Editorial #260: Are You Paying Attention?

The editors of Autism Politico regularly surf the net to see what’s happening in the autism world, and we find it interesting that not too many people who claim to advocate really know what’s going on out there.

If you are an advocate…

Do you know about the latest research into autism?

Do you know about the latest news?

Have you read the latest books?

Chances are you haven’t, and we say this because there is some very controversial news out there that no one has picked up on or run with. We’ve seen no protests, no outrage.

No nothing.

Very interesting, especially in light of the fact that advocates are people who are supposed to be trumpeting our cause and working on our behalf for the better. You’d think they’d give a crap.

Now should we state here what we’ve discovered?

Absolutely not. We’re not going to inform advocates if advocates are not willing to inform themselves. Why should we? If advocates want to be lazy and mis-informed, that’s their choice. (And if you are not an advocate but don’t mind being led by ignorant ones, that’s your choice.) But do not be surprised if some of the more informed people begin to take offense at the advocates’ lack of attention to a very important story.

But maybe many advocates aren’t actually interested in advocating. Maybe they are only interested in making names for themselves and being revered by people even more ignorant that they are.

Who knows?

Of course there are some advocates out there who are sharp as a tack and always know what’s going on. Bravo to you!

To the rest…well…we don’t need you.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #259: Behave Yourselves!

Autism Politico notes that there are still autistics posting to online forums who believe they have been hard done by. As if every other person born on earth who isn’t autistic has an easy life from start to finish. Autistics seem to feel they are entitled to jobs for the asking, or benefits for the asking if they can’t get jobs. Many who post online all day complain that they are incapable of working, never thinking that perhaps if they can type nonstop at a computer, transcribing documents of some kind might be the job for them. Interestingly, most of those autistics who behave like this call themselves “neurodiversity activists.”

There is a two word phrase that comes in handy now and then: “Shut up.”

We use this phrase here with gusto.

The reason we say “Shut up” is because we’re tired of seeing lazy people, or people with attitude problems, use their autism as an excuse to demand things from others. Get busy! Start trying to get along with people! Behave yourselves! Get a job!

Yes, we know what we have to put in before we close: This commentary obviously isn’t meant for those autistics who really cannot function on their own.

And so now we have just watered down our entire editorial, because lazy autistics or autistics with attitude problems will say to themselves “Well, I can’t function on my own, so that editorial wasn’t meant for me.”

Guess what? It was.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #258: ASAN Newsletter in the Works

Autism Politico is looking forward to the monthly ASAN newsletter that is supposed to be coming out soon.

Maybe they will issue a response to the alleged bullying of Michelle Dawson, the board membership of Meg Evans (who writes porn fan-fic stories), their lack of a statement on Nick Dubin, who is accused of writing porn, and a plethora of other questions that are plaguing the autistic community about ASAN.

Then again, maybe they will just use the newsletter to promote how great they are.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #257: Question of the Day

Autism Politico poses this question of the day:

What autistic advocacy organization has at least one former stripper, lap dancer, and porn star defending its integrity?

If you don’t know, we’re not going to tell you, but it shocks us to know you don’t know your autistic advocacy organizations as much as you think you do.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

 

Editorial #256: Not Very Interesting

Autism Politico continues to be amazed at how little autistics seem to care about what is going on in the world, or even in what directly affects them.

With the economic crisis getting worse, government services are getting cut in many countries. This means that autistics are less likely to get the help they need to make it through from day to day.

Instead, if you go into Facebook forums, what you see are people playing Farmville, Mafia Wars, and answering silly questions about other people.

Well, if you wind up losing your benefits, you only have yourselves to blame for not knowing why.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #254: Full of Glee…

Autism Politico watched another installment of Glee the other day and noticed the absence of  the controversial Sugar Motta character.

So there is nothing to talk about today, although we do miss her.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #252: Not to be Gleeful, but…

Autism Politico loves the new character “Sugar Motta” on Glee. Never in our memory has a new character encapsulated the snobbiness of some self-diagnosed Aspies who steal our autism diagnosis for their own selfish reasons.

We think people should encourage others to watch Glee so that they have an idea about how some self-diagnosed autistics behave.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #251: We’re back! And Lisa Jo Rudy is Gone!

We at Autism Politico have come out of retirement because Lisa Jo Rudy is going into hers (in a manner of speaking). She says:

Note: as this is the last blog post I’m writing for this site, I have closed the post to comments.  To those of you who enjoyed reading my blogs, thanks so much for the kind words!

Autism Politico doesn’t know why Lisa Jo has ended the comments but knows that Lisa Jo has a habit of closing comments when people who emphatically disagree with her decisions or opinions post their opinions. Such was the case with the notorious Zoey Roberts article she posted.

Many people in Facebook forums are cheering the exit of Rudy, who, for the duration of her reign at Autism.About.com, never really seemed to have a firm opinion on anything, never really seemed to take a firm stance against unproven therapies, and sometimes seemed to make her readers wonder if her son was a guinea pig for autism treatments.

Even as she exists, she throws in some parting shots at the autism community which some people are interpreting as bitter:

Many people on the autism spectrum are amazing human beings.  Many are not.

says Rudy, seemingly in exasperation. Our counter to that is a restatement of something we picked up from a poster in a WrongPlanet community: ALL autistics are amazing, even if some of them behave like jerks.

So we see now how Rudy has viewed the community which she allegedly served.

Rudy says:

This so-called “autism community” includes some very scary people.  Beware of these people, and try not to allow them to influence the decisions you make on behalf of your children.  When sites like Age of Autism LITERALLY photoshop images of horns and tails onto people with whom they disagree, you can make a shrewd guess that they have an agenda that they are trying to push.

But she posts this unaware that there is a big brew-ha-ha going on right this minute across Facebook about a person she featured in one of her articles. This person has many different online aliases and is badgering people with them to the point where people are visibly angry. Rudy billed this person as an advocate. So while Rudy may say that AofA photoshops images of horns and tails onto people, Rudy may have knowingly or unknowingly pasted a halo onto person many people consider to be a demon.

Another nugget of wisdom from Ms. Rudy, who invites us to follow her on her new blog:

Gold-plated, double-blind, controlled, expensive studies may tell you far less than you think they should.

Yes, Lisa, let us all disregard these studies, which are put together by a scientific method which is accepted worldwide by researchers. Let us all reject these studies, which are done in such a manner as to reduce error ratios to a minimum, and quantifiable, reproducible results to a maximum. Let us ignore the fact that there is a control group. What we should want, Autism Politico gathers, is a random sampling of people who give vague opinions on things, and this should be our source of knowledge.

Autism Politico notices that Lisa Jo Rudy was always “open-minded” about ABA therapy, but now that she has no interest in Autism.About.com, she tells us that for HER child:

We specifically stayed away from ABA because, quite frankly, when it’s done poorly (and it often is) it is dehumanizing and disrespectful.  Worse, it is focused entirely upon behavior, and not upon the human being that is your child. 

Never in our recollection did she try to discourage other people from ABA. Autism Politico guesses that while she certainly would not expose her own kid to ABA, she didn’t care as much what other parents did with their kids.

Now Autism Politico must state that we do not believe Rudy is a bad person. We actually LIKE some of the things she has to say. For instance, when Rudy says:

The goal of autism therapies and treatments, in my opinion, should be to help the individual with autism to become as fully human as they can be.  Being “fully human” means so much more than being typical.  It means learning, loving, creating, imagining, laughing, playing, singing, being silly, having fun.

Autism Politico hears two things:

1) Rudy genuinely wishes the best for autistics.

2) And she must be naive, because she seems to think we are less than fully human.

Autism Politico is pleased that Lisa Jo Rudy, who has expressed the idea that we are not as fully human as others, is leaving. Good riddance, and goodbye.

And no, we will not be reading your new blog.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #250: Autism Politico is Qutting

Autism Politico is quitting.

We haven’t made any significant difference in the autism world, so we don’t see the point in continuing. 

Comments will remain open.

Thanks for reading.

Autism Politico

Editorial #249: On Penelope Trunk

Autism Politico wants its readers to know that we do not agree with part of  this statement by Penelope Trunk:

I think I probably never had a clue about how people date, because I have Asperger Syndrome.

The part we don’t agree with is the “because I have Asperger Syndrome” part. We at Autism Politico all have Asperger Syndrome, and none of us have dating problems, so we are just saying that her statement holds true for her, perhaps, but not for us.

Autism Politico wants its readers to know that we do not agree with this statement by Penelope Trunk:

I am very easy to get into bed because the dance people do before getting to the sex part does not make sense to me.

While this may hold true for her, it does not hold true for us. We are hard to get into bed, primarily because our morals and values (some of which we were taught, and some of which we learned for ourselves) keeps us from sleeping around, and also, the “dance” people do “before getting to the sex part” makes absolute sense to us. We like to think that all of this is true for us because we have Asperger Syndrome, and because we have it, have a better understanding of human behavior than most.

Autism Politico wants its readers to know that we do not agree with this statement by Penelope Trunk regarding sending nude photos of oneself to someone:

 It’s not that big a deal. You know how I know? Because the state of Vermont, (and other states as well) is trying to pass a lawthat decriminalizes sending nude photos of oneself if you are underage. That’s right: For years, even though kids were sending nude photos of themselves to someone they wanted to show it to, the act was illegal—an act of trafficking in child pornography.

But sending nude photos is so common today that lawmakers are forced to treat it as a mainstream courting ritual and legalize it for all ages.

We just think that kids doing it ought to be illegal and adults doing it ought to be immoral. But that’s our opinion, and does not correspond in any way to autism advocate Penelope Trunk, or ASAN’s Meg Evans (Board Member), who writes porn stories for her Ventura33 website, or ASAN and GRASPs Chapter Director Mark Haller who proofreads porn on www.asstr.org, or GRASPS Nick Dubin who admitted to downloading child porn.

If these Asperger Advocates want to make it out that they know better than anyone else about AS and represent AS people in this fashion, let them, especially because it doesn’t seem the autism community really gives a damn anyway.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.