The Devil's greatest trick was getting everyone to call LLMs "Generative AI" when the only thing they can do is cobble together derivative works. That's like calling a battery a generator.
Do I participate in the family holiday gift exchange, annoy everyone with my gifts because I can't tell what people actually like, and make everyone mad because I can't look happy enough when I open my presents?
OR, do I choose not to participate in a tradition that will do nothing but stress me out, and so make everyone mad because they insist that means I don't care about anyone and don't want to be part of the family?
How do we get someone like Rebecca Watson to debunk #ABA and expose the billion dollar industry based on junk science psychology that abuses #autistic kids until they conform to neurotypical social norms at the cost of their own mental health and well-being?
ABA tldr: ABA is #AppliedBehaviorAnalysis and is gay conversion therapy for #autism. That's not just a metaphor - they are the very same thing used for different socially unacceptable "conditions". Both ABA and conversion therapy were created by the same person, Ivar Lovass, and use the same methods. Those training methods are so terrible they are literally not legal to use on dogs, and conversion therapy itself is illegal in many countries and US states. If any reasonable standards were applied, ABA would also be illegal.
I have tried to get journalists of all stripes interested in doing an ABA exposé, but even the ones who get interested never seem to be able to make it a priority. It's easy to deprioritize ABA reporting when there's no market for it, and even stories about routine physical abuse and electric shock torture of autistic kids at #JudgeRotenbergCenter don't break through, so I get why journalists don't bother. But we desperately need reporting on ABA that debunks the current mythology that it is helpful and justifies it being the only therapy for autistic kids that medical insurance will cover.
An ABA exposé segment by John Oliver could change everything, but he'll never do it because he's buddies with Jon Stewart who is a supporter of ABA and raises millions of dollars for ABA promoters like AutismSpeaks. (Surprise, Jon Stewart has an autistic son. It's often the autism parents who drink the ABA kool-aid because it lets them get their kids under control, and they don't know any better. Which is why we need reporting on it.)
We have four months until April, the dreaded Autism Awareness Month. Wouldn't it be nice if next year the month was about banning ABA instead of raising money for it? Anyone know anyone with a platform who is up for helping millions of autistic kids avoid a childhood of medically-approved abuse?
@joshsusser@mensrea@rebeccawatson@actuallyautistic You could try Jessica McCabe of 'How to ADHD'. I don't know if it's a topic she's tackled before. Her partner is autistic. I'm not sure if she's the right person to tackle it directly but she might have an in in helpful places (I don't know her personally so can't predict how she'd actually respond).
@joshsusser
A big exposé on ABA the associated industry could not come too soon. I have a small social circle, but I wonder if I know someone who knows someone who could take it on. Anyone to talk about this with others to see what might come up.
If you are hosting a holiday gathering where #autistic or #ADHD folk will attend (or anyone else who would benefit), please consider setting up a #ChillRoom as a quiet space where they can go to escape the sensory onslaught and draining socializing. You can ask people what they might like in a chill room, but snacks, family photo albums, coffee table books, plushies, puzzles, playing cards, comic books, fidget toys, and lego bricks are all reasonable things to try. And it doesn't have to be a solo space – a quiet, out-of-the-way spot to sit and have a conversation is also nice. Protip: If there is an aquarium in the home, use that to anchor the chill space. Nothing beats a good fish tank for chilling out, though a window with a picturesque view is a close second.
If you're someone who would love to have a chill room available at someone else's holiday gathering, try asking them to set one up, or maybe offer to help set it up if that's not too much trouble. Sometimes all you have to do is ask.
Good luck with your holidays, make an effort to include the people whose needs usually get overlooked, and don't let anyone make you feel bad for not being able to keep up with the neurotypical social norms.
[We have another big holiday coming up, so bumping this post again.]
Is there a term for that kind of #autistic meltdown where you hold it all inside and pretend like nothing is wrong because not behaving properly would have terrible consequences so you somehow mostly manage it but then you really pay for it later? #ActuallyAutistic#AskingAutistics
#AskingAutistics Does telling an allistic person you're #autisticever help improve communication? Over and over, I let people know I'm autistic in hopes it will help, but it never makes things better. It seems like no one wants to do the reading, or to make an effort to even meet me halfway. The main reactions I get when I disclose fall into these categories:
Ignore it entirely and just keep on like I'm not autistic.
Say I'm nothing like their 10 year old nephew who has #autism.
Assume that since we're friends it doesn't matter, because friendship is magic and will enable me to "overcome my autism" with them if I am just motivated enough, and if they aren't special enough for me to do that then I don't really value them as a friend.
Give advice on how I can mask better for their comfort and convenience, like I haven't spent my whole life becoming expert on that.
Try to be accommodating without taking the time to learn what is helpful and what is just going to make things worse.
Infantilize me and treat me like a child or an intellectually disabled person.
Give up on me because autistic people are too hard to deal with.
No reaction, because most people don't know anything about autism. They don't even understand that I'm doing all the work to bridge the communication gap, or that they could do anything to help, or even cut me some slack when I fail.
I do have a couple allistic friends who accommodate me enough to maintain a decent relationship, but they are rare and special. And we had somehow worked that out before I knew I was #ActuallyAutistic even, so telling them still didn't change much.
Has anyone had communication improve by telling someone you're autistic? Or is that just a fantasy?
@Falco_77@BZBrainz@joshsusser@actuallyautistic
Interesting. Made the same observation during my years as an academic, albeit I had to refine those skills early in my career. It's like 'mode switching', where the professional formal mode switches between the informal mode and even the 'autistic' mode (rarely in public).
We have seen two #VeryShortTreks so far, and the best thing I can say about them is that they are over quickly. I can't tell who the intended audience is for these Officially Not Canon vingettes, but it doesn't seem to be life-long fans of #StarTrek. These jokes do not land with me. Is this intentional? We have seen decades of fan humor that is funny while respecting our love of the franchise, so we know it's not that hard to pull off. The entire Lower Decks series is proof it can be done and done well. So we know they know how to do it, but instead we get this crap. Sometimes I have to think there are people at Paramount who just hate Star Trek and can't stand that they have to produce a show that's about how great diversity and equality are.
@joshsusser A randomly selected four minute clip from any episode of The Family Guy would have been more entertaining than either of the #VeryShortTreks released so far.
We need better words for talking about #neurodiversity in ways that aren't pathological, clinical, or derisive. I don't think it's useful to try to think up neologisms on the spot, but I keep my eyes open for new terminology that might arise organically in conversation. Any new words folks are using that are worth sharing?
The word "neurodiversity" itself is kind of new, and it's already been through a bit of an evolution and maybe even has tainted origins, but it's a good word and there's a reason so many of us use it. But even so, I wish it didn't sound so medical. (The evolution I mention is that "neurodiverse" used to mean "not neurotypical", but now generally is used to mean all neurotypes including neurotypical. We use "neurodivergent" for "not neurotypical" now. Likewise "neurotypical" used to mean not autistic, but we say "allistic" for that now.)
@joshsusser "Neurodiversity" does NOT sound medical to me. It sounds like "biodiversity," a simple fact about the state of living things and an essential element in the ecology of the world.
@stevesilberman Useful information. I'm not unhappy with the word. It's the "neuro" prefix plus the number of syllables that makes it sound like a medical term to me. If that's not an issue for anyone else, I'm fine with it.
Developers of to-do and reminder apps need to understand that they cannot interrupt the capture workflow for any reason. I just opened iOS Reminders and had to quickly dismiss a couple new feature announcement dialogs that blocked operation entirely, because if I stopped to read them I would forget what I went there to capture so I wouldn't forget it. I managed it, but instead I didn't get to see the new feature descriptions. #ADHD of course