Editorial #269: Faked Perfection
Autism Politico is aware that there is a photo making its way around neurodiversity social media. Its caption appears to make an excuse for autistic non-conformists who are too lazy to try to do what everyone else in society does. Observe:
Some autistics are using this as an excuse to refuse to fit in with people. If everyone thought this way, we’d be a bunch of social recluses.
Autism Politico doesn’t know and doesn’t care whether or not its readership is religious. One doesn’t need to be religious to understand that men and women, boys and girls, are imperfect. We all have flaws and defects, either mentally or physically, or both.
Despite the fact that nobody is perfect, most people aspire to be better than they are and come to being as near-perfect as they can. Not that we would want a society of insufferable snooty people, but Autism Politico believes it is admirable to improve oneself as life goes by.
But it would appear that some autistics and some autism warriors feel that it’s better to send around photos with captions that make excuses for their not doing anything to improve themselves.
“I was born to make mistakes, not fake perfection.”
Faking perfection is what most people do. They do it at school. They do it at work. They do it in social situations. The reason they do it is because even though they know they make mistakes, they know that other people do not think highly of people who willfully choose to remain ignorant all of their lives. So people try to look as though they are overcoming their ignorance.
Not so with some autism warriors evidently. They would rather throw their ignorance in people’s faces and dare those people to call them stupid.
This happens to be why most neurodiversity groups go ignored, or why they get laughed at privately behind closed doors at some recognized autism organizations. After all, who can respect perfectly capable people who choose to act helpless?
Ironically, this faking helplessness on the part of some autistics and some autism warriors is what is causing people to flock to organizations like Autism Speaks. People get tired of the antics of certain online activists, and want them out of the picture.
Autism Politico is happy all this is taking place, because it means that soon, with the more annoying autism warriors out of the way, people can go back to focusing on providing assistance to autistics who really need help.
In the meantime, Autism Politico suggests that certain online autism warriors quit spending their days typing up a storm in their social media forums and get jobs as typists. We suggest they quit trying to run online forums where they pick on the people who know better than they do, and instead run social media sites for companies that might pay them a living wage. Autism Politico staffers are tired of our tax dollars going to support autism warriors who can do everything employed people can do but who refuse to get off their butts and get a job, in other words.
Also, it’s not just regular people who should tell some of these autism warriors to quit embarrassing autistics. Governments all over the world would should teach the worst of the autism warriors a lesson too. Specifically, governments should quit providing funding for them. How rude it is for willfully ignorant people to receive benefits and then complain that their benefits aren’t enough, even as they harangue other people for trying to help them step out of their black holes. Maybe there should be a “Farmville” for certain autism warriors. There, they could play all they want, and see if they like it there better than on the government dole.
Replies to this editorial are welcome.
Editorial #263: Holmes And Asperger Syndrome? Part II
The following is editorial satire meant to make people THINK about how silly they sound when they support both alleged criminal behavior and actual criminal behavior, and use a diagnosis (real or imagined) to justify those behaviors. In no way is anything written here meant to mock or make light of the actual crimes (alleged or proven in court to have taken place). If anything, it is meant to provide empathy and support to those who have been victims of criminal behavior.
Neither this editorial or the previous one are meant to make fun of a particular person or a particular segment of society.
Autism Politico
Dear Autism Politico readers… The breeze of letters that has found its way into our mailbox regarding the alleged mass-shooting by suspect James Holmes continues….
Dear Newspaper,
If accused shooting suspect James Holmes was a Brit, we wouldn’t extradite him either.
Signed, an avid Gary McKinnon supporter.
Dear Newspaper,
I am the founder and face of ASS. ASS stands for Aspies Against Sense. As the leader of this organization, it is my duty to write a letter in which I offer sympathy to the victims of James Holmes, deny that Holmes was an Aspie, and cry about the plight of media mis-representation about Asperger Syndrome on television.
As I write this, I know that I am a hypocrite. As soon as I send this letter off, I am going to go into Facebook and hint that there is a possibility that James Holmes was a member of my organization’s online forums, and then put up a link to those forums. I’m going to do this because I know it will draw new members to my organization.
Next, when a bunch of concerned parents and concerned Aspies on Facebook point out my hypocrisy, I am going to get a bunch of my organization’s members to cite them for “Spamming” so that Facebook will delete their accounts. After that, I am going to find out their offline names, home addresses, and home phones, and run a concentrated conspiracy to harass them and their children.
I am writing this letter publicly so that there is no doubt in the minds of my organization’s members as to where I truly stand even though I may APPEAR to stand in the opposite corner. I don’t need to do this, really. My hypocrisy has been in existence as long as my organization has been in existence. But, some of the people that belong to my organization have crap for brains, and might get confused if they feel I have shifted my mandate, which is, in a few short words: to bolster my own ego, and also to get people to hit their Paypal button and donate money to my own pocketbook.
Signed:
The President of ASS.
Dear Newspaper,
This is a letter which doesn’t actually say anything and is designed to make it look like people with my point of view have the majority opinion regarding the James Holmes shooting. If people like me spam your newspaper, our agenda will succeed.
Signed:
An ASS.
P.S. What’s your phone number? I want to call you.
Dear Newspaper,
I think it is important to explain why it is that we self-diagnosed Aspies react negatively when supposed educated readers cite facts and sources to support their arguments.
As you all know, whenever we -that is to say, people who are self-diagnosed, like myself- support mass shooting suspects, it’s because we can fall back on newspaper articles and editorials, where unqualified people have offered vague, unsubstantiated opinions, and we can draw on those opinions to support our arguments. And so, if some NBC commentator suggests that James Holmes is an Aspie, we sail in and support Holmes by saying such things as “In 2006, a newspaper article reported that, in a survey, a high percentage of Aspies become violent when feeling repressed by society and so we shouldn’t blame Holmes, but should blame society.”
And when we make that statement, we make it a point to avoid stating that the newspaper article wasn’t an article at all, but a letter to the editor, in which someone claiming to be an authority in the area of autism spectrum disorders made a statement without citing sources. Further, we fail to state that the person who wrote the letter was a member of an autistic advocacy organization, a person who never actually went to college, never studied autism spectrum disorders, was never diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, but claims to be self-diagnosed on his or her blog.
Facts and sources are a threat to us because they cannot easily be disputed. How can we self-diagnosed Aspies collect enough money to fund a study that combats the hundreds of other studies which disprove our theories. Instead, we must meet these threats head-on by saying things that sound good, but are as tasty to our brains as air is to soft-serve ice-cream. If we SOUND intelligent, by using words such as “percent”, “article,” and “study” but never cite the source, or use the true value of the percentage, people won’t bother to look up our sources and percentages when REAL scientists and researchers cite REAL facts and give REAL percentages, because the soundbites that we have given sound sufficient.
For example: Which sounds better?
“In 2006, a newspaper article reported that, in a survey, a high percentage of Aspies become violent when feeling repressed by society, and so we shouldn’t blame Holmes, but should blame society.”
Or…
“In 2006 in the the Fowler’s Corner Gazette, a letter to the editor, written by Aspies Against Sense (ASS for short) stated that a phone survey among five ASS members resulted in one person saying that he became violent when feeling repressed by society, and so we shouldn’t blame Holmes, but should blame society.”
You people need to understand that we are selfish individuals who cannot accept what research really shows, and so when you quote the American Psychological Association at us, or the Centers for Disease Control, or the like, it’s really a problem for us because it threatens everything we hold dear.
If, for example, it can be demonstrated through studies that the majority of people with Asperger Syndrome grow up to find jobs, have relationships, purchase, homes, etc., it means that those of us who are too lazy to do any of the above can’t as easily ask for handouts from sappy ignorant fools like the kind who support our organization. It means that, unless we can continue to perpetuate negative stereotypes about ourselves, we will be forced to do what society does, i.e. go to school and get good grades, get jobs, get married, earn money, plan for our retirement, obey the law, obey society’s rules, etc.
And this is not something we like doing.
And so when someone like James Holmes goes on the rampage, this is why we try and leverage it to our advantage. In fact, just to make things more clear, we rage like maniacs because:
1) It perpetuates the idea that we are rude and don’t have empathy when we use a mass-shooting to leverage our own goals.
2) People might give us what we want, either out of fear, or out of pity.
Signed:
Someone who likes to abuse the system.
Dear Newspaper,
In 2006, a newspaper article reported that, in a survey, a high percentage of Aspies become violent when feeling repressed by society, and so we shouldn’t blame Holmes, but should blame society.”
Signed,
An ASS member.
Dear Newspaper,
James Holmes isn’t Aspie. Did Rainman ever go on a shooting spree and kill a dozen people? No. He can’t even make toast. Watch the movie, you putz.
Signed:
Yet another ASS.
Dear Newspaper,
All this stuff about James Holmes is causing people in my house to want to watch the TV. This cuts into my gaming time because my PS3 is wired to the television set.
So shut up already.
Signed:
A spectrumite (maybe).
Dear Newspaper,
For all you idiots who believe that World of Warcraft was responsible for James Holmes’s violent behavior and failure in some of life’s more common ventures, you should shut up.
I’m 29 years old and play World of Warcraft all the time. My recent job loss, my girlfriend walking out on me, my failing out of university… Those things were not related to World of Warcraft at all. I know this because those things all happened AFTER my mom took my video gaming access away from me last month, and threw me and my girlfriend out of the house last week.
To address the issue of violence…YES I’ve gotten angry with people, and maybe I shouldn’t have done some of the things I did last week, but my anger stems from my mother telling me that I have to start paying rent if I want to move back in and that she’s going to stop paying for my auto insurance no matter what.
So it’s all separate. Don’t start blaming World of Warcraft.
Also, I’ve just been self-diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, so quit picking on me. If you keep it up, I will sue you for discrimination on the basis of the fact that I’m handicapped…And only I can use the word handicapped, because that’s what I am, but if YOU use the word, it’s offensive and politically incorrect.
Signed:
The King of Warcraft
Dear Newspaper,
Here’s a word of advice to anyone who has been charged with a crime. The time to use Asperger Syndrome as a defense is quickly running out. Originally, when AS was first used as a defense, 1 in 166 people had it. Now it’s down to 1 in 80 or so. Some even say 1 in 50.
Well, if the draw for a potential jury panel is 50, there is a 1 in 50 shot that one member of your jury panel might have AS. If that Aspie is a law-abiding citizen, you’re screwed, because that Aspie will KNOW that people with AS are perfectly capable of obeying the law.
Further, there’s a good chance that, with all these diagnoses going on, other jury members might know someone who has AS, in which case you are equally screwed, because THEY will have seen Aspies behaving lawfully. They will either know, or intuit that statistically speaking, the majority of AS people don’t commit crimes.
So, basically, if you’re using AS for your criminal behavior, you might want to consider another diagnosis. Maybe another rare mental health diagnosis.
Here’s some good news: The DSM V is coming out with some new diagnoses we’ve never heard of before. Choose from there.
Signed,
A convicted criminal who used AS as a defense.
Dear Newspaper,
Ass Pees gud. Wood rite mor, butt cant spell.
Sined:
Self-digenossed Ass Pee.
Dear Newspaper,
I just want to write and say that despite the fact that many ASS members have criminal records, we should not distrust them, because their recidivist rate has been fairly low.
Another ASS member.
Dear Newspaper,
As a member of the neurodiversity movement, I must take exception to those of you who have spoken against mass-murder suspect James Holmes. In my opinion, Holmes was the victim of a society which fails to recognize the virtues of people who bravely shirk societal responsibilities in favor of computer games.
Without people who are addicted to gaming, whole corporations, like Sony and SEGA, would go out of business and lots of people would be out of work.
If you’ve read a lot of newspaper articles like I have, you know that it is believed that gaming is responsible for an upswing in juvenile diabetes and morbid obesity, because too many kids these days are sitting around playing video games and drinking soda pop instead of exercising. Do you people want to put an end to doctors by restricting computer gaming usage among our nation’s youth?
Now about this Asberger Syndrome thing…
It only makes sense that gamers are more likely to have Asbergers because… think of the way the name sounds. Ass and bergers. Gamers sit on their asses, and they probably eat a lot of hambergers. Hence, Asbergers.
Also, the spelling of the world Asberger is like a conjunction between Ass and berger.
Signed:
Another ASS.
Dear Newspaper,
I hope my letter puts an end to all this fussing about James Holmes.
I am an authority in the Aspie Rights political movement, and have made a name for myself by winning Dairy Queen’s award for eating the most ice cream cones before the onset of an ice cream headache, said award included allowing me to parade through town on a gigantic ice cream float while no one watched or cared.
Here are the facts about Asperger Syndrome:
As we all know, Asperger Syndrome was named in 1731 for Joe Asperger, an Italian Asperagus grower who was raised by fish in the canals of Venice.
When Asperger finally decided to come out of the water, he flapped his hands incessantly in a type of dog-paddle that has come to characterize the sort of stimming behaviors we see in some Aspies.
Is it any wonder that putting guns in the hands of such people would result in other people getting shot?
People don’t kill people. Guns kill people.
So give James Holmes a break if he’s an Aspie. If he’s not an Aspie, execute him.
Signed:
An ASS.
Replies to this editorial are welcome.
Editorial #261: Keeping the Peace
Autism Politico is chagrined to discover that people are still ganging up on each other in the autism community.
“I disconnected Xxxxx Xxxxx and Xxxxxx Xxxxxx from all 11 FB pages that I operate and co-moderate. I also blocked their 9 main supporters. That is 7,351 folk in the world-wide autism community who – like this page – will now get to be XX/XX/XxX Rancid Rancour-free.”
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1) Who are the people being blocked? And…
2) Who put the post up on Facebook in the first place?
The answer to either of the above two questions doesn’t matter.
Only the actual behavior does.
On the one side, you have people who are known the world over for the work they do to raise awareness for people with disabilities. On the other side, you have people who…who…want to “disconnect” them…from doing further service.
There are plenty of ways to describe the second group of people, but no way to do it on a blog that may be perused by young children.
As we may expect from the peanut gallery who supports the “disconnectors”, they want us to NAME NAMES or else shut up. Except of course, when you actually NAME anyone, if the person or people you name happen to be friends of theirs, they report you for slander, or libel, or anything else they can think of, and they try to get your online media thrown off the net, as if anything on the net really matters in the first place.
But maybe it does if you are unemployed, friendless, and the internet is all you’ve got.
At any rate, this behavior on the part of the peanut gallery is called hypocrisy, and it’s why Autism Politico exists. To expose hypocrisy wherever it appears.
Autism Politico will even admit that WE are hypocritical. After all, WE are oftentimes online “friends” and even personally acquainted with people from both camps (i.e. the people being picked on, and the people who are doing the picking).
In this case, we know the people who enjoy going after Xxxxx Xxxxx and Xxxxxx Xxxxxx.
Would it surprise you to know that 7,351 people have now been “disconnected” from Xxxxx Xxxxx and Xxxxxx Xxxxxx, who have connections to disability organizations worldwide, not to mention worldwide government organizations?
Not if you are in the autism community. But, if you were in almost any other disability community, it might be a shock indeed.
And so an individual, or select group of individuals has made the sole decision to try and cut off THOUSANDS of people from off this valuable resource (Xxxxx Xxxxx and Xxxxxx Xxxxxx and their iniative) because they think they know better than the Xxxxx Xxxxx and Xxxxxx Xxxxxx whom they seem to hate so much.
Autism Politico has observed that the biggest whiners, complainers, and volatile people in the online autism world are usually unemployed, self-diagnosed (albeit DEFINITELY diagnosed with something other than autism, such as bi-polar disorder, antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, psychopathy, etc.) people.
So generally, we don’t pay any attention to them.
Don’t get us wrong. If they HAVE been diagnosed with something -say bi-polar disorder- they certainly have a right to talk about THAT, but if they haven’t been diagnosed with autism, then they know nothing about autism except what they have read, or heard about it. We’d rather read about autism in a newspaper or periodical, or hear about autism from someone who has actually been diagnosed with it rather than hear about it from someone who THINKS they have autism.
There are people in the world who think they have been abducted by aliens. Does this make them astronauts? We don’t think so. And if there is no such thing as aliens, it doesn’t even make them abductees.
It just makes them crazy.
We admire any self-diagnosed person who wants to get an official diagnosis, but we wonder why their supposed “autism” wasn’t discovered when they were diagnosed with other disorders. After all, self-diagnosed Aspies seem very good at spotting AS in other people, you’d thing medically trained clinicians could to the same. But maybe people who went to college and got medical degrees don’t know as much as armchair self-diagnosed Aspies.
That these self-diagnosed people serve on the boards of most well-known autistic advocacy organizations is not important, since the public at large appears not to know about them or the organizations they are affiliated with.
In other words, since no one else pays attention to them, and neither do we. (Most of the time.) Even though they embarrass us from time to time with their protests, or their publishing porn on the net, or their arrests for possession or distribution of child porn, we put up with it, because the only people they can really affect by their nonsense are the self-diagnosed people who follow them.
As most autistic people will tell you, the more foolish self-diagnosed people make themselves look, the better. Maybe they’ll eventually hang their heads in shame and go away.
Or get a diagnosis.
In a way, it’s a pity. An organization like Autism Speaks, who, to hear self-diagnosed Aspies tell it, “everyone” hates, becomes a household name, whereas people who supposedly seek to paint Aspies as the intelligent people that we are, get shunned because self diagnosed people…or…we must admit…diagnosed people with attitude problems…conspire to shut them up, stomp on them, and grind them into the dust.
If the know-it-alls who are screwing things up for the autism community would just shut their mouths and let Xxxxx Xxxxx and Xxxxxx Xxxxxx speak for everyone, we’d have some real progress here.
And if any online thugs find themselves locked up in the psych ward or even in jail, would that be such a bad thing?
Replies to this editorial are welcome.
Editorial #235 Quote #15
Autism Politico has another quote to by A. Maclaren, D.D. for you: ”We cannot erase the sad records of our past.”
What is done is done. That is why we need to ask ourselves each day that we go forward “What legacy will I leave?” or “What example am I setting?” or “Am I doing something which is going to reflect poorly upon myself and people who depend on me.”
People who lead the autism community need to follow these dictums so that they can model appropriate behavior for those whom they serve. Yet many people who are now leading the autism community do not follow these dictums. That is something to think about. Who do you want leading you and those like you? Who do you want representing you to influential people? Who do you want negotiating policy for your autistic children?
Perhaps it would be a good idea to hold autism advocates and advocacy groups accountable to higher standards. If these advocates and advocacy groups are of good character, they won’t mind.
Replies to this editorial are welcome.
Editorial #234: Quote #14
Autism Politico has another quote for you: ”Water run by will not turn a mill.” A. Maclaren, D.D.
What does this mean for us?
It means we should do today what we have the chance to do today, and not let today pass into tomorrow. It means if you are twiddling your thumbs and not accomplishing anything, you are wasting your energy.
If you are in dire circumstances and aren’t doing anything to get yourself out of them, then it means you are partly to blame for your problems.
Another way to look at this is to examine what the advocates in the autism community are doing for you. They may exist. They may have websites. Their members may participate in chats and groups. But what are they actually doing for you? Perhaps you should be demanding more of these people who ask for YOUR support, or YOUR money, or for YOUR assistance. After all, aren’t these people here to serve you?
Replies to this editorial are welcome.
Editorial #233: Own Up or Shut Up
Autism Politico has a message for some of those autism advocates who have been clamoring for the public display of Osama Bin Laden’s death photos…
Perhaps it would be in their own interests if they shut their mouths.
These autism advocates don’t like it when blogs quote or put up screen shots of autism advocates or autism advocacy groups involved in questionable activities or alleged misdeeds. They don’t like it when people read those blogs and comment bout those questionable activities and alleged misdeeds.
Well, do these autism advocates think their own hypocrisy is dignified?
These autism advocates might think there is a significant difference between trotting out Bin Laden’s death photos and posting quotes they have made, but is there really a difference at all? If people feel they were hurt by what Bin Laden did and want to see proof of his death and comment on them, and if people feel they have been hurt by autism advocates and want to see proof of the perceived affronts posted publicly and be able to comment on them, what’s the difference?
Replies to this editorial are welcome.
Autism Politico
