Chris Packham - being called disabled is “abominable insult”

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As you said earlier the understandable anger may have caused him to say something he did not believe or it could have been the anger made his true feelings come out. What is needed is an unconditional apology plus a statement showing his understanding how bad what he said is. As of this writing it this has not happened. If it does not I will assume he stands by what he wrote and judge him accordingly.

WHAT A STRANGE DISCUSSION!

Why are you going to war over this statement? There are different forms of Autism; they call it a spectrum. There are LFA, MFA and HFA. Most LFAs and MFAs find it almost impossible to function within society. So from that perspective they should be considered disabled. But there are very few LFAs and MFAs. Most individuals on the spectrum are HFAs. Many HFAs have made the transition and function within society. They use their great strengths to compensate for their great weaknesses.

For that reason I prefer not to use the AS label, after all it is just a label, but rather consistently use the Aspie label. I consider myself different than an NT. My brain is wired differently. I would never accept a disability label.

Almost sixty years ago when I was in Junior High, I experienced extreme physical and psychological abuse from my peer group. This normally is referred to as bullying but that label falls far short of what it really is. I was called every name in the book, such as stupid, an idiot, a klutz, an imbecile. So if I rejected those labels then, I sure am not going to accept them today.

So the most important element in this discussion is "What is the secret sauce?"

Why does Chris Parkham reject the label called disabled! Because if you can figure that one out. How his life experiences are different than yours, then you will begin to understand in an actionable way how to transition up the AS spectrum. If you feel that your uniqueness is too difficult to bear, then you should be the first in line to get some of his secret sauce.

If the premise is that autism is on a spectrum; then how do autistics move up the spectrum? How can you go from an LFA to MFA to HFA to someone who can function well in society? Some people have made this transition, for example Temple Grandin, so it can be done. "What is the secret sauce?" How do you unlock your potential?

Last edited by jimmy m on 05 Aug 2019, 10:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

I agree. It's better to seek the "special sauce" rather than let "insult" ruin your life.

I'm with you.

I never even heard of this guy before, but I'd rather be called disabled than "selfish", "lazy", "immature", and a few other less printable words. Disabled is not a bad word.

Once again I am not complaining about his view of Autism or his Autism as not a disability. It is his statement that being called disabled is an abominable insult. That not only suggests ableism it suggests a loathing for the disabled. That has nothing to do with Autism as a disability or a special sauce or both. Anything else is a deflection from what he wrote which is in the title of the this thread. There are endless threads discussing if autism is a disability that can be necrobumped.

I have seen that attitude a lot online about somehow having AS makes them special and superior.


I haven't seen Packham act that way about his diagnoses. Even his Twitter page doesn't have it in his bio. Plus he doesn't even talk about autism on his page.

I hate it when anyone paints autism with the same brush. If they don't think it's a disability, why even claim that diagnoses and even mention it? It makes zero sense.

I once read in a article by an autistic man that "autism is just a fancy label for how your brain works different..." and other stuff he said I forget he said but it came off to me as he isn't truly autistic then if that is how he feels about himself. Autism is an impairment, not a quirk or being a nerd or a geek.

I also think denying it's a disability is also some strong denial there. I also read by Packham how socializing is very hard for him. He is in denial then if he says it's not a disability.

Anyone who claims autism isn't a disability but then they talk about how exhausting masking is and stuff and how exhausting interacting with people is, I think "denial." They are lying to themselves.

I am pretty sure there are autistic people out there who feel they are "normal" and have nothing wrong with them and it's the world that is the problem and how society operates and they got this fancy label for their functioning. Actually there are autistic people out there that feel this way and they are the ones to say it is a different way of thinking and feeling and processing things. But if this is the case, they wouldn't truly be autistic then and that is according to The Difficult Child and The Challenging Child and Back to Normal books. I do believe some people get diagnosed because they are between normal and different. Too different to be normal but too normal to have a disorder. I think it depends on their environment and situation they are in. Culture has something to do with it too. A diagnoses is to help them in life like giving them the ability to get accommodations for their brain wiring so they can do their work because they could use their autism diagnoses because of the law. They can also use it in school to so they can get through college or use it for employment and all and use it for disability benefits.

But we must not paint autism with the same brush and act like autism is just being a nerd and different and different way of thinking and processing things, etc.

Results

https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/6/e024265

Very poor choice of words by Packham, although I have some sympathy for him given the ableist attack on him that precipitated his response. Internalised ableism is a powerful thing. This should be an opportunity for learning and growth rather than condemnation alone.

Just want to touch on the "why get a diagnosis if you don't consider it a disability" theme here...

My reason was so that I could be sure about a certain type of brain function that may be different from the majority of the people and to hopefully get support that helps me thrive.
I don't yet consider it a disability and I believe a diagnosis will help in the following aspects of life:
- Dr. asks me if pain somewhere below my skin is sharp or dull and I look at him/her with a blank stare because I don't have any idea how to apply those adjectives to something inside my body and they get frustrated and think my issue is psychosomatic. This has led to missing diagnosis on broken ankle, thoracic outlet syndrome among other things. I don't consider myself disabled because I'm unable to apply adjectives that don't make any sense. The pain inside doesn't feel like a sharp thing sticking into it nor does it feel like a hammer pressing hard against it. It's a different pain and I'm not wrong about that.
- When I'm at work I'm concentrating deeply on building systems that will work on a global scale and people coming by every 15 minutes interrupting my concentration which forces me to take on my work at home so that it's peaceful and quiet is not a disability. It's called getting the work done, and work that they are incapable of doing themselves. To get that space I need a diagnosis so that I can have a closed door and produce the work that I was hired to do. They never have an emergency, they can send me an email like I've asked 1000 times and wait for my response or they set up a meeting with an agenda with at least 24 hours preparation time.
- In my relationship with my wife, when I'm away and my wife tells me that she "misses me" I have to then grapple with the reality that my leaving for whatever reason has made her sad and to avoid her having sad emotions I must stay home and be available for her always. The diagnosis helps her understand how literally I take her words and that if there's a solution to her sadness, like coming home early from a 4 day motorcycle adventure that I need to clear my mind, that I have to fight feelings of selfishness for the remainder of the trip or cut it short and not take what I need in order to hopefully eliminate her sadness. She may only be saying she "misses" me out of words of adoration and isn't actually sad that I'm away, but I interpret "I miss you" as a negative emotion that I have the power to fix and therefore I should fix it out of love.
- Not wanting to be around people the majority of the time is not a disability. The majority of people have several interests, haven't mastered anything and I don't have much in common with them so we don't have a whole lot of common ground. They find me annoying and I find them boring. This is okay and not a disability.

I really don't consider the above asks of society to be due to a disability but just a different way of thinking and I can't help but personally believe humanity would be better off if we didn't have so many words with multiple meanings or if people could take the time to use a more literally correct word. Could you imagine how poorly math would work if the number 4 could mean either 4 or 7 units? It all falls apart, and really so does language. Take the word "disability" for instance...

I think an apology is unlikely and to be clear I get your response to this.

If you are in the public eye as an autistic person it comes with the ability to bias perception about ASD, I guess, like it or not that comes with responsibilities. His primary concern is animal welfare, all else seems to be secondary.

Being called disabled doesnt bother me, i just laugh at it. However if someone calls my son disabled i do get offended. My son is far more capable in life than nearly every other kid ive met his age.
As for packham, that man is vile! Hes an outright liar and only concerned with wildlife and conservation if it gets him publicity and money.
I was shocked, with his recent "wild justice" stunt, not only at his complete disregard for rural communities and wildlife, but i was also shocked at some of the backlash. While i stand firmly with the hunting community, a few decided his idiocy was due to him being on the spectrum and made disgusting comments about it.

The "captive reared pheasants and partridges" that are mentioned, how well are they looked after? I'm all for shooting birds for food if they have the same freedom and great life as wild birds, not the monstrous way the farmers for supermarkets rear them.

I have worked with several keepers over the years at large estates, the pheasants were kept in perfect conditions. Although i know this isnt true for all estates. And i do believe animal welfare is paramount, with new legislation that was brought in last year, that is improving luckily, in many different "sectors" of animal breeding.
My reference to him and wild justice was the campaign against the general licenses.
Not only was it unnecessary but also timed perfectly for maximum damage, not to shooters. But to farmers and genuine conservationists and the animals.
They halted corvid control during a time when lambing was happening, corvids do massive damage to lambs and also ewes who are in labour. I have seen the damage myself and this has set every farmer firmly against the man and everything he stands for. Then there was the fact it was also during the period when many birds have eggs. Many ground nesting birds that are especially vulnerable had their nests predated on by corvids during this period where they couldnt be shot or trapped. The damage of this campaign was not only financial for farmers but also caused massive suffering of livestock and a lot of emotional suffering for the farmers (i didnt even mention the damage to crops from woodpigeon/corvids that couldnt be shot.) The damage on ground nesting birds (and many songbirds for that matter) hasnt been established yet, but from what i have seen through my contacts on moors and in the dales it has been substantial.
If he was truly about conservation and understood the nature of what was happening, why on earth did he not act during the early winter where far less damage would have been done and the outcome would have been the same.
Then he goes on TV and states because we dont know how many people are shooting corvids we could be causing a risk by shooting them, we dont know the shooters impact on conservation is what he claimed. Yet we have a fair idea, corvid populations have increase constantly since the 1960's. and thats despite a growing number of shooters. The impact on conservation can be seen by looking at managed estates where corvids have always been kept to a lower, sustainable level. On those estates, songbirds and groundnesting birds are massively more abundant than elsewhere. plovers and lapwings are 5 times more abundant on managed moors than other moors. He ignores the facts and just declares people shooting crows are just doing so as wanton vandalism who just enjoy killing!
He downplayed the damage to nesting songbirds as just a small amount of time and that it was the natural order of things. Yet hes ignoring the fact that songbirds are at low levels already for many many reasons, adding increased predation by corvids is only going to make the situation worse!

Sorry, ill cut myself short there, i could rant on this topic all day. The man infuriates me!

Unfortunatly not surprised by what he said, there was a TV documentry on him here in the UK few months back.

It was not only about himself and his life, but was typical aspie led ND propaganda, steve silverman ex wired man, had his say, commenting "autism should never be cured", presumerbly he's referring to the non verbal 22 year old i know of with a mental age of a toddler, who can look forward to lots of pain and an early death? but who cares about inconvienient truths, when theres a book to sell, people to use and money to be made eh!

His comments are an insult to disabled people everywhere, but again who cares when from his point of view its all about people like him.

Would love to see where he would have ended up was it not for his tv job.