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See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

MNHQ please can you clamp down on anti autism threads?

127 replies

Notreallyarsed · 21/09/2017 16:07

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

OP posts:
Original poster
Notreallyarsed · 21/09/2017 18:28

@Coloursthatweremyjoy you put it better than I managed, thank you.

OP posts:
BertrandRussell · 21/09/2017 18:33

"Being offensive, inflammatory and nasty solves absolutely nothing"

I absolutely agree. But nobody on that particular thread was.Oh,except when posters were accused of saying that all people with autism are cunts and should be got rid of............

SerfTerf · 21/09/2017 18:35

What do you make of the "it's hard to tell a bastard from an aspie" posting i described earlier @bertrand?

BertrandRussell · 21/09/2017 18:38

I think of it exactly as any decent human being would think of it. Why do you ask?

Original poster
Notreallyarsed · 21/09/2017 18:38

Fair enough Bertrand I did overreact on that thread, I’ve reported my comment and asked for it to be removed. It doesn’t change my OP, and the reasons for it.

OP posts:
Original poster
Notreallyarsed · 21/09/2017 18:40

Decent is a relative concept. I’m fairly sure most of the disablism on here isn’t done by people who identify as horrible people, but if it barks like a dog....

OP posts:
SerfTerf · 21/09/2017 18:45

I'm confused as to why you're arguing so doggedly about that particular thread on a site stuff thread about a problematic sub genre of troll threads and bigotry @bettrand.

Coloursthatweremyjoy · 21/09/2017 18:49

I think the worst thing for me is when people say that a person with Autism should just stop doing a certain thing or that it can be taught out of them...noises for example. I was told a lot that DS noises upset children in his class...I get it on a certain level but you can't punish him for it or teach him not to do it any more than you can punish Clara for her wheelchair having chunky wheels that children trip over.

But now I'm "educating" again. Arghhhh.

It would be fine if people asked advice or expressed their worries but that's not what happens on threads. What happens is that people with Autism and parents of children with Autism are blamed for the disability, told that they are hogging resources or take too much time up. I see this especially when there are issues as school.

MNHQ will undoubtedly be along soon to say that any posts they consider disabilist are removed but "debate" should be allowed to "educate". I don't agree it's a big job either because I'm sure racist slurs are gone pretty damn fast. We're just not as important.

BertrandRussell · 21/09/2017 18:59

m confused as to why you're arguing so doggedly about that particular thread on a site stuff thread about a problematic sub genre of troll threads and bigotry @bettrand."

Because that thread was quoted as one such. And I think the OP of it was treated very shabbily.

Thank you- notreallyarsed that is very magnanimous of you.Flowers

Original poster
Notreallyarsed · 21/09/2017 19:01

I’ve apologised to that OP, and asked for my comment to be removed. I was unfair, and have said so and apologised.

OP posts:
vickibee · 21/09/2017 19:19

My son has hf asd and presents masks his symptoms at school so they don't believe me when I tell the he has severe difficulties especially with social interaction and communication. He can access the curriculum but he is 18 months behind where he should be. He gets limited help via an IEP which seems just like a box ticking exercise. Other parents look down their nose at you and comments like they don't want their child mixing with Ds are common. It makes me sad.

elliejjtiny · 21/09/2017 19:33

I agree with a lot of this. I'm mum to an 11 year old who has autism and also other DC with different disabilities. I have had so many ignorant and awful comments from people who know us, strangers, professionals and family as well as people online. I think all my sons who have different disabilities get the same amount of comments. And yes my son who is deaf gets told to listen harder. I'm so sick of it. Having a child with disabilities is relatively easy (apart from being head-butted and lugging a 20kg child around), it's the fighting, feeling like I've failed them and listening to idiots who think I produced disabled children so I can live the high life with their DLA that is so
crap. I feel compelled to educate people who say/post offensive things but it feels like I'm jumping up and down and screaming while everyone around ignores me. I should really save the energy for the next fight with the school about the support my children need. I've also lost count of the times that I've explained that of course you can get nappies in sizes bigger than size 6 to people who are shocked to discover that children older than 3 wear them.

BertrandRussell · 21/09/2017 20:04

I can understand how infuriating it must be to be expected to be an educator all the time. Particularly if you are being expected to educate arseholes.

But I do think people often think they are doing the right thing by asking questions. I don't know what the answer is. Who should be doing the educating?

I

SerfTerf · 21/09/2017 20:07

It's not the people who ask questions who are the problem.

If the question askers are getting snapped up it's entirely attributable to goad-fatigue caused by the deluge of autism-themed bigotry.

BertrandRussell · 21/09/2017 20:14

Fair enough. Shall we pretend that I'm not a goady bigot though, and let's talk about anything we can do about it?

SerfTerf · 21/09/2017 20:15

I thought that's what we were doing.

thecatfromjapan · 21/09/2017 21:23

Bertrand There are genuine trolls GF on those threads. That stick out like a sore thumb. It's slightly horrible that they've identified autism as a beautiful, new pasture, well-stocked with lush, green grass.

And yes, really the only way for people to deal with them is to not engage because they thrive on attention - negative attention mainly.

Sadly, people seem to find it hard to resist and/or they are new to internet chat groups. I suspect SN is a particular joy because there will be a supply of people whose need for support has driven them here and they may not necessarily be very internet jaded savvy.

Rather horribly, they may also be quite vulnerable, and therefore even more primed to respond to posters whose intentions are quite unpleasant.

LilaBard · 21/09/2017 21:30

Haven't rtft but yes this is really getting in my wick. Someone will post about how fucking awful their eg partner is and the response will be oh do you think he's "on the spectrum"? Where did the idea come from that all autistic people are either mute geniuses or rude abusive arseholes?

potatoscowls · 21/09/2017 22:46

LilaBard you stole my comment exactly!

VinIsGroot · 21/09/2017 23:06

Why are you arsed? .....I own 2...just get in and ignore idiots!

randomer · 22/09/2017 09:04

So there is no spectrum?

Original poster
Notreallyarsed · 22/09/2017 09:10

There is a spectrum, an autistic spectrum that non autistic people are not on.

OP posts:
SerfTerf · 22/09/2017 09:12

Maybe it's the use of the word "spectrum" that confuses people? IDK Confused

BertrandRussell · 22/09/2017 09:33

It's a shame really. I think that the whole idea of the autistic spectrum that we are all on somewhere was very well intentioned. It was intended to end the idea that there is NT and not NT with a big wall between. But it's been taken up in popular culture and the meaning has been diluted. I am old enough to remember when depression changed in popular discourse from an illness to feeling a bit sad. And the same has happened to OCD.

CloudPerson · 22/09/2017 12:45

I think that's it Bertrand, the linear spectrum is being rejected because it leads to unhelpful assumptions - well we're all on the spectrum and I manage ok, so maybe you need to try harder?, that kind of approach, especially when it comes to so-called high functioning autism - you can appear to be ok, therefore you are able to not be autistic when it suits others, when it just doesn't work like that.
Autistic people are often very able to communicate how things affect them, but very often NTs don't appear to be able to take in this information because it goes against the beliefs they already have about autism and surrounding issues.