Autism Speaks' Response to Joe Scarborough's Autism Comments

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One offense after another... This was an opportunity for Autism Speaks to gain some credibility with some of the many autistic people who have no trust or love for them. Instead they make an apologist statement with no weight or backbone and further alienate the autistic community they claim to serve. It appears as though their lips are firmly attached to Scarborough's ass as their statement is more focused on building 'you owe us one' collateral with the media than standing up for autistic people. I wanted to vomit after reading their statement. Perhaps Autism Speaks should stay focused on eugenics instead of pretending they speak for autistic individuals.

Well, it's a typical, carefully worded response put forth by a large "advocacy" group. I wouldn't expect much more from them as they really don't have a horse in this race. After all, none of the people who run that organization are autistic themselves so they weren't really offended.

Autism Speaks does not speak for me.

The more I read about Autism Speaks, the more worthless they appear. They seem to be all about the money. Joe Scarborough's "clarification" was simply a sidestep. Autism Speaks accepts it as an apology because Scarborough is one of their funding sources. You know what they say - you don't bite the hand that feeds you. That's the case here. If any one of the thousands of us on WP call or write to Autism Soeaks to hear our story, they'd cast us aside like a used dish towel. If we came bearing gifts, well, that's a different story.

Blah. Both of them are getting way too much attention.

Meh, it looks like the carefully worded non-statement that has been carefully crafted by public relations and legal folks.

It always astounds me when people think that making a non-statement is better than making no statement at all. If you don't have a real opinion to share, just keep your mouth shut.

1) I didn't think his statement was offensive. He said 'it may not be the case here' and I expected the media to jump to such conclusions.

2) Autism Speaks has really changed. I don't support them but I have them on my Facebook and I'm not really seeing the evil here. I even support Aspect and even though sometimes they focus on the negatives they do keep a balance.

I don't actually think anyone here who criticises Autism Speaks will ever forgive them, no matter what they do. Put the past in the past. Autism Speaks have learned a lot from autistic individuals. And you can label me as an Autism Speaks lacky or whatever, but I'm not. Why would I waste my time speaking to a bunch of haters? In fact I don't even know why I'm wasting my time doing this. You'll never be convinced.

Both are pathetic responses IMO.
I still find it interesting how he remarked that he knew it was a white male on the autism spectrum. Last time I checked, Seung-Hui Cho, Asa Coon (technically), Jeff Wiese, Wayne Lo, and Jiverly Wong weren't white. They were also not diagnosed (at least according to the sources I've reviewed) with any form of an ASD. I understand some have traits that seem to fit with ASD, but that alone isn't grounds for making the claim that rampage shooters all tend to be on the autism spectrum.


Edit: saw the "i" didn't show on the word "interesting." Curse the banner loading derpiness/crappy service.

Well, it seems that although Autism Speaks wants autism to be seen as a horrible child-stealing monster, at least they don't want us to be seen as gun-slinging psychopaths.