Stop Bashing Autism Speaks!

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The opposite of Love isn't Hate.

Hate is simply loves unrequited cousin searching for acceptance and understanding.

It's ambers, it's fires are stoked by time and emotion.

Indifference quenches the flames.

Time and emotion moves forward freely, biding love adieu.

TheSunAlsoRises

finaly some new and original posts on this thread.woo hoo

I see no point in reading any more of what you say. I know of no adult autistics that hate any autism advocacy organization. Autism Speaks is not one.

my goal is to read this whole post from begining to end.since i started ive finnished.ivanhoe,war and peace,the iliad and the whole torah in hebrew and new testiment in greek.i will read this whole post eventualy

The available evidence does not support the opinion that Autism Speaks is not an Autism advocacy organization. I understand you as an individual, don't need or want the advocation this organization provides, however, the available evidence definitively shows that it is an autism advocacy organization.

And, there are 340,000 volunteers in the US that participate in and support that autism advocacy effort, just from numbers that are documented.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism_Speaks

I thought you would do better than quote the Wikipedia page. That is presumably written largely by Autism Speaks. It is also subject to "vandalism" (by people that feel the article is biased toward Autism Speaks). Read the discussion. I particularly find offensive one of the editor's comment: "I would doubt that there are medical scientists that would not view autism as a disease."

Judging by the overall tone of what is going on there, and here, I'd suspect you are one of the editors... but maybe not, as the article itself does eventually highlight some of the controversy around the organisation - e.g. the fact of at least some of the board deserting to form ASF, and the page providing links to less sycophantic pages and AFF.

If the suggestion provided to the organization in this thread that the organization should study the total prevalence of autism, that current government statistical methodology misses, influenced the organization in any way, shape or form to move ahead with this:



Then it was worth every word. This effort is crucial, because if it was undertaken after the DSMV went into effect, we would never have any idea what the numbers of individuals with Aspergers are in comparison to the rest of the autistic population, in the US, since that diagnosis is soon to disappear.

It is even more outstanding, because they seek to measure the total prevalence from the general population. The recent study in England that came up with the 1% figure, in adults only, effectively measured adults in the population with HFA, and Aspergers; excluding children with autism with developmental disabilities, children with HFA, and Aspergers, along with adults with autism that have developmental disabilities.

Right now in the US, for the most part, it is only 8 year old developmentally disabled children that statistics are available for. Most people with higher functioning autism, aren't likely acknowledged to exist because of current government statistical methodology.

This type of research hasn't been accomplished in any country, by any research organization. The research in South Korea, that that came up with a statistic of 1 in 38, only focused on school age children.

This research has the potential of allowing many autistic individuals to have a voice on their own personal concerns related to Autism, that might not happen otherwise, without an effort like this, to actually study the adult autistic population.

And, there is also the potential that valuable information can be learned from that group of individuals, that may assist younger individuals in their transition into adulthood with autism.

Although, there have been complaints with substance and validity in the past, against Autism Speaks, if no one paid any attention to what the organization is actually doing in it's advocacy efforts for autism through research, not many would likely even be aware that efforts like this are being undertaken, by any autism advocacy organization.

Maybe it deserves a thread of it's own.

im not sure how the quote of me relates to its response.i was being sarcastic by sugesting one could read war and peace before one could read this entire thread.my post was joke

If one does an exact phrase search with google on the phrase:

"Autism Speaks, the world's largest autism science and advocacy organization"

It results in 126,000 sources that report that "Autism Speaks is the world's largest autism science and advocacy organization."

That fact is not in dispute among reputable sources.

I used Wiki, because you have used it many times in this thread to support your opinions, and felt you would be comfortable with the reputability of Wiki as a source.

I can provide some of the other 126,000 sources, like Time Magazine, if you like.

And no, I'm not an editor for Wiki and there is no evidence that I have been able to find that anyone from autism speaks contributed to that Wiki article.

Everything in it is third party sourced, and verifiable per the references provided in the article.

Autism Speaks supporter, though and through.

fixed

Not really, as I said several times, I don't provide the organization any financial support, and would instead financially support my local autism advocacy organization, because they don't have the same advantages in gaining resources.

I have never suggested that anyone should financially support the organization. People that visit this sites contribution in providing criticisms and suggestions to the organization, is probably more valuable to the organization's success.

However, I do find scientific research interesting, and support that effort. The organization is at the top of the game, in what they are doing for autism advocacy efforts through scientific research, per the evidence I provided.

It is not likely that anyone of any reputability, that actually understands and does research associated with Autism, would dispute that fact.

The organization isn't asking anyone to provide free advertisement for it, but the over 11,000 views of this one thread, are accomplishing that goal, regardless of anyone's like or dislike for the organization.

That was the Topic Op-Ed's main objection to bashing autism speaks. It resonates loudly.

What you don't actually do is what you have done, which is call Autism Speaks an advocacy organisation, when in fact it has done more to silence autistics than any other group out there, whether it be indirectly or directly, by dominating the airwaves or threadspace, even now, with constantly irrelevant arguments.

Last edited by Gedrene on 01 Jan 2012, 2:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

What gave you the right to change what someone has said and not provide a single shred of evidence?

Autism speaks is the world's largest autism science and advocacy organization. That fact is indisputable, it is measured by the actual results the organization produces, verifiable by independent charitable organization review, and reinforced by over 100,000 sources on the internet.

The fact is some don't agree with their advocacy efforts, but the actual voices that have expressed a negative opinion range in at most the thousands, where those that participate in the actual autism advocacy efforts of the organization measure at 340,000 individuals that are documented, and many more that aren't documented.

Now the organization is taking the research effort to statistically measure actual number of autistic individuals in the entire US general population as opposed to the limited efforts that have been provided by the government so far, with third graders out of education programs for the developmentally disabled.

This autism research advocacy effort has the potential of providing thousands of additional individuals an opportunity to understand what autism is, the ability to gain a diagnosis, and have a voice to express their unique concerns about their experiences of autism in their life.

There is very little evidence that Autism Speaks has actually silenced any autistics. The only report was the NTspeaks website, which is questionable, a report at one conference, and reports of moderation of comments on websites, many of which are unverifiable.

Criticism of autism speaks, exists on the autism speaks related website support pages by individuals that don't like their advocacy efforts. The evidence that is available clearly shows that the organization allows those critical viewpoints to be expressed on their support sites on the internet.

Over-all there are more reports of self-advocacy organizations censoring the view of autistic individuals, that can be verified, and have already been discussed on threads related to this topic.

Threadspace is unlimited on the internet. There is nothing stopping anyone from expressing their views and opinions on the internet, except for private websites that limit individuals views and opinions, based on what those private websites allow as acceptable opinion.

And, there is nothing stopping anyone from voicing their opinions on the airwaves, if they make the successful effort that is required to raise enough money to pay for it, or through media sources that believe the opinions are valuable enough to merit report.

It's an autism cure organisation. It's a parent dominated association that has little to do with actual autistics, sidelining independent figures and trumping up sock puppets.

And this sort of gross grandstanding about autism speak's size is nothing more than self-congratulatory and irrelevant


Autism speaks wants to cure autism in all its forms, not advocate autism in any form at all. Usually through the use of manipulation


So a fallacy from numbers, and irrelevant allusions to size.

Because you say so. You discredit said evidence by saying it is questionable and unverifiable. Not only is that fully inaccurate, but you're downplaying how much actually goes on as usual.

If that's true why is it that autism speaks has done so much to domninate the airwaves, and why is it that they just happen to get rid of any critical content?