6:49pm August 6, 2013

➸ Trying to find the right words: youneedacat: So a mage and a cleric walked into a tavern:...

youneedacat:

So a mage and a cleric walked into a tavern: #192

karynchaotic:

thisisabledprivilege:

Abled privilege is…the term “slacktivist"

Doing activism online is not slacking when most activist events…

-Are not ASL-interpreted
-Are not audio-described or prepped with…

Yeah I agree with you on most of that.

Another weird ineffective thing I’ve seen is like…

People will be having an argument about whether it’s wrong to do something. The thing might be wrong or right, but whatever it is, is not a super extreme horribly mind boringly evil wrong

And the person doing the thing will be trying to argue that it does no harm. Even if it does

And then someone will respond to that person by suddenly listing off a bunch of true atrocities.

So it will be like…

A: My child likes to pretend to read, but he doesn’t really understand it.

B: Don’t assume he doesn’t understand it. You can’t always tell that about an autistic person. Especially if they have communication problems.

A: I’M HIS MOTHER. I understand way more about him than you ever will.

B: Yeah but you still can’t always tell even if you’re his mother.

A: Don’t tell me what I do and don’t understand about my son.

B: Stop assuming you know that he can’t read.

A: There’s nothing wrong with assuming he can’t read. Especially it he can’t. He can’t even TALK yet!

B: Yes there is something wrong with assuming that.

A: No there really isn’t.

B: YES THERE IS. AUTISTIC PEOPLE GET MURDERED. AUTISTIC PEOPLE ARE TARGETS OF EUGENICS. DON’T TELL ME IT'S NOT BAD!

A: !??!!!!!!!!

I’m an autistic person, hell I’m one of the people who raised awareness of disability rights issues surrounding autism back when it wasn’t a popular activity among online autistic people. I was one of two people who compiled the first list of autistic people murdered by caregivers. I’ve fought for the recognition of autism related eugenics for what it is.

And I can’t make head or tail of conversations that run that way. I any make any direct connection between assuming a kid can’t read (that’s just an example I thought up from arguments I’ve had myself, since I can’t remember the original conversations), and murder or other hate crimes. And only the most tangential of indirect connections. The level of bad isn’t even comparable and I cringe whenever I see this happening.

Which is surprisingly often. It’s like I may even agree with the autistic person in that argument. Until that happens. At which point I just get confused why irritated. Because I’m not comfortable using something as serious as murder in a conversation about something much much less serious.

And I can never make the connection about why murder is suddenly brought up. If I can’t connect it, and I’ve been involved in disability rights as long as I have, then it’s certain the parent won’t see a connection. And will, at that point, completely write off anything the other person said.

I understand bringing up serious things like murder if the topic is related to it. Or if the topic is something that can lead to it.

Like I once was arguing with a parent about publicly stating that her adult autistic child would never be an adult. I was trying to explain why this was wrong. So I brought up the fact that this mentality is directly related to DD people being prevented from marrying, even sometimes being sterilized “for their own good”.

But there’s a direct connection there. I wasn’t just bringing up a random unrelated horrible thing in order to make things sound more serious. I was talking about direct consequences of the child in an adult body mentality.

As far as duty to educate… I do think as a group we need to educate, but I don’t think it’s any one autistic person’s absolute duty to educate at every possible moment. When one person can’t, or doesn’t feel like it, someone else can.

Notes: