Let's End Autism Speaks

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What's in it for me?

No, "Satisfaction in a job well done" or some other ephemeral feel-good reason is not reason enough.

Doing something for your fellow man, or rather, the community with which you claim to identify?

Where were they when I was homeless?

For that matter, where were you?

I think that’s a good way to make the point that you have no respect for their intelligence and you don’t need to acknowledge it, because it’s so easy to deny and eventually to destroy by systematically refusing to give them a chance to grow up as a healthy child.

Forget suing them or trying to shut them up. That will just make them look like victims.

Just keep LIVING. Keep TALKING. Keep the dialog going.

Autism Speaks will find out they're speaking to an empty auditorium.

Patience, my friends.

Excuse me? I don't need you in particular. Get over yourself.

I'll do my best to express my viewpoint on this topic. I feel the only way AutismSpeaks could be brought down so to speak would be if there were a large group of persons of a combined nature to put together a campaign of such where Truths & Myths would be properly explored wherein, all the so-called crap that AutismSpeaks puts forward could and would effectively be debunked and seen as lies promoted to further their agenda as such. Yes, I realize this would be a very large task for any/all persons within the spectrum yet, simply combating false realities on a local level is just as significant.. I'm no socio/political activist but, whenever there has been stupid things being reported in the media I tend not to act silent rather, I try to destroy the myths in a way I feel would be seen as honorable and noteworthy..

I'm not sure what else to say as, I'm not the best at composing my thoughts.

People who want to believe the ideas they promote won’t bring themselves to look at or listen to any evidence you try to show them. They will only resent your attempt to force them to pay attention to it and, consequently, become even more hostile.

Why not set up your own Autism charity directly competing with Autism Speaks while providing parents and autistic people with an alternative voice?

This sounds like a good idea to me.

Has anyone else read up on Ghandi? He had this concept of Satyagraha, which loosely translates into "insistence on truth". Generally the idea is not so much shouting down and trying to discredit people who spout falsehoods, but rather holding to the truth and trying to compassionately bring them to your side.

A similar approach might be useful here... most of their supporters are relatives or caregivers of people on the spectrum, after all. Even if they're horrendously misguided, the vast majority probably care very deeply for people on the spectrum. You get more flies with honey, all that. (Except these annoying fruit flies that get into my apartment because they're small enough to fit through the screen. They don't care for honey but bananas draw them in like nobody's business.)

I was going to start a website dedicated to telling the story of being autistic from the perspectives of people with autism. It was gong to be called "We Are Autistic", but it looks like someone else has beaten me to it.

Link: "We Are Autistic"

It's probably better to start one's own organization for positive action rather than trying to end another organization.

That website seems to consist of blank pages only.

The last decade or so has seen the tremendous growth of what is sometimes called, "Non-profit, Inc". Generally speaking, a few very socially adept people with envious sales abilities will find a cause they think they can use to raise donations and create an organization. They don't really care which side their organization is on, nor if they do any harm. What is important is whether their target audience is likely to send in money enough to cover their salaries for the next five years. Over time, some of them have fine-tuned their shtick to target people at one extreme end of a controversial topic. Something I've noticed is that it usually is the side which opposes in some way the very existence of the the people at the heart of the matter. Those are the ones who are most willing to send in money and least likely to listen to reason; a shyster's dream audience.

Autism Speaks very much seems to be such an organization.

Our family has been affected by a different such group here in California. They've tried several times since 2007 to create laws that would essentially outlaw the legal equality of a group of people. Each time, groups opposing them - typically because they have loved ones that fall in the targeted group - must engage in a public campaign not only of education but also familiarity. By putting a real, human face on the targeted people, the hate group's vileness is exposed. And they lose, again. The crux of it though, is that they don't really care if they lose because they are then free to start up another campaign and solicit more donations from the extremists. It's like a cottage industry, really. In their case winning would deprive them of a target and thus, their salaries.

So rather than trying to defeat them, they must be made irrelevant. The body of educated, familiar people must grow until it includes their once dependable extremists. Also, once public opinion has shifted and solidified, it seems at some point their extremists become so few in number they are forced to find some other topic, some new target to vilify.

Still, I can't use the name unless no one owns it.

You could just call it "I am Autistic". Same difference, plus it hammers home the idea that no two autistic individuals are exactly the same.