MNHQ please can you clamp down on anti autism threads?

[Notreallyarsed]

For weeks now autism and autistic people have been targeted by thread after thread using inflammatory language, negative stereotypes and connotations and just general ignorance. Why is this allowed to happen? Autism is a recognised disability and as such is covered by discrimination laws. Why is it that people, despite education being widely available and offered on here by parents, are allowed to dismiss/deny/minimise autism in a way that would never be considered acceptable for any other disability? @MNHQ

It used to make a difference, but the demographic has changed.

Perhaps these threads could be kept out of chat and certainly out of AIBU. I rarely respond to them as they quite often end up with people getting very cross when folk say the wrong thing.. I sometimes wonder if some of them are Troll threads made up to cause trouble.

We're ASKING them to deal with it more strongly Polter, not forming punishment gangs of our own 😉

Loads of them are PBPs who cleverly press all the right buttons in their OPs.

We are being had.

I sometimes wonder if some of them are Troll threads made up to cause trouble.

No doubt about it 🙁

@CloudPerson, that link is excellent. Thank you.

That’s why I started this thread Polter, to ask MNHQ to step in before it got to bunfight level. I need to get better at just backing off, but I can’t. If the powers that be were more on top of it, I could. A lot of us could. I’m not articulating myself very well at all, sorry.

The way to stop people goading is to stop responding.

And I've got to the stage where I'd rather the ableist posts stayed up so everyone can see how cunty some posters are.

I agree with the not responding. It's so difficult to ignore though
I'm crap at posting in SN, I feel so out of my depth in there!

If people went back to supporting each other instead of arguing with twats MN would be a much better place.

I completely agree with that Polter, about support. Food for thought on ignoring too, although I do find it very hard. I wish MNHQ would clamp down hard, in a completely unambiguous way.

I wholeheartedly agree OP. If some of the comments made on here about children with Autism were made about children who have a physical disability there would be uproar.

I just had to back away from a thread where a poster said that Autism was over diagnosed and over medicated (I think they mean ADHD meds but who gives a toss about facts). Poor teachers being stretched AND having to deal with these pesky SN. Makes me see red.

I also get fed up that as a parent of children with Autism I am expected to educate the willfully ignorant as if I have somehow given birth to children with this condition simply to spite society.

The way to stop people goading is to stop responding.

Deleting more of the goading, faster would be best.

I realise @MNHQ have their hands full and it's a big job.

If I had a pound for every time someone told me that "we are all on the spectrum" I would have enough money to fund a full time TA for DS instead of navigating this crappy system.

I also get fed up that as a parent of children with Autism I am expected to educate the willfully ignorant as if I have somehow given birth to children with this condition simply to spite society

See that’s the bit that gets my back up too. Like I’ve just lumbered society with these kids that nobody else wants around. That’s the feeling I get from a lot of comments and it pushes my defensive buttons no end.

I also agree it’s a big job for MNHQ, I reckon they’re up to it though.

Do ou think that people should not be allowed to say that they are upset or worried by someone's behaviour if they have autism?

No, I think they should avoid using inflammatory language or being offensive about someone who has a recognised disability.

For example, would it be acceptable to tell someone who was tetraplegic to just get up and walk? Or tell a deaf person to listen more? No, it wouldn’t. So telling an autistic person to just stop running/stimming is ridiculous.

For example, should the elderly frail man on the other thread just accept that there will be 6 hours of distressing noise every evening or move out of his home of 50 years? Do his needs count for nothing?

"So telling an autistic person to just stop running/stimming is ridiculous."

Of course it is. What's the answer?

Yes, they do count for something, but it’s not as simple as just making the child stop. The family could be moved to more suitable accommodation, soundproofing could be installed in both flats, SW could become involved to offer support to both parties.

Going back to the OP, I agree. I wonder if some memo has gone out to the members of the Goady Fuckers, Fantasists and Outright Trolls Club suggesting that they should concentrate on autism and Mumsnet. There really seems to have been a marked spike in this area.

The person making the distressing noise cannot stop any more than the elderly man can cease to be distressed by it.

Support and help should be put in place.

Being offensive, inflammatory and nasty solves absolutely nothing.