Let's End Autism Speaks

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

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

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.