I have received an interesting email from Alex Plank, the owner of the infamous neurodiversity website, wrong planet. As I am pretty sure it was a form email, I think I can print the contents without it being considered any sort of breach of ethics.
Happy 2010 to my fellow Aspergians and friends! You guessed right, it's Alex, your favorite autistic website admin sending you greetings again. I think 2010 is going to be an exciting year in autism which is why I'm sending out another newsletter (even though I usually only send one every 6 months).First of all, if you haven't seen my autism documentary, please check it out ( http://wrongplanet.net/postt114120.html ). It's been quite the hit but I don't think all of you have gotten a chance to watch it and if you have watched it, please share it with as many people as you can!In addition, the site has started to load more slowly due to a recent increase in WP's popularity. If you have any extra cash, consider donating to help pay for WP's new server (one year it'll cost $4800 to run just one really fast web server and from where things are going, it looks like we'll soon need to add another server.). Every bit counts (people have donated everything from $5 to $500 so far.)I'd also like to be able to continue to produce videos like autism reality which aren't free (well they're free for you, but not for me. . . lol!) Keep in mind that WP is not tax-exempt and I only added the option to donate after I was continually asked by members of the site.
In addition, if you're on twitter, follow the Wrong Planet twitter alien: http://twitter.com/wrongplanet
and if you get a chance, follow me as well: http://twitter.com/alexplank
Also, I respond to your emails. Please let me know what you plan on doing for autism in 2010!!!!!!!
So it is interesting that this person who banned me from his website just because I happened to post an opinion that was not in agreement with the usual ND rhetoric and was too cowardly to refute any of my positions would have the temerity to ask me to donate money to his cause.
Also, Plank has stated that most autistics don't want to be cured. It is very interesting that he would consult someone whom he has banned from his website for a solicited donation yet did not bother to consult me, Stephanie Keil, Roger Kulp, Jake Crosby or other numerous autistics who do want to be cured before making this bold statement to the media.
One reason not to donate money to Plank's cause is that he engages in very slipshod journalism on his webpage, claiming that autism speaks forced Zazzle to discontinue Zach Lassiter's line of t-shirts. Without investigating any of the facts, Plank ran this boldfaced lie on the front page of his website. For a while, this was a cause celebre' of neurodiversity. It was autism's gadfly who exposed this neurodiversity propaganda as being untrue. It would seem Mr. Plank has not learned his lesson and shows how ludicrous Plank is for asking someone who exposed his shoddy journalism for a donation.
It is also interesting that Plank would have the gall to ask people to donate money to him so he can make more videos like his self-promoting autism reality video. Somehow because it cost him money to make this he seems to think that those who viewed it on you tube or elsewhere should pick up the tab.
He also dates Katie Miller who testified before the IACC trying to convince the federal government not to fund autism research that would lead to a cure or preventing a child from becoming crippled and sick from autism. This is in spite of the fact that the IACC grew out of the combating autism act which Miller, Plank and other ND's vigorously opposed while it was being debated in congress, so it would seem Ms. Miller wastes the taxpayer's money by proposing autism policy which is exactly opposite of the purpose for which a law was created.
Though these are all good reasons not to donate money to Plank not only from someone banned from his website, but from any person at all, it would be charitable to this young man to say these are the main reasons.
Plank does not give a rat's ass about autistic persons having human rights, the oft stated goal that neurodiversitites falsely claim to have. He does not care about helping anyone but himself. His agenda is entirely self-service, self-promotion, so he can continue his propaganda to help himself make money and get publicity. This is the main reason I urge anyone not to donate money to Plank.
Alex, if you happen to read this I accepted your invitation to email you with my plans for autism in 2010, as I stated in my email to you, I have started out autism 2010 by writing this blog post. You said you respond to emails. I await your response with baited breath.
I can't argue that he's stamped on free speech.
ReplyDeleteHe threatened to ban one long-standing WrongPlanet.net member who reported on a certain little Elf's pantomime routine.
His latest video does make some good points, although he seems to think the same naughty Elf is a good representative of the capabilities of non-verbal Autistics.
He's a good ambassador for rich, white American kids with Asperger's. But little else.
I thought Alex's video was very good technically, but as I commented to him (and he did not remove my comment, it is still there), although the video is good, it does not reflect of the whole issues in autism and therefore is misleading. The issues presented are accurate with regard to some Asperger Syndrome people but not to autism as a whole spectrum, even if clips of Temple Grandin talking about the spectrum are included.
ReplyDeleteI have read some comments on YT on that video and clearly what he says speaks for some right? Therefore in my opinion, it has some value.
However, and as I have said already, a more suitable answer would be to stop grouping everybody under the same umbrella diagnosis, unless of course, we can advocate and represent accurately and fairly all on the spectrum. I have yet to see this happening from anyone I have come across in this field. It is so fractionated in opinions, with everyone claiming to hold the Truth about autism.
I am a member of Wrong Planet myself, although I only occasionally drop by. I think I'll respond to the email:
ReplyDelete"My goals for 2010 include finishing my first musical about autism, blogging at least once a week, and writing about autism. I plan to write about acceptance, human rights, treatments, AND cures."
I wonder how he will respond to that last part?
I also got this e-mail (as I assume everyone else who has signed up for an account on WP did) but I deleted it after I read the word "Asperigans."
ReplyDeleteWhy don't these people send their money to a worthwhile cause, not to a website or more movies that should be funded either through the owners or private grants?
I mean, there are starving people in Ethiopia. I'd rather my allotted $50 a month I have for charity go to something useful.
"He's a good ambassador for rich, white American kids with Asperger's. But little else."
As is pretty much everyone else.
Maybe his goals should include a visit to a long term care institution to meet some less photogenic and less articulate Autistics.
ReplyDeleteMaybe then to a Federal prison to meet some supposedly Shiny Happy Aspies that didn't have middle-class parents and gold-plated IEP's to guide them through their lonely teeage years, and ended up homeless and crazy through stress-induced psychosis.
He'd poop his Chinos if he met an average "Aspergian" loose in the Real World.
The email you received was, indeed, a form email that was sent to everyone, not just you.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I would like to correct you regarding one of your "Facts"
Katie and Alex haven't been together for nearly two years now, leave her out of it.
My source? I know both of them quite well, and have spent a great deal of time with them both, which is also why I'm choosing to remain anonymous.
Anonymous: I'll leave Katie out of it when she stops giving anti-cure, pro-neurodiversity testimony before the IACC when that is exactly the opposite of its intended purpose vis a vis the combating autism act which created it.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Alex can't find any other activity to add to his future resume?
ReplyDeletePerhaps I should start working as a public speaker and work for Autism Speaks so I could educate autistics and their parents how to turn their lives around by discussing alternatives to living a more productive life with the focus of partaking in goals to add to one's resume!
Now that's a better start than working at a supermarket like Publix, right Jonathan?
And unlike some naive autistic advocates and public speakers, I'll have credentials and references from my certified speech-language pathologist!
ReplyDeleteBwahahahahaha!!!!!!
Plank is like all of the neuroinsane. He never addresses any criticism. He can lie all he wants on his stupid website to brainwash the dimwits but, he hides like a weasel when anyone points out his deception.
ReplyDeleteNow that's a better start than working at a supermarket like Publix, right Jonathan?
ReplyDeleteJedi: There are a couple of old sayings. Don't count your chickens before they're hatched. Also, before they're hatched, don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Yeah, I understand, Jon.
ReplyDeleteIt's just that I'm tired of hearing the same thing my whole life. I just wish I could accomplish my goals wherever and whenever I want. I feel like growing up that I didn't have any flaws compared to other people, and if people left me alone to do things within my own timing, I could get things done....only I never got the chance to prove anything.
I don't get why people would rather listen to Temple Grandin when I'm the one who's had it harder than she has and I know how to explain the limitations of autism and how they can be overcome from having social-pragmatics training vs. someone who hasn't. Instead, employers and employees would rather look at the resume and other components that are easy to lie about on a resume.
Even once the individual does find some activities and other work to add to his/her resume, it's never the ideal, perfect job he/she wants. It's either you work to keep everyone on the Earth surviving with its resources or you're laid off as a parasite.
My job as an advocate would be to help individuals on the autistic spectrum and others with disabilities cope with understanding that 'auties' and 'aspies' aren't much different than 'NTs' who share the same resources on the same planet, only we're limited compared to them. What we do need, however, is guidance and reassurance for goals one with a disabilities has from NTs so they could contribute to the Earth like any other human being. NTs just need to be educated. Speech-language pathologists could make a great counselor to the person on the spectrum and serve as his/her interpreter to his/her parents as to what the person with the disability is trying to express, especially myself from my own experience of having a language disability or 'difference'.
While your points are probably valid, I can only deduce from the tone and bitter nature of this post that you may need to rethink things a bit.
ReplyDelete