Do you still believe in the Autistic Community & Culture
When I first discovered the autistic community and culture, back in the late 1990's, I had high hopes for its future.
I envisioned a reality in which millions of autistics from around the world are participating in autistic culture events around the world.
For example:
I envisioned national autistic self-advocacy groups who have hundreds of members in each of their local chapters.
I envisioned autistic musicians forming bands together and going on tours together.
I envisioned autistic painters opening galleries together and doing group exhibitions together.
I envisioned international autistic gatherings, such as Autreat & Autscape, being attended by hundreds of participants.
I envisioned local autistic groups, with dozens of participants, holding events together.
I envisioned Autistic Pride Day events all over the world being attended by hundreds of participants.
Etc.
Nowadays, I am becoming a bit skeptical about this.
WP only had 2,000 members when I joined it, and nowadays it has 43,000 members, but it seems the discussions are revolving around the same subjects again and again, year after year.
I was expecting WP to serve as an excellent platform for planning various offline activities, but when we did the European WP gathering, in 2009, we only managed to bring in 8 participants...
Nowadays, I am frequenting WP less and less, because I can't find here enough discussions which actually promote the advancement of Autistic Culture in real life.
How about you? Are you still optimistic about the future of the Autistic Community & Culture?
Do you think the hopes I have listed above will soon become realities?
Or are you also starting to share my skepticism about the future of the Autistic Community and Culture?
_________________
AUsome Conference -- Autistic-run conference in Ireland
https://konfidentkidz.ie/seo/autism-tra ... onference/
AUTSCAPE -- Autistic-run conference and retreat in the UK
http://www.autscape.org/
leejosepho
Veteran
Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,011
Location: 200 miles south of Little Rock
In principle, and from "Alcoholics Anonymous", the book:
"The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us. But that in itself would never have held us together as we are now joined.
"The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution [for our troubles] ..."
At present, there is just not enough bringing people together to cause and to hold or sustain the required "together".
_________________
I began looking for someone like me when I was five ...
My search ended at 59 ... right here on WrongPlanet.
==================================
No, because I never believed in it. I no longer have any desire to be part of any real-life community, autistic or otherwise. I've tried belonging to such communities and it is far too taxing. WP as it is now is community enough for me. I came here to learn more about autism and interactions between people, and answer other people's questions when I can. The fact that it's all online and doesn't include events I have to go to or people I have to interact with is one of its greatest advantages.
1) Ken is someone I greatly admire and it makes me sad to see him disheartened.
2) I think Wrong Planet best serves people who are new to the online autism community.
3) The communicative difficulties of people with autism make organizing and socializing especially challenging for us.
4) The emotionally charged nature of issues relating to autism makes conversation exhausting and causes people who become leaders to burn out quickly.
5) Our tendency toward rigid thinking makes us especially prone to feuds, flame wars, and fragmentation.
6) Although these obstacles are daunting, we can and will continue to make progress.
Mindslave
Veteran
Joined: 14 Nov 2010
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,034
Location: Where the wild things wish they were
The idea of a community and a culture has never appealed to me. I prefer to do my own thing, instead of trying to fit in with others. It's a lot easier to be me when I'm not expected to fit in with anything or anyone. As for a community, there is one every month 20 minutes from where I live. It pisses me off every time I go, because I generally don't like group gatherings, even with people on the spectrum.
I admire your vision, although I am more of mutual acceptance then of an US and THEM point-of-view.
I am currently working in my own country on setting up an initiatives along with some healthcare proffesionals, although my take on this is mutual acceptance in general (neurodiversity).
Cheerfully,
Wallourdes
_________________
"It all start with Hoborg, a being who had to create, because... he had to. He make the world full of beauty and wonder. This world, the Neverhood, a world where he could live forever and ever more!"
i never believed in it either. i don't think i find autistic people any better to hang around with and if you are exclusively doing so then you limit your options so much.
I can see that it'd have a purpose to raise awareness amongst non autsistics and support each other but equally that need not be something autistic. I don't feel that autistics are a characteristically similar enough group to be held together by that alone
leejosepho
Veteran
Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,011
Location: 200 miles south of Little Rock
That would be true of any group of people. Hence, there must be a common cause and commitment of purpose beyond self-interest.
_________________
I began looking for someone like me when I was five ...
My search ended at 59 ... right here on WrongPlanet.
==================================
I think autistic communities are suffering the same weird collapse and corruption that is happening to the larger communities we are only a part of.
People are getting cruel and mean and this behavior is rewarded. Other people get scared of being around them and hide. This encourages the mean people. Lots of complex social dynamics.
I've meant to write something about this for awhile but today is not the time. Too tired.
But I think overall the important thing is that in order to handle the mess things are turning into in lots of places real community is needed. Not hiding away among only our own kind in little single issue communities. But building connections between all kinds of people. The kinds of connections that ensure survival in hard times regardless of if people are similar or even like each other. (But there's a difference between decent people disliking each other yet connecting for a higher purpose, and on the other hand accepting the cruel people who poison communities.)
More to write but my brain is not organized enough.
_________________
"In my world it's a place of patterns and feel. In my world it's a haven for what is real. It's my world, nobody can steal it, but people like me, we live in the shadows." -Donna Williams
'Autistic culture'?? I don't know what that means.
I don't know how cohesive a 'community' you can ever expect from a type of brain that is defined by having poor skills at social interaction and who usually tend to avoid it.
LOL, you'll outgrow that in time. There is no acceptance from THEM.
_________________
"Strange, inaccessible worlds exist at our very elbows"
- Howard Phillips Lovecraft
LOL, you'll outgrow that in time. There is no acceptance from THEM.
On what are you basing this?
_________________
"It all start with Hoborg, a being who had to create, because... he had to. He make the world full of beauty and wonder. This world, the Neverhood, a world where he could live forever and ever more!"
I think WP is a decent resource for certain things. I interface with some elements of the 'autistic community' through it, but it is for the most part a fragmented relationship with a fragmented community. There is no one 'autism culture'. And that's not a bad thing, just how it is.
Autistic people are communicating and forming relationships. At least, I am. I see that others are, though it might not always be hugely visible.
I'd say, keep trying to make what you envisage happen, but don't get upset when your desires are not entirely in harmony with reality.
_________________
Not currently a moderator
LOL, you'll outgrow that in time. There is no acceptance from THEM.
I'm slowly growing into a better acceptance of 'them', and their better acceptance of 'me'.
_________________
Not currently a moderator
Similar Topics | |
---|---|
A Forest in the crosshairs of the culture wars |
29 Dec 2023, 3:13 pm |
dishonest capitalist culture is inherently abelist |
06 Mar 2024, 6:08 am |
Does the community approve of self-diagnosis? |
02 Mar 2024, 6:58 pm |
New to This Website and Joining an Online Community |
20 Mar 2024, 7:47 am |