AutisticManager

AutisticManager, 1 month ago

Over the years, researchers and therapists have come up with ways of “supporting” autistic people, i.e. helping them be “normal.” The gold standard for this at the moment is what’s called Applied Behavior Analysis. Fun fact: if you Google it, Autism Speaks is the first result.

Applied Behavior Analysis involves identifying “problem behaviors” and attempting to replace them with socially acceptable alternatives. These problem behaviors often come in the form of a list from the family. Autistic children are rewarded for “good behavior” and negative behavior is met with consequences. If this sounds a lot like animal training to you, you’re not wrong! This “therapy” is billed as helping to support autistic children navigate a NT world. But in reality, all it does is train autistic people to fight against the way that their brains work for fear of punishment. It instills the idea that the NT way of thinking is the correct way and that anything else is bad. /2

AutisticManager, 1 month ago

Another fun fact: the person who came up with ABA was also behind the idea of Gay Conversion Therapy. /3

https://nsadvocate.org/2018/07/11/treating-autism-as-a-problem-the-connection-between-gay-conversion-therapy-and-aba/

AutisticManager, 1 month ago

You probably think that they wouldn’t use electroshock “therapy” to try to achieve their goal of “supporting” autistic children, but you’d be wrong. Even today in a fairly progressive state like my own Massachusetts, electroshock is still allowed to be used as a potential consequence against behavior. As such, ABA has caused long-lasting trauma in the children who have been forced to undergo it. There are autistic people well into their adulthood that are still dealing with trauma. It’s not the exception, it’s the rule.

Groups like Autism Speaks are big advocates for ABA and have no interest in hearing about the experiences of the
#ActuallyAutistic people who have gone through it. In fact, they regularly harass autistic adults when they try to speak up against what the group thinks is best. /4

https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2023-09-11/electric-shock-therapy-is-still-allowed-in-one-mass-treatment-facility-advocates-say-change-is-long-overdue

AutisticManager, 1 month ago

They try to discredit autistic adults by using stereotypes. They tell us that we can’t be autistic because we’re adults. Or that we can’t be autistic because we’re so “well-behaved”. Or that we can’t be autistic because we have jobs. Or friends. They are so convinced that their understanding of autism is right that they can’t be wrong.

It’s not dissimilar to the distinction between “not being a racist” and “not doing racist things.” I think that parents are so concerned that they’ll be seen as “an ableist” that they ignore the ableist things that they are doing. It’s a dangerous pattern. ABA isn’t the only terrible idea coming out of autism research, however. /5

AutisticManager, 1 month ago

A lot of the fundraising that goes on during “Autism Awareness Month” goes towards finding a “cure” for autism. This is despite the fact that the vast majority of the autistic community does not want to be “cured” and actually takes offense to the idea that NT people want to change our brains to work like theirs instead of understanding how our brains work and being compassionate.

And the worst of all, by far, of the research that’s going on is around “preventing” autism. Let’s not beat around the bush here. We’re talking about eugenics. Some of this research is around detecting what causes autism and trying to intervene before birth, and some of it is around detecting whether an unborn child will be autistic so that the parents can terminate the pregnancy.

Groups like Autism Speaks have made autism sound so horrible that some parents would rather not have a child than have an autistic child. /6

AutisticManager, 1 month ago

They make autism sound so horrible that some parents would rather their child die of a preventable disease than risk developing autism. (Note: Vaccines don’t cause autism, nor is autism something you can develop — it’s congenital. This is a harmful conspiracy theory.)

So seeing groups that are so afraid of you and the way that your brain works that they think you would have been better off not being born spend a month talking about “supporting” autistic people and begging for money is just soul-crushing.

What makes it worse is that it’s so hard for people to know what groups are actually supporting autistic people and which groups are hate groups. So many people make donations to these groups in hopes that they’ll be used to support autistic people when in reality they’re being used for torture and eugenics research. /7

AutisticManager, 1 month ago

Autistic people will have to yet again suffer a month of being talked about by people who don’t think that our opinion matters. Misinformation will spread like wildfire despite autistic people trying their hardest to fight it. Companies and organizations will trot out the color blue and their puzzle pieces to show how much they "care”

Another fun fact: the puzzle piece is not the symbol that #ActuallyAutistic people identify with. In fact, if you see an organization use a puzzle piece as part of its logo or website, you can be 100% guaranteed that they’re on the wrong side of autism. So yes, April is going to be hard for us. /8

AutisticManager, 1 month ago

If you’ve made it this far, you have my deep appreciation. But if you’ve made it this far, you’re probably wondering what you can do to help. So here is a by no means exhaustive list of things to do:

1. Educate yourself. Follow #ActuallyAutistic content creators. Read NeuroClastic. Talk to autistic people.

2. Donate to groups that are run by #ActuallyAutistic people.

3. Support and amplify autistic voices on Twitter and anywhere else.

4. Educate others. Make sure they aren’t donating to hate groups. Make sure that they understand why it’s important to listen to autistic voices.

5. Be an ally. Stand up against ABA and other worthy causes like #StopTheShock. Educate people when you see them using a puzzle piece for autism. Tell NPR that Autism Speaks is a hate group and it shouldn’t let them sponsor radio stations.

6. And lastly, give an autistic person a hug. But ask first. /END

https://neuroclastic.com

AutisticManager, 4 months ago

@Daojoan My least favorite way of trying to be cutesy about layoffs is "right-sizing.” I completely lose respect for a person if they refer to a layoff like that.

AutisticManager, 4 months ago

@NeoNacho @b3ll @rileytestut They were incredibly divisive. You either LOVED them (and were wrong) or you wanted to pour a pot of hot coffee over whomever on your team suggested using them (and were right).

AutisticManager, 4 months ago

@annika Fun fact: Jaywalking used to have a driving counterpart back in the early 20th century, jaydriving. But it died out because of car companies. They didn’t want people to think driving a car was unsafe to themselves or others, and they certainly didn’t want to be responsible for making their cars safer for pedestrians. So they decided to shift all of the blame on accidents to pedestrians.

For the first few decades, if someone ran over a pedestrian, it was called a “car murder.” And bystanders would sometimes try to beat up or even kill the person driving the car.

AutisticManager, 4 months ago

@sdw I’m more of a Scotch and Irish whisky fan, but those are some particularly nice choices!

AutisticManager, 6 months ago

@sdw Seems like a must-have accessory for the original 18-karat Gold Apple Watch!

AutisticManager, 7 months ago

@CynAq @actuallyautistic Probably both.

AutisticManager, 7 months ago

@MuseumShuffle Hahaha. That's amazing. Did they give it to you?

AutisticManager, 10 months ago

@MuseumShuffle @joshdholtz It had better come with a pineapple fruit cup!