Speaking and Listening - My Stance on Autism Speaks

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idk think what you want. all hell will break loose when a pre natal test or a cure is developed.

Autism Speaks recently released this article about their involvement with China...

http://blog.autismspeaks.org/2011/11/08 ... rom-china/


Here's the thing...

Autism Speaks is not an "it." Autism Speaks is a "they."

You can say that you hate America because of the treatment of homosexuals, native Americans, and African Americans that was allowed and condoned. If America was an "it" you could easily assert that our country is terrible, evil and unjust. However, America is not an "it." America is a "they." America has changed because of the individual Americans within this country who fought for civil rights.

Are there some corrupt individuals within Autism Speaks? Probably. Are there some good apples? Sure. Are there some corrupt good apples? Of course.

Autism Speaks is changing because individuals within it are pushing for change. Some Muslim extremists call America "the Great Satan." Some autistic extremists call Autism Speaks "evil Nazis." Nazism is a tragic philosophy. Ideas have consequences. But you can't allow the shadow of Nazism to determine your opinion of entire country of Germany and every individual citizen within it.

Likewise, the "cure" movement was misguided. It was a well-intentioned goal based on limited medical knowledge. A blanket cure is no longer the goal, because Autism Speaks has to face scientific facts. The mistakes of the past must be remembered but we can't allow them to become roadblocks to our own progress.

As Robison said, Autism Speaks was founded by grandparents - frightened grandparents who opinion of autism was shaped by their severly autistic son. There is now fresh blood in the organization, and it is up to us to add fresh autistic blood.

The truth is that Autism Speaks, like America, is not one single unit. Autism Speaks is a group of individuals. Are all Americans bad because some Americans owned slaves in the past? Of course not.

The "Autism Speaks is evil" view is a result of that classic, black and white thinking, forrest/trees problem that we autistics sometimes have.

"It" isn't evil. "They" are a mixed bag. They do some wonderful things, and they've made some terrible mistakes.

Now is the time to get involved and keep pushing for change. Be an activist, not a terrorist.

Edit for Gedrene:

I'm not suggesting that anyone in particular is a terrorist. However, there are, indeed, many extremists of the online terrorist variety, who do everything they can to incite riots and flame wars without achieving anything productive. After the interview was published, I received pms stating that, "The blood of grandparents would have to be shed for the Autism Nazis to stop." This is terrorism, plain and simple.

I'm saying that your overall opinion of Autism Speaks should not influence your opinion of individuals within it, just like your overall opinion of America or Germany should not influence your opinion of every individual citizen.

A corrupt good apple is a well-intentioned person led astray. People are not exclusively good or bad. It isn't that simple. Everyone has their reasons. "The road to hell is paved with corrupt, good apples." This isn't doublespeak. Suggesting that something is both black and white is not a contradiction. What is gray?

Last edited by Tambourine-Man on 10 Nov 2011, 1:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Autism Speaks is an It. A Corporation. They have a Charter, ByLaws, a Command Structure, and under Citizens United, Personhood.

They are a Marketing Company that takes Charity Donations.

Their main goal is to raise as much as they can off of that Autism.

Everything else is PR and Spin. It was a Marketing Epidemic.

No actual Autistics were helped in the making of this Billion.

they spent plenty on eugenics. which would lead me to think misled or evil would be a better fit.

I would have to diagree with you here, but that is only because I have developed personal relationships with some of their employees. I've seen how autism has impacted their lives. I've chatted with them about movies, politics and life. I've heard their stories of growing up with autistic siblings or raising autistic children. I've seen their hope and I've seen their disappointment. I've seen the way they love their autistic family members, and I've seen the way they have treated me as a person and an equal.

I don't expect you to take my word for it, and I'm sure many people will think I have been duped. If so, then these individuals are VERY good at faking emotions, lying about their backgrounds, and providing photo and video evidence.

I can't speak for all of them, but I've been pretty impressed with how, well, human the ones that I do know are. Like any humans, they make mistakes. But I've seen them laugh and I've seen them tear up. I've joked with them, eaten with them, argued with them, etc...

I too once thought of Autism Speaks as a corporate juggernaut of death and greed. Then I met some of their employees.

You may not believe me, but can you really form an opinion if you haven't met them yourself?

When you read the words "Autism Speaks" you think of a greedy, corporate PR machine. I used to think that way. Now I think of my friends Marc, Peter, Dana and Ali. I think of the photos they've shown me, the stories they've told me - I think of how autism has impacted their lives. I think of the disagreements they've had with each other. They are individuals. They are human beings. They are a part of Autism Speaks.

If you must judge "it," don't judge "them." You don't know them.

It is called Public Relations, and they hire the best. Of course it takes a well rehearsed script to bring in the big donations, connect with people at a human level, win them over, you were worked by pros. More than that you were team worked, each reaction studied, and used by the next player.

Marketing and Public Relations are arts.

You are new to autism, a recent Dx, likely lived an isolated life, disconnected, had some tragic events during your formative years, and you want friends, you want to feel connected, you want to be part of something.

The Amazing Kreskin the Mind Reader has nothing on Marketing and Public Relations, you were typed, sized up, and a package developed for the sale.

It is two prong, one is play the customer to feel a bond, the other is distract away from questions about the product. Their whole job is sales, you bought.

I do not know them, just many others in the field. I judge based on Performance. Their Research is Vaporware, nothing solid came out of development, they did get their monies worth out of Marketing and Public Relations. Science is such a failure, they can not produce when there is nothing there. Marketing and Public Relations do not need a product, they sell donations.

Make them feel good about us, about giving us money, and leave them wanting to do it again. I bet you get Christmas Cards. I bet your calls and emails get a rapid response. They ask permission to make a change in an article.

I judge them all based on the impact I have seen on the autistic community, which is nothing good, and they are fairly universally hated, reviled, and just bringing them up causes bad feelings.

You are repping for a group that is about as popular as Little Bush coming back for a third term. The more you mention them, the less popular you become. In fact, defending bombing Iraq, killing 100,000, losing 5,000, many more serious wounds, the National Treasury, borrowing from China, not finding WMD, might be easier.

A Writer is judged by writing style, no doubt, you have that, and as a source of ideas and information. Your credibility is now equal to an Autism Speaks Press Release. You had something, and now you have an AS brand on your butt.

Your posts here have not been about autism, they have all been the Spokesman from Autism Speaks. It is a Public Image that you built, and it has come to define you.

There is some real humanity around here, 58,067 members, many more as guests, young children to over eighty. They have lived, learned, survived, and always struggled to keep going. They could all go to Autism Speaks if they wanted to. It is not like we never heard of it.

I would say inventor is right. Look at the programs not the pr. Never trust pr. They recently gave genetics to china and did hacking autism. Hacking autism was badly named but I can agree with it. They also f****d themselves over by manipulating autistics. So you can see what they have done in the past and present. The only choice is to see it as a trail of mistakes or a purposeful evil history

Incorrect. The USA is an it. Americans are they. I can say that the USA's treatment of homosexuals is atrocious, but as for Americans I would divide between some of this kind and some of the other kind.

Some corrupt good apples? Doubespeak methinks.


Because you say so.

Association fallacy. False attempt to create a faction of autistic extremeists. Black and white thinking.

No one was?

That's an absolutely disgusting suggestion, saying that our well-intentioned scepticism may somehow amount to Terrorism in some fashion.

I'm not suggesting that you are a terrorist by any means. Not at all. Please do not think that comment was directed at your skepticism. I'm a skeptic myself.

However, there are, indeed, many extremists of the online terrorist variety, who do everything they can to incite riots and flame wars without achieving anything productive. After the interview was published, I received pms stating that, "The blood of grandparents would have to be shed for the Autism Nazis to stop." This is terrorism, plain and simple.

Autism Speaks, is, in this sense, both an it and a they. I agree with you. The organization is an it. I was merely suggesting that Autism Speaks is more than an it. "They" are people I know and care about - Marc, Dana, Peter, etc...

I'm saying that your overall opinion of Autism Speaks should not influence your opinion of individuals within it, just like your overall opinion of America or Germany should not influence your opinion of every individual citizen.

A corrupt good apple is a well-intentioned person led astray. People are not exclusively good or bad. It isn't that simple. Everyone has their reasons. "The road to hell is paved with corrupt, good apples." This isn't doublespeak. Suggesting that something is both black and white is not a contradiction. What is gray?


Gedrene, please don't break down every sentence of my posts and take them at face value. When you do this, you miss the overall point. Collectively, the sentences in that post were meant to suggest that it is silly to assume every individual member of Autism Speaks is evil. Separately, those sentences will not make much sense.

Also, please don't assume everything I say is directed at you. I've seen a great deal of evidence of online terrorism. That doesn't mean I believe all self-advocates are terrorists or that I believe you are a terrorist. It mean that I do not think violent language in public forums is activism. I think it is terrorism. Do you use violent language? Do you talk about the blood of grandmothers? No you don't. So why would you assume that comment was directed at you?

There are many people who frequent these forums. They are not private discussions. I will refer to many different beliefs, opinions, and behaviors in my post. Some may apply to you, some may not. You have a tendency to take statements of mine, in no way directed at you, and interpret them as personal attacks. You also have a tendency to refuse the validity of my explanations that I did not intend the statement for you.

If you can't understand that I make references to multiple real and hypothetical individuals and groups within my public posts, please pm so that we may keep our discussions direct.

As a whole, Autism Speaks is an it. Individual members of Autism Speaks are they. While individual members/they can hold differing opinions & ideas, Autism Speaks as a whole/it puts forth one idea that represents the members/they who make it up.

One important thing is, what message does Autism Speaks as a whole/it present to the world?

The other important thing is, how many Autistic people are a part of Autism Speaks? It's one thing to want to help people on the spectrum, but it's another to exclude them from being an active part of whatever solutions are being proposed.

Yes, you can help us, but don't ignore us and what we have to say!

No you aren't. Your actions have triumphantly put Autism Speaks on a pedestal as soon as you thought about it. You have never presented a moderate view of scepticism towards autism speaks at all. It's either they're accusing Autism Speaks of being nazis this or they are tryng to drag us all to the ground that.
It has been a constant trumpeting up of face value things whilst a complete silence when it comes to the innards of the organisation although of course there is much bter about what is happening.


Really? This is news to me, mostly because all I ever see from autism speaks members are threee things:
1) Homeopathic treatment nonsense.
2) It was the vaccines
and last but not least
3) I thought about muder-suicide of myself and my child.
If I could ever see anything of course.

Really now? You have said a lot of questionable things about other people that leads me to believe that intent is involved. You talk about people being terrorists. That is an appeal to emotion so shallow that it should make anyone spring up with suspicion.
Furthermore it's an outright insult because it counterdicts the evidence you see from people on here being quite justifiable and respectable but you never put in a good word for them on a constant, unending basis. The only reason why I show up on the radar I am sure is because I make sure to interrogate every person on here with unending glee.

That so? Send them to me. I have heard you give a lot of evidence about what is happening to you but your pms say that apparently the 'link is too complex' or somesuch hilarious excuse when you are pressed.

No, that's still a bad apple.

Tambourine-Man, don't criticize my inductive reasoning and reductionism by trying to somehow suggest that I look at all of the comments made in some sort of barrier without referencing any other part of the conversation. It sounds like you are afraid of criticism really if you cannot take this most basic of analytical methods.

Analysis is based on analysing points that come together in to a whole afterwards. So do my posts. Don't make some blind assumption, and more over don't presume that you can make some false analogy between not looking at the big picture and breaking down your points.

Not true. What you were doing is word play. You were trying to fracture criticism of the organisation by not dealing with it as a hole, an argument that should invite much suspicion as the fact is that the organisation acts as a whole in its actions.


HAHAHA!

Our doesn't mean my. I certainly was not just refering to myself, yet given previous comments made by yourself in the text the fact is that you were

And it is by this quote that you suggest that people who do not tow the line of Autism Speaks are terrorists. So much for being a sceptic.

What is being defended by calling those opposed terrorists?

Responsibility for past actions can be removed by a new hire?

Bernie Madoff could have beat the rap by hiring a cute twentysomething receptionist? If she was not guilty, the whole company is not guilty?

Planting an agent who calls for illegal acts is a standard practice.

Planting an agent that disrupts the group, changes the story, even the meaning of words, is a standard pratice.

So who is the Hired Lobbyist? Why is disagreement compared to Terrorism, Slavery, one of Europe's endless string of wars, and The Indian Removal Act of 1845.

Questions about what has been done with all the money, why nothing has been developed that any autistic could use, have gone from being ignored, to only being accepted from Qualified Civil Activists who will take their orders from Autism Speaks.

Q. Where did the money go?
A. Calling us Nazis is Terrorism.

Q. What has been developed that the autistic could use.
A. Slavery ended because of us.

Q. What are your future plans, what about Education, Job Training, and Employment?
A. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo helped Mexico reach a governable size, Janet in Marketing has a new puppy that waits for her to come home, and loves her, why don't you act like her puppy.

Q. Since no Genetic link to Autism has been shown, and it seems it will be with us for the future, how have you changed your program to intergration and support of future Autistics?
A. China is your friend, the highest Government officials have shown full support for putting their top Scientists to work on the American DNA Database. They welcomed us, we ate and talked with some really great people who understand that we are just trying to help people.

Q. What is your vision of the future.
A. That the only voice of autism will be the one we Trademarked.

Q. What programs are now developing?
A. We are hiring bright young people to be Leaders of the Autistic Community, and be Marketed as the Only Leaders, who will sign the Autism Removal and Reservation Agreement. We can best help those people, once they are gathered and confined on our ranch in North Dakota, Tents will be provide.

Q. How will this work?
A. First, there will be no internet, which blocks them from further acts of Domestic Terrorism, such as objecting to Corporations doing the right thing. Removing these disidents will bring a New World Order to America, where keeping with HomeLand Security, and the Courts Citizens United ruing, no one will be allowed to hurt a Corporation's Personhood's feelings on the Internet.

Q. Is there anything else you would like to say?
A. We have a bold vision of a better world, where happy Corporations are finally free of excessive burdens placed on them by obviously mentally deranged thinking. We envision an America Cured of the wastes of independant thought.

Q. May I leave now?
A. Security, escort this doubter out of the building, into the back alley, and give him the "Gift Basket."

Reading Inventor's posts is a crash course in how analogy, allegory and inference are things we can excel at.

T man is not a planted agent or autism speaks and i dont see him as a defender of them.earlier today he was against the i am autism video and i said it didnt bother me.T man is not anywhere near a autism speaks defender and niether am i

There's a diconnect between one's actions and words that means we must judge what they do against what they say.

I think that the main problem is not that we are a disease like Autism Speaks would have us believe but the main problem is the tremendous amount of discrimination that autistics face.