Why protest autism speaks?

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Einstein is not a tragedy.

And neither was he diagnosed with autism.

Doctor Michael Fitzgerald, Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin, diagnosed Einstein with autism.

Is diagnosing a dead person considered to be malpractice ?

More like impossible.

Besides the pertinent issues presented herein plus the neocapitalist spin they put onto autism that really gets my goat, my main reason to protest Autism Speaks is because they aren't letting autism speak. In fact, the project now has the effect of silencing autistics. We are either marginalized or omitted from their conversation, and we are the biggest stakeholders.

I have nothing against parents of autistics speaking, but that's what it should be called and that's how it should be represented and viewed. How presumptuous! And how rude!

The biggest irony is the idea that autistics who do not or cannot speak are speaking through this group. It's a catchy cute idea, and I'm sure the paid minions hired to come up with the idea looked at the project from a branding perspective. This is equally infuriating and insulting to me, because not only do we not need to be further branded (read: exploited), we are not being accorded the respect due other groups with a history of societal prejudice against them.

To me, the project is just a frustration outlet for rich folks who want to control the discourse. It may not have started out this way, but that's what it's become.

If you want to hear autism speak, visit the blogs and forums and videos where we say what's on our minds. Our voices should outweigh the pap being supported by the 1%-ers who seem to believe that their wealth entitles them to speak for us.

but there are so many people who have aspergers and love being called "aspergers" and nothing else, and the DSM 5 took that right away.

those that are lower functioning may need some more assistance in talking and stuff, but you know what? that's not a bad thing. i mean, think about it, when a lower functioning child can go from speaking 10 words to 40, isn't that a good thing? that's because he/she got help doing it. sometimes, we spectrumites don't like to think we need help because that makes us feel bad when we look around and see that many other people don't get that kind of help. but remember, when they were toddlers, they needed help talking too, and that took a while as well. but they could talk in the end, and that's because they got help. what people in general, not just those on the spectrum, need to realize is that help is not a bad thing, and we should stop being jealous or envied at other people's abilities.

we shouldn't given that kind of help help by someone who thinks they're trying to "cure" us, because it doesn't. it just helps us along the way. i would never take that kind of help from Speaks because i know they're using those programs on how to talk thinking that they'll "cure" our autism. we should be very careful who we out our trust in.

so basically, when it comes to autistics learning how to take care of themselves, they and their caretakers, NT or on the spectrum, should ask themselves "we all need someone to lean on, but who?"

Neurotypicals want to help us by putting us into special education ret*d schools.