What is Autism Speaks?

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I don't see the purpose of wasting their time. I don't have any concerns that lie within their field.

It seems that you often derail threads, iliketrees, replacing the topic with a tendency to oppositional thinking and resentment expressed about your autistic status. Compulsive argument won't help you come to terms with your status, nor improve your experience of it. So perhaps you could consider seeking some help to assimilate your feelings about what being diagnosed as autistic has thus far meant to you, and some support while you widen your perspectives and explore possibilities. Don't get stuck in trying to prove everyone else but you is wrong; all this does is to keep you stuck, which is a form of self-sabotage. Strive to be the best you can be; get help to discover and play to your strengths; at 18 you are still a work in progress, and hopefully, there is still much to learn and far to go.

Nobody wants to help me because autism can't be cured. That seems to be the attitude where I live. There are no services for adults with high functioning autism. And other than this, what other thread have I derailed? Who did I say was wrong? How the f**k am I being oppositional? I was merely trying to understand the advantage of being autistic, since I was accused of not listing any. I listed none because I can't think of a single thing every autistic person has to their advantage that no NT people have. I still haven't found any.

In a way they are right. You have been a bit oppositional but I don't think it's fair to blame you for derailing the thread. I don't feel you've done anything wrong here.

You said you haven't found any advantages that an autistic person could have over NT's despite the many that have been mentioned here. Just because you don't experience them does not mean they don't exist. But I'm starting to be redundant so I'll just drop it now.

And to get back to the original topic. Autism Speaks exists mostly to make money for the people who run the organization, like many other large supposed charities. One if the main ways they make money is by scaremongering parents into thinking autism = broken. It is a despicable organization that puts out a very distorted and negative view of autism and autistics.

How am I being oppositional?

And I said that every single autistic has. Not just some, all. Each and every single one of us.

Like that. No one but you said everybody. When talking about advantages and disadvantages you have to be a little more generalized than that. No two autistics are the same so trying to find one trait that that we all share is a fool's errand. You're trying to say other people are wrong for thinking that having autism can have its up side. You're being a little oppositional for dismissing any examples of positive autistic traits. Like I said I don't think you did anything wrong, you're just a little bit of a contrarian. There's nothing wrong with that.

Because when talking about autistics vs NTs it is very general. The only thing autistics are diagnosed by is by our disadvantages. We all share the disadvantages, but we don't have any universal advantage. Autistics cover the entire IQ range, so it'd be wrong to say "autistics have high IQs" for the exact same reason it's wrong to say "autistics have great memory". Some autistics have incredibly high IQs, so do NTs. Some autistics have amazing short term and long term memory, so do NTs. The advantages compared to the average we may or may not have are nothing to do with the fact we have autism, hence why there is no universal advantage. There are no positive autistic traits because they're not attached to our autism but ourselves. Unless autism starts including positive features in its diagnosis it'll remain that way, and there's no reason to do that. Apparently that's oppositional, even though I do what anyone tells me without question. Debating does not make me oppositional.

In other words, we're all different, and should be treated with respect because of that instead of being generalized all the time.

Very different. Other than all having deficits in social communication and having restricted and repetitive behaviours there's nothing else we all share.

Autism doesn't lie within their fields?

I completely disagree, but that's probably no surprise. I also think some of the traits in the diagnostic criteria are neutral, they are not necessarily good or bad they're just traits. But we're just going to have to agree to disagree. We'll never come to a consensus on this. I think we may have been talking past each other a little bit anyway. Oh and wanting to debate does make you a little oppositional, so am I though so it's all good.

My questions about the point of life are not related to autism.

My mistake. I thought you were asking if there was a universal advantage to being autistic.

How depressing this thread has become. I need something positive at this stage:

http://www.makers.com/blog/14-amazing-women-autism/14

I don't think there are any. But who knows? I'd very much like to be proven wrong.

Nice slideshow, I remember as a child being so relieved when I learned that someone had invented a method for reducing the distress experienced by livestock in slaughter houses. Last year, discovering that the inventor who had touched my life from afar was a woman with Asperger's syndrome, was a significant moment for me.
Life is not about the grandiose gestures and achievements, it is about a collection of small things, which add up to eventually give depth and meaning to someone, somewhere.

I didn't know about Autism Speaks until I encountered this website. Although technically, religious organisations are charities, I view them as similar to A$, not as a charity, but an institution which can receive charitable donations.

With regard to civil liberties a stance ranging from indifference to outrage is a personal/ethical choice and often influenced by the individual's environment/perspective on life; more often though I have noticed that when a person's situation in life is affected negatively and the path of least resistance is no longer an option they move from apathy to action.