Autistic Blogger calls Temple Grandin ableist and classist

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I don't think she is making it up, I think that is how she interprets it. I can understand where she got that from because I have also read things by TG about teaching us social skills and how we must learn them, how we can be successful and has written about if she had been autistic today as a kid, she wouldn't be where she is now because of computers and video games and not everyone with autism likes hearing that. She isn't the only one who has felt negative about her.

Well I suppose I would have to read more of what TG actually says/writes...I really don't stay up on her at all so yeah. What does she mean by social skills though even neurotypicals need to be taught some social skills? I mean I'd likely agree if she means we should learn to communicate as best we can...

but if she means like stop us stimming, force us to make normal eye contact and basically 'mask' our autism/aspergers in interactions I would entirely disagree and be disappointed in her for thinking that, given she should know first hand 'faking' isn't a solution for autism.

And I personally don't care if she thinks computers and video games would have prevented her reaching her success...but I would care if she was trying to force that perspective and prevent autistics enjoying those things should they choose to.

Also though realistically even for normal neurotypical people...finding jobs, let alone jobs that pay well enough to live on without gov't assistance is quite a struggle. Tons of neurotypicals have to live at home with parents, or stay with room-mates because not many people can afford a place of their own...basically if you're not upper middle class or higher you're going to struggle whether autistic or not.

I just hope she's not giving people the wrong idea that getting a job and acting normal actually will guarantee them any kind of success or the ability to actually be entirely 'independent/self sufficient' meaning free of any government, family or charity aid.

Temple Grandin is the only autistic author I read for reasons that she is straightforward in her writing and speaking, doesn't use complex frameworks in social science or whatever subject that I don't understand and can't disentangle the language, has encouraging things to say about autistic people doing things many want to do like pursuing interests as careers, tells her life story simply with useful elements that I copied a few of them to help myself, mentions her areas of disability without blowing them up or going on and on and on about them trying to convince others how so disabled she is, etc.

Here are some more blog posts that discuss actual quotes from Temple:
https://ballastexistenz.wordpress.com/2 ... s-elitism/
https://ballastexistenz.wordpress.com/2 ... this-time/

And some of the quotes:

I like Temple, and I don't want to see her attacked for saying these things, because I think she's speaking out of internalized oppression. I think she means well. But her comments are definitely ableist. And she has repeatedly made similar comments, so this isn't just cherry picking a few quotes.

Those particular quotes are interesting because she's always struck me as being the "Goldilocks" of autism. She's not too disabled or too strange to be really disturbing to an audience. She can speak well, and she doesn't stim wildly while she's doing it. She overcame a lot of difficulties, she can live independently and she is successful. But she's also not so normal that people would dismiss her as not really being autistic. As a spokesperson, she's just right.

She's a great representative of the views she espouses...that a little bit of autism is a good thing. But not too much. It has to be just the right amount.

As for the woman who developed PTSD from using Twitter, how is that not possible? People have committed suicide because of internet bullying. Do you think they were faking too?

You are very sorely missed.

Like I said, responses on this thread remind me why I stopped coming here regularly.

This forum has a lot of unchecked ableism.

You haven't reported any of the posts on this thread so how do you expect them to get checked? The moderators can't read every single posts so we rely on members (like you) to report content that isn't appropriate.

My last interaction with a moderator before I stopped coming here regularly made it clear to me that some kinds of things wouldn't be moderated or seen as problematic.

This thread doesn't so much have anything I would really expect to be treated as a forum rule/guideline violation, though. Just people expressing opinions. Because that's why I was told certain things wouldn't be moderated.

Trigger warning offend me so please put a trigger warning before any trigger warnings.

Are you saying that the reason you don't come to this forum very often is because there are people who express opinions you don't agree with? Or is there some kind of problem where people are breaking the rules? Because every internet forum has people who will post opinions you don't agree with so I can't imagine why you would specifically not visit this forum.

I would like to know who cut out whole parts of threads and removed my posts and I want said mod to write that publicly here and not in PM like some coward who can't stand by their actions.

Shadow moderation is cowardice. You tools scared away a long time member with your draconian B.S. If you're going to be blatant censorship thought police at least be upfront about it.

I first of all don't know what you're talking about. 2nd of all, please stick to the topic of this thread. If you have any issues with parts of your posts disappearing, please post a report about it in the WrongPlanet.net discussion thread.

NN, I haven't got a clue what you are talking about either. I did remove a double post of my own on this thread so will check to see if one of yours got tagged onto it somehow. That's all I can think of so I will check it for you.
.. I have checked the moderator logs for the past couple of days and no-one has altered or moved your posts in this thread in any way during this time, nor was any post of yours moved accidentally.

I agree with all of these quotes.

I suppose they're ableist but if the fact that something was an ist prevented progression I'd be very disappointed with the direction humanity was going. It isn't as if she's intentionally insulting low-functioning autists and it's obvious that requiring heavy-duty support isn't ideal.





The problem isn't that she got PTSD but that she advertised it publicly (as if she was proud of it) and claimed it was equal to that of a veteran war victim's PTSD. Both moves I find ridiculous.

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And as for OliveMom receiving a ban threat I would very much like to know why..

To return to the topic a bit - the post calling Temple Grandin ableist is really just another internet spat.

I don't agree with TG on absolutely everything in life, but nobody is asking me to. Mainly I think she is a very brave person who did what she could with what she had, and that she has done a great job of convincing people that autistic people are capable of a great many things. Other people will teach other things about autism.



Seriously, people can drive themselves crazy following all kinds of strange people and their opinions on the internet. No person can have an opinion on everything - we don't have the energy for it.

I got a journalist to explain Twitter to me once, because I really didn't get the point, and my conclusion was that Twitter is mainly a useful tool for journalists, and brain clutter for anyone else.

The reason I like Wrong Planet so much is the tolerance for all kinds of people, the original views people have, and more than anything, levels of self insight and thoughtfulness that are seldom seen anywhere else. I don't hang out in any other strange corners of the internet, so I wouldn't know what it's like there, but I doubt it's like this everywhere.