Badge for half baked AS & autism researchers

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On another part of WP someone suggested that Aspies and Auties might want to wear a badge visible from a distance which indicates that they have AS or autism. Partly as a joke I suggested that the following groups of people might want to consider displaying a badge to let the rest of us spot them more quickly.

1. NTs
2. Neurobigots
3. Half baked poor quaility AS & Autism "researchers"

I have while walking this afternoon worked out most of the details for the third group, I suggest a sheild divided into four roughtly equal areas, I have thought of three things to go on the badge but I want your suggestions for the last one.

My three items are

1. Two very broad bell curves on the same graph which have very slightly different centre points to denote people who see a difference when it in all likelyhood does not exist.

2. A sample jar with a single stick man in it to indicate small sample sizes.

3. The electrical symbol for an inductor to indicate an overuse of inductive reasoning which is a common defect in weaker reserachers in many fields.

I am stuck on the last one, I would value any suggestions either for a fourth picture or a new badge design. Keep it clean and nothing naughty please. Also feel free to write in with suggestions for other badges.

One problem with responding in kind to people who offend you by attaching labels, ignorance and other bigotry to you, is that it's easy to start acting the way they do. Labels and perjorative imagery dehumanizes and demeans the labeler as much as the person being so objectified. You might yourself become the kind of bigot that you deplore.


That said, I think that for (3) a dissected Twinkie with electrodes attached to it might be a good badge (being a half-baked idea person, myself).

Fourth quarter: a very rare penny (the shoddier researchers all lack common cents).

Well ephemerella,

You are right that placing a label on someone who irks you can make you as bad as them or even worse than them, I think that we should only view the idea of the badge as a joke or satire which we will never put into production. But the suggestion you made might make an interesting fourth quarter for the badge.

(edited to improve the english)

Not a good idea. This is exactly how the neurodiversity vs NT traits cluster. The neurodiversity spectrum is not at the extreme of the normal distribution, it has its own distribution.

Okay, fair enough. You're right.

You can, by the way, award these at an event. How about WP community awards a "No Bull" prize to selected people at the end of the year.

The purpose of the "No Bull" prize would be "to identify, decry and dishonor poor administrative, professional and research activity in the area of autism spectrum disorders".

You can have achievement categories like "Administrative Injustice", "Sample-set Impaired Brain Imaging Studies" and "Dubious Pharmaceutical Claims".

Gather nominations on the board, then put up a poll followed with a discussion thread, and then when the awards are determined, issue a press release and send it out to the media and advocacy groups. Have someone make up your badges as paper wall plaques colored in crayon and send one to each winner's boss.

The reason I was thinking of this is that some scientific papers claim things that mercury is linked to autism and back up their idea with measurements such as the mercury level in hair. When you look at the data then the ESD is so large that I think that no difference between NT and autistic exists.

But again some people can not see differences which do exist which is just as bad as seeing those which do not exist.

I like it.

I think one of the pictures should be a neuron or something, indicating research geared too much at finding brain defects as a reason for every kind of diversity. Another picture, possibly instead of the first one, could be some kind of chemical symbol, which would symbolize too much focus on medications and physical reasons.