I see that Ari Ne'eman (as well as I presume the rest of the members of the autistic self advocacy network) have taken umbrage at republican senatorial candidate Sharron Angle's controversial remarks about autism and insurance mandates, where she implies that some persons may be faking autism. ASAN is now circulating an online petition urging Angle to apologize for her remarks.
It seems to this blogger the majority of ASAN's advocacy activities are aimed at telling the world how easily offended they are and just trying to claim people should not be offensive rather than actually doing something to help disabled people function better in the world or fighting for abuse such as what happens at Judge Rotenberg center. The Ransom notes campaign from a couple of years ago is the most well-known of these examples. If everyone spent as much time crusading anytime a remark that they found offensive was said, no one would get any work done during the day and the world's activities would grind to a halt.
Since Ari Ne'eman and ASAN insist that Angle apologize for remarks that they don't like how about if they apologize to me for remarks and activities that I find offensive.
I find it offensive that they would state that curing autism is morally reprehensible. That they would spend time on the Zacqhery Price case after saying that no criminal should get a free pass because of autism. I am offended that they would claim they never said that autism was not a disability and after I produced Ne'eman's essay they would make a pathetic attempt at damage control and edit the essay, then admit it was a mistake to phrase things in the essay the way they did, then delete it from their site altogether. I find it offensive that Ne'eman, (a 21-year-old kid at the time) had never worked in a job of any sort and would claim that the solution for reducing employment among autistics was to eliminate social pleasantry as a criteria for hiring and a good job evaluation. This is particularly offensive after I have been fired something like 20 times, forced to resign from other jobs in more marginal situations and tried to make a living more years than Ne'eman has been alive. I find it offensive that they would accept donations from the "autistic bitch from hell" who has stated that persons with autism whose views she does not agree with should be put to death and turned into cat food. There is speculation that ABFH is in reality Meg Evans, one of the top executives of ASAN. I find it offensive that they would accept donations from a vicious and cruel hatemonger like Clay Adams who can only try to win an argument with me by bringing back the Bettelheim era and stating my mother was responsible for all the problems in my life and making up bigoted statements mocking my disability and by extension all disabled people whom ASAN claims they want to have dignity. As well as calling both me and my mother names just because he does not like the fact I take Ne'eman to task. Ne'eman may not know about this since it happened before he was born but in 1980 the Ku Klux Klan endorsed Ronald Reagan's presidential candidacy and Reagan renounced the endorsement and refused to accept money from them. I wonder why Ne'eman and ASAN don't do the same thing where ABFH and Clay Adams are concerned.
I find it offensive that they would imply that there is a possibility that parents of autistic children who donate money to autism speaks are morally complicit with murder. I find it offensive that they would imply that genetic research is used to find a way to abort autistic fetuses.
I don't know how to do an online petition and I don't know how many signatures I would get. But the various statements and actions of Ne'eman and his colleagues are just as offensive to me as Angle's statements about autism are to those who took umbrage at her remarks. I suspect there are others besides me who find a lot of Ne'eman's and ASAN's remarks offensive.
I suggest that ASAN write a public apology to me ( and anyone else they may have offended) on their websites before they start circulating petitions claiming someone who makes remarks offensive to them should apologize. After all, what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
47 signatures so far:(
ReplyDeleteDoes Sharron Angle actually have any proof of any fraud?
Or is she just talking out her... whatever?
I think ASAN have a point though - by making these statements she lays every autistic (and their parents) open to the accusation of fraud.
We should at least leave that for when there's a prima facie case.
And she's on her way Bettelheim territory of blaming the parent for the child's autism.
Zach Price was 10 and had autism and IQ<70. I think he deserves a break.
You've definitely reached Rantingville's city limits
I think ASAN have a point though - by making these statements she lays every autistic (and their parents) open to the accusation of fraud.
ReplyDeleteWhat do they care? They are claiming that autism is not even a medical disability and that autistics are fine with societal accommodations. If anything, they should be supporting Angle in her opposition to autism insurance mandates. Of course the problem is if Ne'eman and ASAN did not support the insurance payments of augmentive communications devices that they have been lobbying for then they would have to admit the inability to speak which perhaps nearly 50% of those on the spectrum have really is a problem and a disability.
And she's on her way Bettelheim territory of blaming the parent for the child's autism.
And she's on her way Bettelheim territory of blaming the parent for the child's autism.
I don't understand how Angle is claiming that parents are responsible for autism. Attempting to bring back Bettelheim is in Clay Adams' Phil Gluyas' and Marc Rosen's and perhaps other ASAN afficianado's departments.
I think ASAN have dropped some of the Aspie Liberation Front nonsense now.
ReplyDeleteThey're still rendered lame by the lack of severely disabled autistics in their ranks.
Also the Preppie University social-club element of it? Ed is about the only crazy & poor one among them.
Have you ever managed to read all of one of his posts? He should move to France and become an Existentialist.
Great article by a REAL person!
ReplyDeletefound your blog via an article posted on FB.
"I find it offensive that they would accept donations from the "autistic bitch from hell" who has stated that persons with autism whose views she does not agree with should be put to death and turned into cat food."
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure she didn't mean everyone she doesn't agree with, just you! See how you get meanings mixed up, weenie?
Oh, and when's the last time you saw Jerry or Hal? Sounds like they'd do anything to avoid you, from what they said. ;-)
Ne'eman was born into Zionism. He's one of the elite by birth and he is part of the corrupt power structure connected to the Rothschilds and the banks.
ReplyDeleteEvery word Ne'eman utters is carefully designed fraud as I've spelled out so many times.
I have not seen Hal recently. But have talked with him on the phone numerous times since Clay met him that one time years ago. I saw Jerry at a conference a few weeks ago and he stated that he was glad to see me. We talk on the phone sometimes. I don't see Jerry as much since he moved to another city. Normally I don't publish comments from Clay Adams but in this case I want to demonstrate to all the readers of autism's gadfly what an out and out liar he is about everything.
ReplyDeleteJB.,
ReplyDeleteI agree Ari's been born into the Elite, but most of this Elite aren't Jewish or particularly Zionist. He was heading for Capitol Hill, autism or no autism.
Eeyore,
Censoring comments is a bucket of shite. Learn how to take it on the chin.
Anonymous,
Why so cowardly?
Everyone else,
F Off.
I'm glad to have found your blog. I'm the mother of a 22-year-old young man with autism. His life is hard, especially lately. (He hurts himself when he's upset). It breaks my heart to see him so miserable at times. I find it very hard to be even remotely happy when he's having a bad month. I would do anything, give anything, to ease his pain, including my life. I know that sounds utterly dramatic, but it's from the heart.
ReplyDeleteWhether it would make him "normal"
or not, I don't care-as long as it would make his life easier.
I cannot stomach the "neurodiversity" folks, the Bettelheim camp, or anyone who would deny my family (and future families) a life without this cancer of worry that will be with me until I die.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Kathleen
Ari is a smooth political operator I have no doubt, but then sometimes that is what you need in the corridors of power, at least he is not totally out of his depth like John Robison appears to be.
ReplyDeleteYeah you can be a tea bagging demogogue like this Angle person, because where she comes from it doesn't matter what you say but how you say it in order to win the readers of the red tops (or whatever the US equivalent is)
Ari on the other hand needs to be somewhat more consistent and measured in what he says because he is talking to people where it matters, not to the people who put people where it matters.
In the Uk it is the stripes on your tie or the significance of your handshake that matters, I guess the US has an equivalent for that too.
Nonetheless it is a battle that needs to be fought on two fronts, in the corridors of power and on the streets. However to fight effectively you need different specialised troops for each battleground.
I think what is interesting is the people Sharron Angle has chosen as enemies, heck she's antagonising some of the very people who seem to form the back bone of the tea bag movement, bigots born and bred from the autism hysteria party.
Let the extremes rip each other up so the sensible folk can reclaim the middle territory without interference. Given enough time we will still be around to bury them both.
Johnathon,
ReplyDeleteI recently figured out I must have a mild case myself and have recently found brain awakening through mild hyperbaric oxygen. Here is a link to find out more. Read all the info,including cautions, slow and careful is best. But my first session,just with mild pressure,no oxygen,a gradual introduction, opened up parts of my brain that felt dormant for years.
Also,nuerofeedback is anothrer otion and there are several practcioners in LA,Dr. Brod n West LA seems good.
I benfit from accupuncture also. Diet is important too...avoid sugar,sodas,artificial things,too much gluten,get plenty of nutrients like b vitamins,superfoods and anti oxidants like N Acetyl Cysteine and Alpha Lipoic acid....
Hope you explore these avenues!
http://www.hyperbaric-options.com/about_hyperbaric-options.html
anon, have you been mesmerized by a DAN doctor?
ReplyDeleteJonathan, in the video I link to at the bottom you can listen to why Ari Ne'eman refuses to take up JRC as a primary point of protest. He believes an obscure person is more capable to protest against the JRC than ASAN. Hypocritically he can take the time to do a petition against Angle or organize a protest against Autism Speaks, but he admits others are better to organize against JRC because that is what they care about, not him. He won't be using his presidential appointment to help the low functioning at JRC. He is building his organization on the backs of the shattered dreams of the low functioning. He avoids the issues of the low functioning because they disrupt his narrative. The "narrative" is most important above all and that is why the LFA, who can disrupt this "narrative" must be subjugated to the rights and aspirations of his "aspie army". The LFA have become inconvenient and its why he, Amanda Baggs, Jim Sinclair and others want to silence those of us who bring them up. We disrupt the narrative. You have Ari with AS on one side, with phoney autistics Sinclair and Baggs providing the LFA cover he so desperately needs. Not a conspiracy between the three, just a fortunate circumstance that is beneficial to the three.
ReplyDeleteHere you will hear him advocate to an unknown person the responsibility for taking on the JRC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoUgeHgXk4E
My paperwork says I'm about 80% low-jabbering-screamingly disfunctioning.
ReplyDeleteCan I be Ari's new Elf? I can bring some useful credibility to the organisation.
I've got the paperwork to prove it too; you can even email my Cambridge care team for verification of their utter disinterest in my welfare.
I'm feeling especially hard done by - I'm considerably more batshit crazy than Donna Williams (with whom I share no genes).
Ari's may well self-advocate (mommie-advocate?) his way out of the disability ghetto and on into the mainstream. He might even have some real power some day.
Jonathan, I've been asked to remove my video which I've done.
ReplyDeleteKent, Your video is private and I can't see it. I think this Ne'eman video tells the story.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xYkkRvCgFE
.Have they spoken out about Simon Baron-Cohen and his "AQ tests" that many use to diagnose themselves?
ReplyDeleteRoger: Not to my knowledge, no, in fact the ND movement uses Vernon Smith as an example of why ASD's are gifts when in fact the basis for his alleged ASD is a self-administered AQ test.
ASAN has taken back a lot of this autism is not a disability stuff,but I do agree they could do a lot more to officially recant it
Actually Ne'eman claimed he never said that autism was not a disability until I meticulously documented otherwise on this blog. After making some very pathetic attempts at damage control and attempting to edit one of this statements, he ended up deleting the essay altogether and then acknowledged he had made a mistake but claimed he never made the statement autism was not a disability. I think the evidence I have presented clearly shows otherwise.
He has recently only made very half-assed statements acknowledging that autism is a disability, while still claiming that societal accommodations will largely resolve all problems persons on the spectrum have.
I seem to remember ASAN was involved with some sort of health care legislation, but don't exactly recall what they did.
I agree 100%. I get so exhausted with people who constantly try to police other people's speech. It assumes the worst of people, often causing a lot of damage to that person's reputation, and it doeS absolutely nothing productive.
ReplyDeleteHow about we take some action?
Adriana, I contacted the Obama administration and left a message of my discontent with Ne'eman's appointment to the NDC. I wrote both my senators urging them not to confirm Ne'eman's appointment. Not sure what else I can do. Neurodiversity gets very little media coverage in spite of the fact they have significant control now over research funding and autism policy both in the public sector and through such organizations as autism speaks. Hopefully we can get enough people who have autism or relatives with autism or similar conditions to take a stance and force them not to fund ND researchers and not to renew Ne'eman's appointments.
ReplyDelete