sensory experiences can be a major pain in the ass. Sensory overload sucks. Lack of balance/coordination & fine motor skills sucks. Anxiety/social anxiety sucks. Impaired executive functions suck. Misinterpreting things & others' communications sucks. Depression & feelings of worthlessness suck. Almost everything about Autism sucks. It's nice to have lightning quick math skills, visual thinking for problem solving, and to be able to creatively solve business or engineering problems - but those things don't make up for the living hell that Autism can make the rest of one's life.

I should rephrase my statement a bit then: For those of us who think/feel/believe & know for ourselves that Autism sucks, we should be able to take any treatment or cure available to us. If you're perfectly content living in your Autistic dream world of endless bliss, then it is your choice to not take any treatment or cure available - but it is not your choice to decide for the rest of us that treatments or a cure should not be available to us if we want them.

"personal". that's the key word. by slamming me for boycotting Speaks you're applying what YOU'RE going through to everyone else on the planet.

You're free to boycott them all you wish. That means you won't purchase or accept their services. That's fine.

My issue is that you're not just boycotting them, you're stating that you want to fight them, that they should be stopped from doing what they're doing. That's not fine.

Autism Speaks doing what they do for people who want their services is absolutely none of your business as it has absolutely no bearing on your life whatsoever. Again, if you don't want what they have to offer, don't take it - but it's not your place to prevent others from accessing whatever services, treatments, or cures Autism Speaks comes up with. Do you comprehend?

Well of course. Those poor, poor people. They actually have to live with an autistic child. Who wouldn't want to kill a child like that? If there was just laws allowing them to euthanize those little trouble makers, they could be free at last. No more divorces, no more bankruptcies, people could go to temples, birthday parties, and parks again. The world would be one big happy place with out autistic people around.

With so many autistic children being raised by self-centered, insensitive parents like that, it amazes me that most aren't a lot more f****d up then they are now.

Autistic people are a lot stronger than you might think, and can survive a lot more than it seems we could. Even children. I survived some pretty effed up stuff myself and I'm still going. Not that it's right to hurt us--but somehow, we usually seem to find a way to get through it. Maybe a little banged up, maybe with some bad dreams and bad habits, but we get through it. Growing up autistic with bigoted parents sure isn't for sissies.

And they say having autism is our biggest problem. I think we need a diagnostic category for "parents are prejudiced against child's neurology". We'll put it on axis 4 along with homelessness and divorce and stuff like that...

edit--okay, in the new edition it's called a "v code" for social/environmental stressors. Whatevers. We need one for growing up with prejudice, because that messes you up even if you weren't messed up to begin with.