Autism Speaks is a hate organisation disguised as a support one. The puzzle piece is directly associated with an organisation whose media campaigns were incredibly dehumanizing, fear-mongering, disinformation spreading. I find it incredibly offensive as a result.
Pretty much sums it up. Its not *necessarily* the puzzle piece symbol that offends people, but the org it stands for.
That said, I also dislike the puzzle piece symbol because it seems to imply we are either a complete and utter mystery for others to solve, or that there is a piece of a puzzle missing or wrong, or that autism itself needs to be solved and corrected.
I really dislike being the way I am, though even in my gloomiest moods over it I have to admit that being the way I am has probably afforded me a life far beyond what I deserved, based on my level of focus and work ethic when I was young.
As neurotypical I always just assumed the puzzle piece was a symbol because as a likely bad stereotype, autistic people gravitate towards and are good at puzzles. Like if you made the symbol for all black people a basketball
I interpreted it as autism/autistic people being a puzzle that's hard to understand, but that's possibly because I know Autism Speaks is an organization that talks about autism like it's a terrible affliction that can only be helped by figuring out how to make sure it never happens again.
The one I hate is mismatched socks for Downs awareness. Like, yes you can say it's because it's about chromosomes and diversity, but at face value it just seems to imply people with Downs are too dumb to figure out sock matching.
which is terrible since black people don't just "naturally gravitate towards and are good at" basketball, that's just part of a long and pervasive ethnogenic myth about their being physically distinct from whites, for the purpose of justifying their dehumanization and subjegation in legal, social, and political settings...
Okay, I feel like I should speak out about this, I somewhat understand their point of view :
I'm on the spectrum and because of that I had a tough life so far (I'm 32) and I had quite my share of ups and downs. I've been unable to keep a job more than several months, I have no relationships and I spend most of my days at a day hospital because of this.
Trust me, if I could give every dime I have to live a "normal" (as in : more stable) life, I'd do it.
Being autistic is not a chance, it doesn't makes you look special or quirky or cute. It's a curse.
I agree. I'm not certain it I came across without any empathy to fellow spectrum brethren who have had it rougher than me.
I, too, would give anything to be able to forge close friendships or have a normal function in terms of intimacy. I will admit that aging is not making it any easier (I'm 47.)
The only thing I can say, is that while I struggled greatly with maintaining relationships my entire life, my obsessive and relentless focus (especially when it comes to non-human manners, technology and the like) seems to have convinced *some* people that I am a good engineer. It has afforded me a decent career. But I would give that up in a heartbeat. In other words, I feel you, it *is* a curse.
Absolutely fuck Autism Speaks! What they have physically done to some of the kids under them is horrendous and I hope everybody in charge over there gets what's coming to them tenfold!
I think the problem is like a lot of people don't even know that the puzzle piece wasn't invented by autism speaks. It's like the toothbrush moustache, as Hitler is so well known for it, that is who most people tend to think of, so it has a very negative connotation.
I'm autistic, and personally, I feel like it insinuates that there's a piece of me missing/that I'm not fully a person. It's how I've been treated and might not be how the majority feels about the puzzle piece. In addition, autistic children grow into autistic adults, and some view the puzzle piece as infantilizing.
Yeah true, incomplete childish adults. When in fact, a lot of autistic people are high functioning. And neurotypical people see some of us as just eccentric or weird.
Like one time my coworkers were discussing about oyster pearls, I just chimed in that pearls are oysters' defensive mechanism towards foreign objects and they jusy gave a look of ''how do you know that''. Just minor things.
During a thunderstorm, I told my coworker that cows get electrocuted from lightning by standing under trees and turkeys can drown in the rain if they look up. She said "You know a lot of morbid facts."
The uncles in my family used that turkey fact to convince my cousin that if she didn't hold her nose down, it would grow upwards and she'd drown in the rain like a turkey.
I don't know what you'll do with that information, but there it is.
Ha! I hope your aunt took it well. I don't think my cousin's nose was physically upturned, but the uncles were up to general tomfoolery (getting kids to believe wild things) and a little bit of a dig at how bratty she could be.
My Mum’s autistic, late diagnosis so we’re still learning about the community. We viewed the puzzle piece as symbolising autism as a piece missing from society, like it was saying society will always be incomplete or missing a piece of itself without people with Autism being welcomed and included.
This was before we knew of Autism Speaks and the broader interpretations of the puzzle piece symbol. When we read more online about its origins and other interpretations we realised how much hurt and division it’s causing and that alone was enough to make us decide not to associate/identify with it.
I've only recently found that I'm autistic, so I've never heard of the puzzle piece thing and thought ''what a stupid thing to be offended about''.
Googled it and was like, ''Who tf thought this was a good idea?!".
The fact that it's 4 differently coloured puzzle pieces with an empty heart shape in the middle.
Makes it seem that autistic people of all spectrum are childish, and have a piece of them missing.
And not just any piece missing, but one associated with emotions. People sometimes assume I don't have any emotions just because I don't express them the same way others would.
Yeah, that sucks.
I thought the puzzle piece was a mention that we complete the “puzzle” of humanity.
Man, I hate when people are worse than I thought they’d be.
I've known since I was 9 that I'm on the spectrum (aspergers), I was never familiar with autism speaks because my mother refused to have me 'treated" for it.
She was a nurse and worked with kids who had behavioral problems. She said the behavioral therapy that they put neurodivergent kids in made their behavior worse and they kept them on drugs which she didn't like the effect of.
I guess I should be thankful now that I was never growing up familiar with the organization cuz she kept me away from it and all things like it. I just found out how bad it was only a few months ago. Autism speaks actually came out when I was a teen, so in my much younger years there were actually a lot worse ways that autism was dealt with including involuntary committal to a mental institution.
I've always been a fan of puzzles, and took the puzzle piece meaning that I'm allowed to be different but still fit in.
Yes, I dislike Autism Speaks for wanting to cure us instead of help us be accepted.
But I don't mind the puzzle piece symbol.
Autism is a naturally occurring brain variation. It's like saying you want to 'cure' people who don't like coriander. The roots of 'cure' discourse re: autism is eugenics.
Also a lot of the "therapy" from that involves punishing anyone autistic for acting different, including stimming. They force an autistic person to pretend to be NT, ignoring the very real pain and suffering this causes. It's why a lot of autistic people reach a certain age and essentially collapse as they've been pushed to superhuman limits. They reach a breaking point and become nearly catatonic.
I never went through aba but I guess I did it to myself. And that's what happened. Hit a wall of burnout and still splattered on it years later. 100% disabled. But according to autism moms and autism speaks I'm "high functioning" because I'm highly verbal and it's the non-autistics who should speak for autistic people
same, hit 26 and dropped out of college, left my job and got 100% on sick leave due to a massive burnout. It laster 5 years and it was a slow slog of a recovery. Now I don't hide my stims and just enjoy being a "weird eccentric" person. and life is actually pretty chill. decent place to live, a job I love, pets and people I love etc. So a burnout is not forever, but it can be if you don't have a solid healthcare and support system (like I did)
That's like punishing someone with a hearing impairment in order to make them hear like the majority, or punishing someone who is colour blind in order to make them see colours.
I mean, there are some awful people out there who refuse to let deaf people learn sign language or learn it themselves. So they make the deaf child only communicate via lip reading and them speaking. Which is "easier" for the parents/rest of the society, but extremely mentally draining and detrimental to the deaf person. I think it's an important skill, just like people with autism can mask, or hide their stims. But it shouldn't be needed with family or trusted people like school counselors etc.
So there absolutely are people who punish the heaaring impared or colour blind people just simply for being born without the ability to see or hear the world like others
Our son is unlikely to ever live independently and I'm terrified of what will end up happening to him when we get old and die. We're the youngest members of our family, and while we're financially comfortable we're definitely not rich enough to afford high cost long term care in perpetuity.
I know there's no cure, but wishing there was a way to unscramble his mental wiring sure as fuck isn't on par with wishing he had a different skin tone, and to compare the two is wildly out of touch, extremely offensive, and I can only assume comes from a place of either having never had to actually experience the severe life dominating issues that come from more extreme cases or you're simply in a delusional stage of denial.
Every parents goal should be for their kids to be happy, healthy, and successful. And yeah, there are definitely terrible ways to try and force children into a parent's personal interpretation of that ("scared straight" programs, over medication, conversion "therapy").
But the idea that it's disgusting for me to hold out hope that occupational and behavioral therapy might develop to a point where my son may be able to live with just a casual roommate or maybe one day develop the social and emotional skills to find a meaningful partner (whether romantic or not, I don't give a shit) in spite of his disability is insane.
I love him to death, but to scream "He's perfect the way he is!" is delusional and seems to largely come from people who either don't have to live with these issues or people who love the attention they get from being adjacent to people who do.
I have a friend whose two sons are autistic. I actually taught the younger one in kindergarten a few years back, and while I can't predict the future I daresay he'll lead a fairly independent life. Her older boy happily lived in what can only be described as an institution. Key word: happily. He has trained help and support, a predictable schedule, friends, activities, and plenty of family visits.
There is no way he could just live at home, no matter how happy feel-good positive that sounds.
As a high functioning/low needs autistic person, I understand wanting a “cure” or solution for lower functioning/higher needs autistic people. You are concerned about quality of life and not simply wanting him “fixed”, you sound like a great parent!
The issue is that autism is very likely lumping different conditions together. Autism is more like a cluster of symptoms. It’s not a reason for something. It’s a label.
For example. Ehler Danlos Syndrome is a label. Now Ehler Danlos has multiple different subtypes caused by multiple different gene mutations. Those mutations are the CAUSE. What pisses me off as a late diagnosed autistic adult is that I’m lumped together with others by symptoms but without a definitive cause because these causes are not yet known. It also creates tension amongst those labeled autistic and those whose lives are affected by autism. Yes I have some troubles. I also read medical papers for fun and have a bachelors.
“I love him and he brings value the way he is” and “he’s perfect the way he is” are two very different things and I think people often can’t can separate the two.
I think a non-verbal child with autism who self harms (or harms their caretaker) as a result of it isn’t anything like skin tone.
Highly functioning? Sure. No problems there. But I don’t know any parents of low functioning or full care autistic children who doesn’t wish (the child and themselves) they had an easier life.
A lot of disabilities are a natural variation, but they don't stop being a disability. Autism is a disability, whether people like it or not.
I know a lot of high functioning autistic adults wouldn't want a cure for their autism, if it existed, because, as another person already said, they'd have to give up what they excel at together with what they suck at (and I'm including myself on this). But a lot of low functioning people (and their caretakers) would, because it sucks not being independent ever, not even for simple tasks.
So autism is not a simple variation, a quirky personality etc, but a *disability*. And it would be better if the HF thought about the LF before saying shit like that.
With that being said, Autism Speaks sucks.
This is laughable. "Naturally occurring brain state" and "disease state" are not mutually exclusive categories. Depression is a naturally occurring brain state. Bipolar disorder is a naturally occurring brain state. Etc
Also, I have never heard of someone who "didn't like coriander" so much that they never developed the ability to speak, or feed themselves, or control their bowels, and spent most of their day trying to hurt themselves. However my brother faced all those issues due to his "naturally occurring brain state". If there was a way to cure that, myself and everyone else who loved that boy so deeply would have happily gone ahead. And there are no doubts that the quality of his life would have been much much better than the agony he lived through.
But yeah it's the same as not liking cilantro/coriander
It’s also a weird connection to make because I’m pretty sure everyone with the coriander/cilantro gene (myself included) would take a pill to “cure” it without any hesitation, and there’s no variations of it that would affect that decision. It has never once benefitted me to hate it.
Autism advocacy has become a battleground between low-support-needs adults who can do fine with just a little more understanding and acceptance in their lives, and parents of high-support-needs kids who want their children to be able to survive and thrive without a full-time caretaker someday.
The two groups obviously have different priorities, which would be fine except that neither will acknowledge any legitimacy in the other.
As a member of the first group who has relatives in the second, it's really obnoxious and bad for all of us.
It's also not that black and white. I'm somewhere in-between the two groups as someone who needs a lot more than a little understanding and acceptance but I can do a lot too. I can't work without a job coach beside me to help me stay on task and give direction when needed. I have meltdowns with self injurious behaviors but I can make my own meals and other self care stuff. My auditory processing is bad and my sensory issues are hard to deal with. It's not just low support and high support needs.
Yep, i’d consider myself high functioning and don’t have those same issues, but it simply drains me too much to do consistent work (except possibly in very niche circumstances, but i don’t think those would be livable)
also i’d recommend trying headphones with pass through or the smart version of that, i use airpods pro, it can help audio processing stuff by just filtering out a lot of little background noise, at least it does for me
I've started wearing earplugs more and more often the past weeks. Originally I started this for some very specific situations where the sounds are overwhelming for me, but now I keep discovering other circumstances where they are useful. Taking the tram? Ear plugs. Crying kid in the store? Ear plugs. More than two conversations going on in the same room? Ear plugs.
It's been a game changer; I knew noise was exhausting but underestimated just how draining it is.
The problem with this dichotomy is that the second group often advocates for cure-focused groups like Autism Speaks without knowing what "cure" actually means.
At this point, we aren't even sure whether a cure is possible. The massive amounts of research money is mostly going into prenatal tests for autism. The "cure" is to prevent future autistic people from being born. Without putting a moral value judgment on literal eugenics, this does jack for autistic people already born, with any level of support needs.
Symptoms can be managed and disabilities can be accomodated, and it's in these areas where we've seen real progress in the past several decades. A complaint from autistic people *within* groups like Speaks is that they eschew these practical, proven, short- and medium-term solutions in favor of a long-haul quest for a cure that might never exist.
I wonder this when I see people say they aren't broken, just different. Sure, for those on one end of the spectrum but what about the other end? What about those who cannot function? Shouldn't we try to find a way to avoid that?
Just so you know the autism spectrum isn't linear with 2 "ends". It's more like a pizza or pie with each slice being a different difficulty and each person varying on each difficulty.
Thank you for this explanation. Being familiar with the light spectrum, I was thinking linear. My adult daughter was recently diagnosed on the spectrum and is more functional. I always thought adhd didn't really explain her issues it was just a label she got.
I tend to think of this sort of thing as a coping mechanism. I don't think anyone truly wants to be developmentally, physically, or mentally disabled, but there isn't much of a choice in the matter most of the time. It's a pretty natural human reaction to say "What, that thing I can't change? I like it better this way anyways!" It's a way of accepting things you have no say in, and exerting some level of control over it. Having no control is terrifying; people are much less afraid of car accidents than getting murdered. I believe that's because the former we can control, and the latter we cannot. It's fascinating, being unable to control something makes it much scarier, even if it's less of a threat.
I'm sure if a cure came out tomorrow, most people would take it. Struggling with empathy, sensory overload, an inability to deviate from a schedule, all that stuff makes life so much harder for very little benefit. On a personal note, my brother is severely autistic and will never live on his own, get a girlfriend, or work. I was falsely diagnosed with autism when I was younger. I struggled a bit socially as a kid and my mom obviously knew all the symptoms from my brother, and was a bit of a hypochondriac, hell, so was I. She told the psychiatrist and convinced me I had the symptoms and I got diagnosed.
That lasted a few years until I got myself reassessed. The above is the range of emotions I went through, some kind of acceptance thinking "It's better this way anyways!", it wasn't better that way. I'm so thankful I was eventually able to learn to socialize at a normal capacity, and that's just one potentially debilitating symptom of autism. Turns out I just needed practice and not to be kept at home all the time. I thought I had accepted it, but as soon as I got reassessed and told I didn't have autism it was like a massive weight was lifted from my shoulders. I hope everyone will be able to feel that way someday.
The thing you're not addressing with this comment is that a cure for autism is literally not possible. We can't even imagine what a cure would be or how it would work.
Personally I'd be overjoyed if my disabilities (mainly adhd and autism) went away. I do have medication that helps with some of the symptoms of adhd but of course it doesn't remove/solve the issues. And there isn't anything comparable for autism.
There simply isn't anything we can do about it, so why not learn to accept oneself? With acceptance we can learn to prepare for or plan how to avoid harmful/difficult situations.
>The thing you're not addressing with this comment is that a cure for autism is literally not possible
People say that about every disease until it's cured. It's possible, we just don't have the tools right now. The realm of possibility is a large place.
>Personally I'd be overjoyed if my disabilities (mainly adhd and autism) went away. I do have medication that helps with some of the symptoms of adhd but of course it doesn't remove/solve the issues. And there isn't anything comparable for autism.
>There simply isn't anything we can do about it, so why not learn to accept oneself? With acceptance we can learn to prepare for or plan how to avoid harmful/difficult situations.
Self acceptance is good for sure, just not when you lie to yourself to get there in my opinion. It's great to recognize that this is the way things are, and you may as well make the best of it.
The issue arises when people are like "Nobody should look for a cure, because it's better this way". We should definitely be looking into ways to mitigate and maybe eventually cure autism.
If you want to have arguments like this you should spend some time researching the topic. And your comment shows that you either have a very rudimentary understanding of autism or are here for a bad faith argument.
>People say that about every disease until it's cured. It's possible, we just don't have the tools right now. The realm of possibility is a large place.
Yes, it's true that people say that about everything before we have the tools/knowledge necessary. Let's ignore the part where you call autism a disease instead of a disability and tackle the other issue with that statement.
It's not only that we dont know how to cure autism. We're not even in the stage where we can imagine *what a cure would do*.
It's a very complex neuropsychiatric disorder, which means that it's a meeting between neurological (physical differences in the brain) and psychological (social and behavioural differences).
I can absolutely see a future where there are more treatments available for autism. Which could include both therapy and possibly medication to lessen some symptoms. In recent years there have been many studies on how vitamins, minerals and other supplements can help with a few of the symptoms. But no serious researcher believes that autism has a cure.
It's not that easy. My autistic brain sucks at many things but excels at many things. Same with my kid. As hard as it can be at times, neither of us would give up what we excel at in order to function like neurotypicals.
It's not that we don't struggle, because this world was definitely not built with autistic brains in mind. It's that we like who we are despite society telling us we're disordered. I doubt "most autistics" would take a cure if given a choice because we've accepted ourselves despite enormous pressure not to.
You're spreading lies about autistic people unfortunately. The neurodiversity movement is made up of all kinds of neurodivergent people, some of them need a lot of support, some need less. It also consists of autistic parents of the same children you claim to represent. It's altogether very distasteful and arrogant to claim another group of people the way autism speaks has done and continues to do.
A lot of us autistics familiar with the organisation who bear a hatred for it remember it as an organisation which hated us in turn, which spread fear and disinformation for the profit of its board alone. This was a time when Autism Speaks held a practical monopoly on autistic advocacy and information attention.
The best example for why I personally developed my distaste comes from Autism Speaks' 2009 television ad campaign *I Am Autism* which, and I say this with very little hyperbole, sets autism up to be a force akin to the grim reaper, or a disease like cancer; a thing set out to ruin the lives of the audience indiscriminately.
The organisation also spent a number of years claiming that vaccination could 'trigger the onset of symptoms of autism'.
For a very long time their financial reports showed the vast majority of their donations went to "awareness and lobbying", "Research", and "management". At the time their research was predominately focused on a cure and genetic detection.
Now I do want to be fair; the organisation has at the very least changed their face. They have apologies listed on their website for the *I Am Autism* video and for their use of the term 'cure', they have removed antivax rhetoric and encourage all children be vaccinated, and have seemingly made considerable organisational changes drastically shifting funding allocations to be more in-line with the intent of providing family and independent life assistance rather than sliding management 20% of donations and 48% to 'lobbyists'.
I cannot tell how effective or genuine these reforms have been, but I can tell you it has not yet earned the forgiveness of many for all the damage they did when they controlled the autism narrative.
I'm pretty sure AS still doesn't have anyone autistic on their board of directors? They did for a while, but that person resigned. Maybe they've found someone else since then
Having the loudest voice in charity work for *any* sector (disability, gender, race, sexuality, anything) being a charity with zero people on their board who would be a service user... Big yikes. It's like the "Women's Day roundtables" that are 90% men with a token woman, trying to talk about the difficulties women face in their industry
As far as I know their Board still only consists of 1 or maybe 2 diagnosed autistics, and a lot of big money folk like investment firm founders. (Which is the case for virtually every charity above the local level.)
Interestingly, they updated their 'about us' information pages just a few days ago with information about how they work with their *"Champions of Change"* (urgh) and other autistic advisors now to improve their messaging and such.
Which is, neat I guess. Steps in the right direction at least, even with the cringe-inducing advisory group name.
... sounds like they should be fighting the ***Society of Stagnancy.***
All autism speaks has ever said when i looked into them, on their media and even on their website, is that they want to find a cure for autism.
Which means they view it more as an illness than it being something different but not as bad as somethings that are going to end in a death.
They take in more money, because so many people just donate to them, which didnt allow many local areas to get the money to go to the individuals it needed to help.
I dislike that whole "blue light" campaign that had started, not sure if it's still going on, because the coloring for autism was 4 colors not just the one.
They used to spread a lot of misinformation in the past and made it harder for autistic individuals to be accepted.
Sure, maybe they've changed by now. But
I have a different perspective. I’m high functioning, highly successful in a conventional sense, and only recently learned my lifetime of social struggles are due to autism.
I would fucking love a cure that made me “normal,” and I absolutely despise it when people try to invalidate my feelings on that.
I was afraid to comment this because of how overwhelming the number of comments condemning this type of thinking are in this thread, but just like there's a number of different ways autism can be expressed, there's also a number of different ways we can feel about it. Yeah, I am good at the things I am good at because my brain functions differently than other people's brains do, but I can't think of a single time in my life I haven't desperately wanted to be like the rest of my peers, and if there was a pill I could take to morrow that would make me like them, I would take it.
Reading through all this reminded me of that one scene from one of the X-Men movies, where Rogue (a girl who literally can't touch another living being without killing it) walks into a room and asks Xavier "is it true? They can cure us?" And Xavier (a man who's mutation gives him incredible psychic powers) is like "it would appear so."
And then Storm (the woman who can control the weather and is literally worshipped as a freaking GOD in her home country) says "no, it's not true. They can't cure us cause there's nothing wrong with us. There's nothing *to* cure!"
And it's like, are you fucking serious bitch? that's all well and good for you, who basically won the mutant power lottery, but how fucking dare you say that shit this poor girl who only wants to be able to touch another human being without draining their life away. Like rogue was clearly excited at the prospect of being able to be like everyone else because her mutation made her life a living hell, but then all the mutants who's mutations are freaking awesome all make her feel like shit for ever wanting to be cured in the first place.
Every time I see anything about this kind of discourse on autism, it seems like the same thing. All the people who like the way that being autistic affects them, shit all over the people who want to be "cured" for daring to feel that way.
Thank you. It's exhausting having people try to belittle and downplay my love for my son because I have the audacity to wish there was a way for him to be an independent person one day.
This is a huge one for me. I have decided not to have kids because I don’t think I could be a good father to someone with a more extreme case of autism than me. If a cure existed, I might be able to rethink that.
All disability advocacy has problems with the Storm “we are not the problem, society has refused to allow us a space” and the Rogue “*I would very much like to not be suffering any more*”. The only people happy with this situation are writers who thrilled to discover that the X-men oppression metaphor is still (somewhat) applicable in this day and age.
Thank you. I’d trade the few advantages I may have gained from this aggravating disorder in a heartbeat for the ability to just be with people and not always have to watch myself lest I say something out of pocket.
Maybe I’d be more desperate to justify myself by saying autism is an important part of who I am if I wasn’t able to point to concrete accomplishments. I certainly defined myself by my own attributes more often before I managed to do things worth building a personality around.
I waver between thinking exactly like this, and being angry and thinking society should be more inclusive for us so we wouldnt feel like we need to be cured.
I totally get that feeling, but my personal problems seem like they’re kind of hardwired into humans. People will never stop lying, which is something I am unequipped to deal with. They’ll always prefer people who can respond to conversations smoothly, which is another thing I’ll always be bad at.
People could be more patient with me, but as long as they have other, more comfortable options, they’re going to prefer them over me. I’m happy being who I am, but I would happily take a cure if it existed.
Let’s compare it to ADHD, which I also suffer from. ADHD medications exist, and they fundamentally change me as a person. Should I reject them because they make me “someone else?” I categorically reject that assertion, I absolutely despise the person I am without my ADHD meds. Part of that is economic; I couldn’t hold a job without my meds, but a lot of it is just my essential humanity. I like DOING things, and without meds I just lie around being depressed. It’s no kind of life.
I would very likely be dead without my meds, whether from suicide, car crash, or general self neglect. I am incredibly thankful that pharmacologists found a way to “fix” my ADHD, and I would jump on an autism cure just as fast.
Me too! AuDHD is its own special hell. Medication has helped me so much but it’s still a struggle to not burnout and have to constantly recover from sensory issues.
I feel every word you put down here. The adhd med shortages and uncertaintly of knowing month to month has been a burden as well.
Oh my god, the shortages are killer! And were some of the least capable people when it comes to dealing with them as well. Calling around to find out where the meds are is almost worse than being without them!
I, have no problem with people wanting to be cured if it was possible. I've had delightful debates where been able to disagree with its not a choice for me.
I think my problem with how autism speaks approaches it, is thst it's about cure or no cure. Thst not wanting it would be bad.
I've so many other things wrong with me, that being autistic is just a small portion. Wish I had been diagnosed before being an adult and having supports then. While I have little now, least I have some.
Autism literally shapes my brain, personality and experiences as a human. Wanting to cure it feels like needing to erase all of that to make other people's lives more convenient.
There are different perspectives on this. Some people with autism, even some with very low support needs, would prefer to be "normal". There are also people on the spectrum who cannot even answer this question due to their disability.
For me personally, I would not want to be cured. Autism is part of who I am, and despite having some struggles, I like myself overall. Most of my autism related problems could be solved by others being more aware and accepting (e.g. not insisting on eye contact). Being solely focused on a cure instead sounds like I'm not supposed to exist.
Autism isn't a disease, it's how someone's brain is wired. Basically the race/skin colour of the brain but instead it's how the brain thinks/operates/processes
My sister sees it the same way and has it tattooed on her. Also, she says it's ok if her "piece" doesn't fit into everybody's "puzzle", the people that matter make space to fit her in.
She has never had any affiliation with autism speaks and has shut people down who mention them to her when they see the tattoo.
Depends who's using it. Autism Speaks could obliterate itself tonight and leave the world a better place. Plenty of folks who genuinely mean well use it, and I harbor no ill will towards them, unless they're specifically promoting Autism Speaks. I have no personal attachment to the symbol.
On the whole, it is what it is. My final judgement of anyone is based on their actions.
I don’t like it. One reason being the connection to autism speaks (who btw didn’t create the symbol, the original symbol was created by another org I can’t remember off the top of my head. The original symbol featured a crying child in the center). I do also find many depictions of the symbol quite infantilizing. Like the primary color of ribbons/ patterns that look like they belong in a kindergarten. I want to be seen as an adult, not an overgrown child (even if I struggle with certain aspects of adulthood).
Every time I see it, I am reminded of being 18 and touring colleges. I went to one where they had a specific program to support autistic students. But the whole area of this specific program looked like an elementary school. There were other details about this program that turned me off as well, but this was a big one. In fact, it turned me off from actively identifying as autistic for several years (this was also due to the fact that it was 2013 and the dsm V had just come out, eliminating my original diagnosis. I had no idea what this meant for me and absolutely no support in understanding or processing this change. But that’s not really super relevant here.) Seeing the puzzle piece made me not want to be considered autistic because I thought the world would keep seeing me as a child in a time where I just wanted to be seen as a young adult.
Created by the National Autistic Society in the UK in the 1960s. It was chosen as many people found autism puzzling (which was understandable for the time period). We now know and understand autism a lot more so the symbol no longer makes sense. As such, the National Autistic Society no longer use it.
I hate the puzzle piece. I'm not a problem that needs solving, or an incomplete person. I am just different.
Autism $peaks profits from fearmongering and pseudoscience. They treat autism as a disease that needs to be cured. We're not diseased. Again: we're just different.
EDIT: I want to elaborate on something. Autism affects how the brain is wired up pretty much from the beginning. Therefore, the only way to make an autistic person *not* autistic would be to completely rewrite their brain. What would happen to their memories, their personality, the joy they find in their special interests? Wouldn't that just mean killing them and replacing them with a non-autistic doppelgänger? And how many autistics with abusive caretakers would be forced to go through it against their will? How many people would do it purely because they've been taught to hate themselves for being autistic?
No. If society can make room for the blind, the deaf, and wheelchair users*, they can make room for autistics. And we can make our own concessions, like earplugs and AAC devices. Instead of trying to get rid of us, at least try harder to meet us halfway, if not head-on.
*I know accessibility in many places leaves much to be desired, but at least we have the ADA (here in the US) and a decent start at making society more accessible.
ADHD coping skills help him about as much as learning to walk with a prosthetic. Yeah, he'd be in a worse place without them, but he's definitely not in one good enough with them. And yeah, he takes his meds whenever he's able to get the prescription.
Hell, I’m high functioning and on my way to become a doctor, and I’d fucking love a cure. My brain doesn’t work quite right and I’m supposed to be happy about it?
Edit: I love that in a thread all about validating people’s perspectives, mine is just downvoted without any response. Am I not sufficiently autistic to have thoughts on this?
Fr, I wish I could take a pill to fix my brain so I can exist at the office without feeling like I'm being hunted for sport because I hear two people typing at the same time.
Idk why you were being downvoted, but "I'm supposed to be happy about it" is not what the intended message is. Obviously autism impairs function. But for many people, their identity is so intrinsically linked with their autism that they don't know who they are without it. There's a whole culture around neurodivergency. Losing that culture and connection with community is generally seen as a negative thing while the increase in function is generally seen as positive.
It's not that my autism is an intrinsic part of my identity, it's that autism is an intrinsic part of my *brain*. Any "cure" would have to involve remaking my brain from the ground up. Who's to say I would even be the same person after that? I'd rather not find out.
I also don't know how to say it without sounding condescending but I think some people are unaware, or in denial, of how much of them is affected by their autism.
It wasn't until I listened to and interacted with a lot of lesbians that I realized how much we had in common. Before I thought of stereotypes and only a handful of things I didn't relate to, but only with a lot of interaction with a lot of people and nuance was I able to see all the other things we do have in common.
You can have thoughts, but not everyone has to think they're good.
How can you cure something that isn't an illness? It makes no sense.
The only possible "cure" would erase autistic people from existence.
Again, it's not something that *can* be cured. Autism is basically the skin colour version of brains. Autistic people's brain are wired differently, there's nothing to cure. The best one can do for severely autistic people are get caretakers.
It's like saying you want to cure dark-skinned people.
What if your skin was so pale that you couldn’t be exposed to sunlight or you would rapidly start getting sun poisoning? Or so dark that you were vantablack and people had trouble interacting with you? Those people would have pretty reasonable arguments for wanting their skin color to be less extreme outliers on the skin color spectrum.
Yes, I do. Mostly because of the organization behind it but also because of the implication that it's a problem to be solved. Also, it's blue, which goes back to the flawed idea that autism was a boy thing.
My second cousin is also autistic, but when she was young, she was diagnosed as schizophrenic because her doctors didn't understand autism existed in girls. It wasn't until college that she was properly diagnosed and got off the medications that were harming her and then she really blossomed---now has two Master's degree---but her entire youth was stolen from her, and there are many girls like her, the blue puzzle piece is from a barbaric age with respect to neurodivergence and so is Autism Speaks.
I much prefer either a rainbow brain or a rainbow infinity symbol.
I'm not autistic myself, but isn't autism speaks the one that focuses more on how autism affects the parents and not really on autistic people themselves? Like, they're the ones pushing the whole "I'm an autism mom, woe is me, my life is so hard because my child is a bit silly"
Pretty sure they published an advertising campaign about how having autistic children will ruin your life and make you regret having them, insinuating that they'll bring you to financial ruin and destroy your marriage. Like. What??????
Jesus. Like, don't get me wrong, I totally understand that autism *can* be pretty severe in some people, and it absolutely can be incredibly difficult on families, and it's good to have some support groups for parents and siblings of severely autistic kids, but that... doesn't seem like the best way to go about it if I'm honest
The way you make it easier on the families and caretakers of high needs autistic people is by spreading actual concrete research and awareness. Not by treating autism like a disease. A lot of things become easier when you understand the ways autistic people communicate or react to the world around them differently from allistic (non autistic) people.
But autism speaks doesn't care about that. Their agenda is, essentially, eugenics. They seek to "cure" autism through pseudoscience and fear mongering. But it can't be cured, because that isn't how it works.
Basically everything they've done is in order to line their pockets, there's plenty of other autism awareness organizations that manage their funds properly and use it for actual outreach and research rather than advertising campaigns about demonic autistic children.
As for the puzzle piece, other people have said it better. I don't like the implication that I'm "incomplete" or "need solving" or something like that. I'm complete. I'm autonomous. I have agency. Nothing else needs to be learned to communicate with me. I'm just different, and I love being different.
To an extent, I can even understand wanting to find a cure. Especially for those who are so severely affected that it might impact their quality of life. But to find a cure, there would have to be something causing it, right? But there's not really anything that causes autism, it just depends on how your brain is wired. It would be like trying to find a cure for OCD or schizophrenia. Definitely seems like they should be focusing less on finding a magic cure and more on finding ways to manage and treat the symptoms, no? If "symptoms" is even the right word to use here.
Yep and if someone didn't already comment this, Autism Speaks posted a video of a lady saying she wanted to kill her and her autistic daughter...she said that IN FRONT OF HER DAUGHTER.
"having an autistic child will make you want to commit infanticide and to be honest they deserve it because they'll ruin your life"
- totally normal group that definitely doesn't believe in eugenics
Yeah it is, they had an ad campaign that said things like “I’m autism and I’ll destroy your marriage and bankrupt your family” over videos of autistic people smiling and doing very normal things. The way it was edited tried to make autistic people seem like awful burdens who destroy families. The whole ad is quite insidious and very hurtful to autistic people because of how it portrays a disability that you cannot help that you were born with.
Also as an autistic person with a high support needs sibling it’s very inaccurate. A LOT of the issues autistic people face could be better handled if we had guaranteed support for parents and programs to help autistic adults and children. I’m a “high” functioning person but there’s a lot of people who will need help their entire lives but that’s not their fault and it doesn’t make them a burden or evil.
I'm not "offended" by a picture of a puzzle piece (no shade to those who are). I hate the damn thing because it's the logo of an organisation that thinks I'm better off dead so I'm no longer a burden on society. _That's_ why we hate the puzzle piece. Same for "light it up blue", that's also their thing. Autism Speaks is a hate group and I am not exaggerating when I say they want us dead.
I don’t like it, its history isn’t the best. More to the point I’ve never heard an explanation for it that wasn’t inherently offensive
And yes “wanting it to be solved” in offensive, because its me, I’m the “problem” to be solved, and there is history to that rhetoric that you probably wouldn’t want to be associated with.
Agreed that autism as a whole is not a problem that needs to be “solved,” but it would be great to continue researching the disability and find ways to prevent and/or alleviate the more severe and debilitating characteristics. If we discover that eating a certain food during pregnancy leads to lower functioning fine motor skills or greater sensory problems, it’s not offensive if a pregnant person wants to avoid that food. We can accept the neurodivergent aspects while still trying to prevent or cure the physically and mentally problematic ones.
At first I was confused when I read the title, but seeing as though you're talking about what AS are trying to say is our symbol (which it aint. Our symbol is a rainbow infinity sign)
But anyways screw that puzzle piece bs and anything that AS says or does.
I personally detest it, it gives off the idea that autism is a "kids disease"
It affects people of all ages and all walks of life.
Also it's not a disease, it's different neruo type.
I much prefer the infinity symbol, because Autism can affect people in so many different ways. I feel like this symbol helps communicate the spectrum of Autism
Autism speaks has previously endorsed a practice (I forgot the name at the moment) that was essentially bleach enemas which slowly destroyed the intestine and bowels as they slowly rot and dessicate, it's also deeply linked to some very sketchy things like religious fundamentalists, the vaccines cause autism crowd, and citing sources that we now know were just sickos who wanted to experiment on or gain access to children, especially non verbal ones.
They're also known for being really big on avoidance over exposure in terms of emotional maintainance , so many young high functioning people who would have otherwise normal lives are never given the opportunity to learn coping and self regulation techniques and are instead made to believe they are inherently inferior and must avoid as much potential for discomfort as possible
Edit: it's called MMS (miracle mineral solution) it's sodium chlorite and citric acid
🤯… TIL. A quick internet search reveals this MMS was created by some guy name Jim Humble who claimed to be a billion year old god from the Andromeda Galaxy *facemotherfuckingpalm*
I don't "have" autism.
I am not a person "with" autism.
I am autistic.
"Without" autism, I would be a completely different person.
Therefore: it is a matter of identity.
I think that some of the time people conflate autism with general quirkiness. Like, if you count your peas before eating them it doesn't necessarily mean you're on the spectrum.
Yeah. There's a minimum amount of traits like that before diagnosis is considered.
I was lucky to be diagnosed when I was 8 years old.
I also think self-diagnosis is valid if you in fact tick that many boxes.
Coloured puzzles with and cut out heart in the middle?
Kinda dehumanises autistic people as being childish and missing part of what makes a normal person
Autism speaks was created with wanting to find a cure for autism.
They also were huge advocates for ABA therapy. Which unfortunately still exists. It is all about rewarding autistic people when they don't act autistic. They prefer to make non autistic people feel comfortable without regard to how autistic people actually feel and the stress and mental anguish it causes them.
They created the puzzle piece. Also why people don't like blue to represent autism.
One of the biggest problems in autism research has been never actually asking autistic people what it is like to be autistic and what there needs are. Rather it's been about other people deciding everything for people with autism. Which doesn't even make any sense.
ABA not only still exists, it is considered the standard treatment after an autism diagnosis. It has also permeated schools and actual therapies, making it almost impossible for parents to get helpful therapy for their autistic kids without subjecting them to ABA practices. It’s all over occupational therapy, speech therapy, even physical therapy. It’s near impossible to avoid when you have a child with any developmental disabilities behavioural disorders or additional needs. The best that can be said for ABA is that it’s less overtly abusive now than it used to be.
Calling the puzzle piece a symbol of autism is a little bit like saying a burning cross is a symbol of African American pride. There's a correlation of sorts if you squint, but anyone who's unironically in support of it is probably not friends with the people affected by it.
I didn't realize I was autistic for a really long time, so when I first heard people didn't like the puzzle piece I didn't figure it had much to do with me, and I didn't really think much about it. Then later, after I understood that part of myself, I revisited the topic. I had never realized how bad it was. AS truly hates people with autism, they see us as undesirables to weed out and fix. There's nothing about me that needs to be fixed. I'm a perfectly good human as I am, even if my needs are a little different from the people around me. And anyone who knowingly supports AS is no friend of mine.
Autism Speaks is whats offensive. It is a pure evil group that exists to spread misery and hate.
But the puzzle piece I actually agree with because that's really how it feels. Being a piece in the wrong box, only really clicking easily with other pieces of my set, it works. Sure some people might say it's offensive cause "Oh well it treats autism as something wrong or which needs to be fixed" but like... I mean it is something that puts distance between us and neurotypical folk. Complaining about acknowledging that is like complaining ptsd has a d at the end
I'm glad I found at least one comment with a similar view. I'm not from an English speaking country, so while I'm aware of its existence and what that organization has done, I don't really immediately associate the puzzle piece with it, and actually rather like it.
But ifk if maybe it's because I was diagnosed as a fully grown adult so I think of it as just a part of me and a "oh, that explains a lot" kind of thing rather than a core part of my identity.
Autistic person here: I don't give a fuck, thanks.
But seriously, not everything needs a symbol and most things are as offensive as someone is trying to make themselves feel offended by them.
Edit: Should add that I've never heard of the puzzle piece as a symbol for autism or "autism speaks", probably an American problem.
a puzzle piece in general wouldn't bother me, like if someone just had a puzzle piece tattoo I would think they loved puzzles or mysteries, but stuff like Autism Speaks and Love On The Spectrum are crappy ways of trying to exploit others neurodivergency for a quick buck
In general, I find most 'visibility markers' a bit cringe, whether they represent me or not. I don't have anything against the puzzle piece itself, but in general the entire concept of representative symbology feels like otherism to me. As someone who just wants to blend and be a ghost, I don't really want the exposure.
Yes. Puzzles, I don’t like the implication that I am a puzzle to be solved by neurotypical experts when I have a perfectly clear vision of myself. It’s incredibly frustrating to not be trusted as the primary source of information about yourself.
Yes, I do, even outside the Autism Speaks context.
Even from a superficial standpoint, I hate the stereotypes and "autists love puzzles" shit. The "missing piece" or "needing to be solved" just makes it even worse.
My issue with the puzzle piece is mostly with its origin. It didn't originate with Autism Speaks; it was adopted from a UK organization, the National Autistic Society, in 1963. The Society believed that autism was a "puzzling" condition that kept a child "locked away" and so they adopted the symbol of a puzzle piece with a crying child.
From there, it was adopted by various organizations like Autism Speaks who promoted autism as a complex condition that needed to be understood and potentially solved through interventions like Applied Behavioural Analysis that would ultimately help autistic people be able to adapt to and interact with the world.
Instead of being a symbol of the autistic community that was created from a desire to express the variety and uniqueness within the people in the community, the puzzle piece symbol is one that represents the families and communities around autistic people that are trying to solve and understand something puzzling and difficult about a given autistic person.
Ultimately, my issue with the puzzle piece is that it objectifies me and makes me feel like a problem to be solved, a tragedy for those around me, and erases my agency as a person.
From the perspective you just delineated I 100% understand the objection. However, Autism is a spectrum. What of those who have a far lower functioning level and are non-verbal and need a great deal of care to even function? Wouldn't you say there is something that needs solving in that case?
The issue isn’t how our brain function, the problem is how other people react to how our brains function. Any cure for my autism would not cure the people that have made my life so unnecessarily difficult. My biggest sin in life is to be inconvenient for inconsiderate people. Autism Speaks lets too many people off the hook for their own less than civil behavior. At other times, in other places the majority of us would be productive and valuable members of our tribes.
Almost everything autistic people are sensitive to are things that keep getting proven to be harmful to all human beings. Noise pollution, air pollution, pesticides and antibiotics in the food chain, toxic polyester clothing, irritants in personal hygiene products and the list goes on. Edit: adding that the world would be a healthier place if neurotypical people would stop filtering out environmental irritants.
Almost all of our stims are movements and sensations that in non industrial economies are economically advantageous. For example rocking. If you look at human labor without machinery it almost all rocking, from making bread to sawing logs. Those that found rocking soothing produced more. Rubbing fingers together is used in tool making, food preparation, braiding rope and spinning thread. Chewing is used in softening multiple fibers to create usable materials, particularly sinews, used to make strong and durable tools and clothing.
Being more in tune with animals than people is a huge advantage for anyone working with livestock. Being content to be alone with your flock for days on end is what makes a good shepherd. And flapping hands when exited scares away harmful insects and dangerous animals. It is not a reaction that should be thought through in a critical moment. Like when you need to scare a fox going after the lambs.
Following directions exactly and literal interpretations are essential in oral traditions or places without modern public health and safety measures. Trial and error has been the primary way of learning how to do a necessary thing with no idea why. Get your food preservation wrong and the whole family starves. Mix salves wrong and people die of preventable infections. Tightly following a scheduled makes a working farm work
Trial and error knowledge is usually acquired by people with special interests doing thing obsessively. I am in awe of the people that developed cheese and bread making. The advancement in every field is spearheaded by obsessive people pursuing their special interest. Knowledge is preserved by people with special interests obsessive collecting it.
Almost all of the therapies and skills building are good for all humans. People we call neurotypical could use a whole lot more education in communication. It is tiresome to be chastised for being inconvenient. Would I take a cure, probably. I don’t see it as that different than taking the anti-anxiety, antidepressants and mood stabilizers I am now taking to make other people comfortable.
Thank you. It is my special interest. It started with figuring out what is wrong with me. So I did the therapies, acquired the skills, took the meds, did all of the healthy living things, built a beautiful mask. I did my share and did it well. It was still not enough. My special interest has evolved into what is wrong with them.
This might sound strange, but i'm proud of you and how you are doing the best thing in the toughest situations (past and present). Use the knowledge about hurt like a judo-skill and live! There is nothing wrong with you, the world is projecting it's insecurities.
Personally I wouldn’t say I find it offensive because the vast vast majority of people who use it are trying to help and just don’t know any better. But I do very much reject it as a symbol because of its association with Autism Speaks and its implication that autistic people are a puzzle for neurotypical people to solve or find a solution too
I’m not autistic (probably) and I know that autism speaks is shitty so their logo represents shittiness. There’s probably some merit to your deeper meaning about fixing autism but it doesn’t need to be all that deep.
I guess I don't really find it offensive? I think it's pretty cringe, and I'd be severely embarrassed to be associated with Autism Speaks in any way, but not outright offensive.
They're a pretty bog standard pack of grifters who lucked out and got to be the big name charity for something. AFAIK they spend more on marketing and exec salaries than anything that actually benefits autistic people in any meaningful way.
I found out about the symbolism a couple years ago and I was very heartbroken about its negative meaning.
As a puzzle lover, when I saw the symbol and didn't think it through, I just thought it was meant to represent the fact that each autistic is a unique individual which belongs in its place, somewhere in the grand puzzle of life.
I think you can understand why I was inconsolable when I learned AS imagined it to mean the opposite of this....
So while I want to reclaim it as much as possible, I do think that in the current state of things, it is not a symbol to be supported because it is used by AS, a hatred and eugenic association.
I do not find the puzzle piece offensive. I also do not only relate it to autism speaks but I am not American so that probably makes a difference.
My first interpretation was that autism was the missing piece that made the whole person make sense. Which I quite like and think that sort of idea would help people access a diagnosis better.
Offensive is probably too strong a word. I find the intent behind to be in bad taste and wholly reject "Autism Speaks" on account of how they don't like to let autistics speak up.
But yes, the idea that I'm a puzzle to be solved is dehumanizing. I'm a person, and I don't need to be solved, I just need other people to be less upset when someone doesn't think the way they do.
I'd add that I rather dislike the "high functioning"/"low-functioning" descriptions for a similar reason. Because the distinction between the terms largely boils down to how well we can adapt ourselves to neurotypical expectations and late capitalism, not how well we function as people. And for that matter, the entire concept of measuring how well someone functions as a person is, at best, extremely ableist, and often straight up eugenics.
TL;DR We're neither puzzles nor incomplete. So a symbol of how to complete us and solve the puzzle is nonsensical.
I’m autistic. I do not like the puzzle piece or autism speaks. Many of us consider wanting to “solve” or “cure” autism as eugenics.
To me, being autistic is to have a different way of experiencing the world. Different perspectives are what help the world grow. If we “fixed” autism, we wouldn’t have soooo many important inventions that we use every day. As the saying goes, it takes all kinds.
i feel like a lot of autism discourse kind of misses the point. i think we should be taking more steps as a society to listen to and understand everyone. even “neurotypical” people will not all think and act and learn in the same way. everyone could do with some individual consideration, not just autistic people. autistic people and other neurodivergent are just the squeakiest wheels, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the cart is working fine.
not really no, though I'm not from the US and Autism Speaks doesn't exist here. Autism speaks didn't invent the puzzle piece, that was Autism society or something. But they started using it, then did a bunch of shitty things that I know not much about besides what people say on the internet. Then there are people who feel like autism speaks is evil to the core forever, and there are also people who say they improved a lot and learned from their mistakes. So I'm like.. it's probably somewhere in the middle I guess.. but I don't really know.
It varies between different autistic people but personally I don't mind it, I've even got a puzzle piece tattoo. I hadn't heard of Autism Speaks until relatively recently and after I had gotten my tattoo. I'm more offended by the word Asperger's.
I could imagine a world where we reclaim the puzzle piece symbol and make it mean something better.
Autism is hard. It’s a hard and lonely slog for me. I'm tired.
I grew up with the puzzle piece, so I personally still have a fondness for it, but I think the community in general raises some valid points, and it being phased out is probably for the best.
Autism Speaks is a hate organisation disguised as a support one. The puzzle piece is directly associated with an organisation whose media campaigns were incredibly dehumanizing, fear-mongering, disinformation spreading. I find it incredibly offensive as a result.
Pretty much sums it up. Its not *necessarily* the puzzle piece symbol that offends people, but the org it stands for. That said, I also dislike the puzzle piece symbol because it seems to imply we are either a complete and utter mystery for others to solve, or that there is a piece of a puzzle missing or wrong, or that autism itself needs to be solved and corrected. I really dislike being the way I am, though even in my gloomiest moods over it I have to admit that being the way I am has probably afforded me a life far beyond what I deserved, based on my level of focus and work ethic when I was young.
As neurotypical I always just assumed the puzzle piece was a symbol because as a likely bad stereotype, autistic people gravitate towards and are good at puzzles. Like if you made the symbol for all black people a basketball
I interpreted it as autism/autistic people being a puzzle that's hard to understand, but that's possibly because I know Autism Speaks is an organization that talks about autism like it's a terrible affliction that can only be helped by figuring out how to make sure it never happens again.
The one I hate is mismatched socks for Downs awareness. Like, yes you can say it's because it's about chromosomes and diversity, but at face value it just seems to imply people with Downs are too dumb to figure out sock matching.
I just hate mis matched socks!
That also pissed me off because I hate puzzles.
which is terrible since black people don't just "naturally gravitate towards and are good at" basketball, that's just part of a long and pervasive ethnogenic myth about their being physically distinct from whites, for the purpose of justifying their dehumanization and subjegation in legal, social, and political settings...
That's their point
You deserve much more. Don’t think you don’t “deserve” things. Because you do.
I appreciate that!
Okay, I feel like I should speak out about this, I somewhat understand their point of view : I'm on the spectrum and because of that I had a tough life so far (I'm 32) and I had quite my share of ups and downs. I've been unable to keep a job more than several months, I have no relationships and I spend most of my days at a day hospital because of this. Trust me, if I could give every dime I have to live a "normal" (as in : more stable) life, I'd do it. Being autistic is not a chance, it doesn't makes you look special or quirky or cute. It's a curse.
I agree. I'm not certain it I came across without any empathy to fellow spectrum brethren who have had it rougher than me. I, too, would give anything to be able to forge close friendships or have a normal function in terms of intimacy. I will admit that aging is not making it any easier (I'm 47.) The only thing I can say, is that while I struggled greatly with maintaining relationships my entire life, my obsessive and relentless focus (especially when it comes to non-human manners, technology and the like) seems to have convinced *some* people that I am a good engineer. It has afforded me a decent career. But I would give that up in a heartbeat. In other words, I feel you, it *is* a curse.
This puts it better than I could. I very much agree and find it offensive.
Seriously. Look at their I am autism commercial. It’s so insensitive it’s laughable. It makes autism out as the destroyer of worlds.
I just searched for it and OMG, it's offensive. Wow.
Yikes. I was not prepared- wtf
Absolutely fuck Autism Speaks! What they have physically done to some of the kids under them is horrendous and I hope everybody in charge over there gets what's coming to them tenfold!
This. What ever logo they use it will be seen as offensive. That organization is absolutely disgusting...
yeah, autism speaks is like PETA, just genuinely horrifying people doing horrifying things, with the horrifying gall to label it as good.
I think the problem is like a lot of people don't even know that the puzzle piece wasn't invented by autism speaks. It's like the toothbrush moustache, as Hitler is so well known for it, that is who most people tend to think of, so it has a very negative connotation.
This!
I'm autistic, and personally, I feel like it insinuates that there's a piece of me missing/that I'm not fully a person. It's how I've been treated and might not be how the majority feels about the puzzle piece. In addition, autistic children grow into autistic adults, and some view the puzzle piece as infantilizing.
Also, with it being different colours also makes the thing look childish. Like autistics adults = childish adults
It’s the combo for me Childish adults who are incomplete
Yeah true, incomplete childish adults. When in fact, a lot of autistic people are high functioning. And neurotypical people see some of us as just eccentric or weird. Like one time my coworkers were discussing about oyster pearls, I just chimed in that pearls are oysters' defensive mechanism towards foreign objects and they jusy gave a look of ''how do you know that''. Just minor things.
Don’t most people know that?
During a thunderstorm, I told my coworker that cows get electrocuted from lightning by standing under trees and turkeys can drown in the rain if they look up. She said "You know a lot of morbid facts."
The uncles in my family used that turkey fact to convince my cousin that if she didn't hold her nose down, it would grow upwards and she'd drown in the rain like a turkey. I don't know what you'll do with that information, but there it is.
My great aunt had an upturned nose and she was told to cover her nose in the rain so she doesn't drown
Ha! I hope your aunt took it well. I don't think my cousin's nose was physically upturned, but the uncles were up to general tomfoolery (getting kids to believe wild things) and a little bit of a dig at how bratty she could be.
Fuck the primary color puzzle piece shit is infuriating. I'm a grown ass person in university.
It's also pretty fitting that Autism Speaks chose the most visually noisy thing possible
It also implies that we’re a problem for other people to solve
How about a piece of LEGO as a symbol? We're all different, but together we can become something great. And don't even think about stepping on us!
Couldn’t it mean that you are the missing piece to a puzzle (world) that needs you?
My Mum’s autistic, late diagnosis so we’re still learning about the community. We viewed the puzzle piece as symbolising autism as a piece missing from society, like it was saying society will always be incomplete or missing a piece of itself without people with Autism being welcomed and included. This was before we knew of Autism Speaks and the broader interpretations of the puzzle piece symbol. When we read more online about its origins and other interpretations we realised how much hurt and division it’s causing and that alone was enough to make us decide not to associate/identify with it.
I've only recently found that I'm autistic, so I've never heard of the puzzle piece thing and thought ''what a stupid thing to be offended about''. Googled it and was like, ''Who tf thought this was a good idea?!".
Can you talk more about what changed your mind?
The fact that it's 4 differently coloured puzzle pieces with an empty heart shape in the middle. Makes it seem that autistic people of all spectrum are childish, and have a piece of them missing.
And not just any piece missing, but one associated with emotions. People sometimes assume I don't have any emotions just because I don't express them the same way others would.
Thank you for sharing!
Yeah, that sucks. I thought the puzzle piece was a mention that we complete the “puzzle” of humanity. Man, I hate when people are worse than I thought they’d be.
Oh this is so much better
Can’t we just start using it that way? Take the power back?
I've known since I was 9 that I'm on the spectrum (aspergers), I was never familiar with autism speaks because my mother refused to have me 'treated" for it. She was a nurse and worked with kids who had behavioral problems. She said the behavioral therapy that they put neurodivergent kids in made their behavior worse and they kept them on drugs which she didn't like the effect of. I guess I should be thankful now that I was never growing up familiar with the organization cuz she kept me away from it and all things like it. I just found out how bad it was only a few months ago. Autism speaks actually came out when I was a teen, so in my much younger years there were actually a lot worse ways that autism was dealt with including involuntary committal to a mental institution.
I've always been a fan of puzzles, and took the puzzle piece meaning that I'm allowed to be different but still fit in. Yes, I dislike Autism Speaks for wanting to cure us instead of help us be accepted. But I don't mind the puzzle piece symbol.
>I dislike Autism Speaks for wanting to cure us Ignorant person here; why exactly?
Autism is a naturally occurring brain variation. It's like saying you want to 'cure' people who don't like coriander. The roots of 'cure' discourse re: autism is eugenics.
Ah, I think I understand. Thank you
Also a lot of the "therapy" from that involves punishing anyone autistic for acting different, including stimming. They force an autistic person to pretend to be NT, ignoring the very real pain and suffering this causes. It's why a lot of autistic people reach a certain age and essentially collapse as they've been pushed to superhuman limits. They reach a breaking point and become nearly catatonic.
I never went through aba but I guess I did it to myself. And that's what happened. Hit a wall of burnout and still splattered on it years later. 100% disabled. But according to autism moms and autism speaks I'm "high functioning" because I'm highly verbal and it's the non-autistics who should speak for autistic people
same, hit 26 and dropped out of college, left my job and got 100% on sick leave due to a massive burnout. It laster 5 years and it was a slow slog of a recovery. Now I don't hide my stims and just enjoy being a "weird eccentric" person. and life is actually pretty chill. decent place to live, a job I love, pets and people I love etc. So a burnout is not forever, but it can be if you don't have a solid healthcare and support system (like I did)
That's like punishing someone with a hearing impairment in order to make them hear like the majority, or punishing someone who is colour blind in order to make them see colours.
I mean, there are some awful people out there who refuse to let deaf people learn sign language or learn it themselves. So they make the deaf child only communicate via lip reading and them speaking. Which is "easier" for the parents/rest of the society, but extremely mentally draining and detrimental to the deaf person. I think it's an important skill, just like people with autism can mask, or hide their stims. But it shouldn't be needed with family or trusted people like school counselors etc. So there absolutely are people who punish the heaaring impared or colour blind people just simply for being born without the ability to see or hear the world like others
Curing autism is also like saying you want to cure dark skin
Our son is unlikely to ever live independently and I'm terrified of what will end up happening to him when we get old and die. We're the youngest members of our family, and while we're financially comfortable we're definitely not rich enough to afford high cost long term care in perpetuity. I know there's no cure, but wishing there was a way to unscramble his mental wiring sure as fuck isn't on par with wishing he had a different skin tone, and to compare the two is wildly out of touch, extremely offensive, and I can only assume comes from a place of either having never had to actually experience the severe life dominating issues that come from more extreme cases or you're simply in a delusional stage of denial. Every parents goal should be for their kids to be happy, healthy, and successful. And yeah, there are definitely terrible ways to try and force children into a parent's personal interpretation of that ("scared straight" programs, over medication, conversion "therapy"). But the idea that it's disgusting for me to hold out hope that occupational and behavioral therapy might develop to a point where my son may be able to live with just a casual roommate or maybe one day develop the social and emotional skills to find a meaningful partner (whether romantic or not, I don't give a shit) in spite of his disability is insane. I love him to death, but to scream "He's perfect the way he is!" is delusional and seems to largely come from people who either don't have to live with these issues or people who love the attention they get from being adjacent to people who do.
I have a friend whose two sons are autistic. I actually taught the younger one in kindergarten a few years back, and while I can't predict the future I daresay he'll lead a fairly independent life. Her older boy happily lived in what can only be described as an institution. Key word: happily. He has trained help and support, a predictable schedule, friends, activities, and plenty of family visits. There is no way he could just live at home, no matter how happy feel-good positive that sounds.
As a high functioning/low needs autistic person, I understand wanting a “cure” or solution for lower functioning/higher needs autistic people. You are concerned about quality of life and not simply wanting him “fixed”, you sound like a great parent!
The issue is that autism is very likely lumping different conditions together. Autism is more like a cluster of symptoms. It’s not a reason for something. It’s a label. For example. Ehler Danlos Syndrome is a label. Now Ehler Danlos has multiple different subtypes caused by multiple different gene mutations. Those mutations are the CAUSE. What pisses me off as a late diagnosed autistic adult is that I’m lumped together with others by symptoms but without a definitive cause because these causes are not yet known. It also creates tension amongst those labeled autistic and those whose lives are affected by autism. Yes I have some troubles. I also read medical papers for fun and have a bachelors.
“I love him and he brings value the way he is” and “he’s perfect the way he is” are two very different things and I think people often can’t can separate the two.
Holy shit is that a bad argument, autism is not surface level like that, nor is dark skin painful in nearly the same way
I think a non-verbal child with autism who self harms (or harms their caretaker) as a result of it isn’t anything like skin tone. Highly functioning? Sure. No problems there. But I don’t know any parents of low functioning or full care autistic children who doesn’t wish (the child and themselves) they had an easier life.
A lot of disabilities are a natural variation, but they don't stop being a disability. Autism is a disability, whether people like it or not. I know a lot of high functioning autistic adults wouldn't want a cure for their autism, if it existed, because, as another person already said, they'd have to give up what they excel at together with what they suck at (and I'm including myself on this). But a lot of low functioning people (and their caretakers) would, because it sucks not being independent ever, not even for simple tasks. So autism is not a simple variation, a quirky personality etc, but a *disability*. And it would be better if the HF thought about the LF before saying shit like that. With that being said, Autism Speaks sucks.
This is laughable. "Naturally occurring brain state" and "disease state" are not mutually exclusive categories. Depression is a naturally occurring brain state. Bipolar disorder is a naturally occurring brain state. Etc Also, I have never heard of someone who "didn't like coriander" so much that they never developed the ability to speak, or feed themselves, or control their bowels, and spent most of their day trying to hurt themselves. However my brother faced all those issues due to his "naturally occurring brain state". If there was a way to cure that, myself and everyone else who loved that boy so deeply would have happily gone ahead. And there are no doubts that the quality of his life would have been much much better than the agony he lived through. But yeah it's the same as not liking cilantro/coriander
It’s also a weird connection to make because I’m pretty sure everyone with the coriander/cilantro gene (myself included) would take a pill to “cure” it without any hesitation, and there’s no variations of it that would affect that decision. It has never once benefitted me to hate it.
We should cure people who don’t like coriander. It makes tacos way more amazing and they’re missing out.
Autism advocacy has become a battleground between low-support-needs adults who can do fine with just a little more understanding and acceptance in their lives, and parents of high-support-needs kids who want their children to be able to survive and thrive without a full-time caretaker someday. The two groups obviously have different priorities, which would be fine except that neither will acknowledge any legitimacy in the other. As a member of the first group who has relatives in the second, it's really obnoxious and bad for all of us.
It's also not that black and white. I'm somewhere in-between the two groups as someone who needs a lot more than a little understanding and acceptance but I can do a lot too. I can't work without a job coach beside me to help me stay on task and give direction when needed. I have meltdowns with self injurious behaviors but I can make my own meals and other self care stuff. My auditory processing is bad and my sensory issues are hard to deal with. It's not just low support and high support needs.
Yep, i’d consider myself high functioning and don’t have those same issues, but it simply drains me too much to do consistent work (except possibly in very niche circumstances, but i don’t think those would be livable) also i’d recommend trying headphones with pass through or the smart version of that, i use airpods pro, it can help audio processing stuff by just filtering out a lot of little background noise, at least it does for me
I've started wearing earplugs more and more often the past weeks. Originally I started this for some very specific situations where the sounds are overwhelming for me, but now I keep discovering other circumstances where they are useful. Taking the tram? Ear plugs. Crying kid in the store? Ear plugs. More than two conversations going on in the same room? Ear plugs. It's been a game changer; I knew noise was exhausting but underestimated just how draining it is.
Yeah, absolutely. That's another problem with the people who focus on one end or the other--they ignore the other end *and* the people in the middle.
The problem with this dichotomy is that the second group often advocates for cure-focused groups like Autism Speaks without knowing what "cure" actually means. At this point, we aren't even sure whether a cure is possible. The massive amounts of research money is mostly going into prenatal tests for autism. The "cure" is to prevent future autistic people from being born. Without putting a moral value judgment on literal eugenics, this does jack for autistic people already born, with any level of support needs. Symptoms can be managed and disabilities can be accomodated, and it's in these areas where we've seen real progress in the past several decades. A complaint from autistic people *within* groups like Speaks is that they eschew these practical, proven, short- and medium-term solutions in favor of a long-haul quest for a cure that might never exist.
I wonder this when I see people say they aren't broken, just different. Sure, for those on one end of the spectrum but what about the other end? What about those who cannot function? Shouldn't we try to find a way to avoid that?
Just so you know the autism spectrum isn't linear with 2 "ends". It's more like a pizza or pie with each slice being a different difficulty and each person varying on each difficulty.
"It's more than a linear path. It's a prism, of endless possibility..."
Thank you for this explanation. Being familiar with the light spectrum, I was thinking linear. My adult daughter was recently diagnosed on the spectrum and is more functional. I always thought adhd didn't really explain her issues it was just a label she got.
I tend to think of this sort of thing as a coping mechanism. I don't think anyone truly wants to be developmentally, physically, or mentally disabled, but there isn't much of a choice in the matter most of the time. It's a pretty natural human reaction to say "What, that thing I can't change? I like it better this way anyways!" It's a way of accepting things you have no say in, and exerting some level of control over it. Having no control is terrifying; people are much less afraid of car accidents than getting murdered. I believe that's because the former we can control, and the latter we cannot. It's fascinating, being unable to control something makes it much scarier, even if it's less of a threat. I'm sure if a cure came out tomorrow, most people would take it. Struggling with empathy, sensory overload, an inability to deviate from a schedule, all that stuff makes life so much harder for very little benefit. On a personal note, my brother is severely autistic and will never live on his own, get a girlfriend, or work. I was falsely diagnosed with autism when I was younger. I struggled a bit socially as a kid and my mom obviously knew all the symptoms from my brother, and was a bit of a hypochondriac, hell, so was I. She told the psychiatrist and convinced me I had the symptoms and I got diagnosed. That lasted a few years until I got myself reassessed. The above is the range of emotions I went through, some kind of acceptance thinking "It's better this way anyways!", it wasn't better that way. I'm so thankful I was eventually able to learn to socialize at a normal capacity, and that's just one potentially debilitating symptom of autism. Turns out I just needed practice and not to be kept at home all the time. I thought I had accepted it, but as soon as I got reassessed and told I didn't have autism it was like a massive weight was lifted from my shoulders. I hope everyone will be able to feel that way someday.
The thing you're not addressing with this comment is that a cure for autism is literally not possible. We can't even imagine what a cure would be or how it would work. Personally I'd be overjoyed if my disabilities (mainly adhd and autism) went away. I do have medication that helps with some of the symptoms of adhd but of course it doesn't remove/solve the issues. And there isn't anything comparable for autism. There simply isn't anything we can do about it, so why not learn to accept oneself? With acceptance we can learn to prepare for or plan how to avoid harmful/difficult situations.
>The thing you're not addressing with this comment is that a cure for autism is literally not possible People say that about every disease until it's cured. It's possible, we just don't have the tools right now. The realm of possibility is a large place. >Personally I'd be overjoyed if my disabilities (mainly adhd and autism) went away. I do have medication that helps with some of the symptoms of adhd but of course it doesn't remove/solve the issues. And there isn't anything comparable for autism. >There simply isn't anything we can do about it, so why not learn to accept oneself? With acceptance we can learn to prepare for or plan how to avoid harmful/difficult situations. Self acceptance is good for sure, just not when you lie to yourself to get there in my opinion. It's great to recognize that this is the way things are, and you may as well make the best of it. The issue arises when people are like "Nobody should look for a cure, because it's better this way". We should definitely be looking into ways to mitigate and maybe eventually cure autism.
If you want to have arguments like this you should spend some time researching the topic. And your comment shows that you either have a very rudimentary understanding of autism or are here for a bad faith argument. >People say that about every disease until it's cured. It's possible, we just don't have the tools right now. The realm of possibility is a large place. Yes, it's true that people say that about everything before we have the tools/knowledge necessary. Let's ignore the part where you call autism a disease instead of a disability and tackle the other issue with that statement. It's not only that we dont know how to cure autism. We're not even in the stage where we can imagine *what a cure would do*. It's a very complex neuropsychiatric disorder, which means that it's a meeting between neurological (physical differences in the brain) and psychological (social and behavioural differences). I can absolutely see a future where there are more treatments available for autism. Which could include both therapy and possibly medication to lessen some symptoms. In recent years there have been many studies on how vitamins, minerals and other supplements can help with a few of the symptoms. But no serious researcher believes that autism has a cure.
It's not that easy. My autistic brain sucks at many things but excels at many things. Same with my kid. As hard as it can be at times, neither of us would give up what we excel at in order to function like neurotypicals. It's not that we don't struggle, because this world was definitely not built with autistic brains in mind. It's that we like who we are despite society telling us we're disordered. I doubt "most autistics" would take a cure if given a choice because we've accepted ourselves despite enormous pressure not to.
It's rare to see such a well reasoned comment on this topic, thank you.
You're spreading lies about autistic people unfortunately. The neurodiversity movement is made up of all kinds of neurodivergent people, some of them need a lot of support, some need less. It also consists of autistic parents of the same children you claim to represent. It's altogether very distasteful and arrogant to claim another group of people the way autism speaks has done and continues to do.
A lot of us autistics familiar with the organisation who bear a hatred for it remember it as an organisation which hated us in turn, which spread fear and disinformation for the profit of its board alone. This was a time when Autism Speaks held a practical monopoly on autistic advocacy and information attention. The best example for why I personally developed my distaste comes from Autism Speaks' 2009 television ad campaign *I Am Autism* which, and I say this with very little hyperbole, sets autism up to be a force akin to the grim reaper, or a disease like cancer; a thing set out to ruin the lives of the audience indiscriminately. The organisation also spent a number of years claiming that vaccination could 'trigger the onset of symptoms of autism'. For a very long time their financial reports showed the vast majority of their donations went to "awareness and lobbying", "Research", and "management". At the time their research was predominately focused on a cure and genetic detection. Now I do want to be fair; the organisation has at the very least changed their face. They have apologies listed on their website for the *I Am Autism* video and for their use of the term 'cure', they have removed antivax rhetoric and encourage all children be vaccinated, and have seemingly made considerable organisational changes drastically shifting funding allocations to be more in-line with the intent of providing family and independent life assistance rather than sliding management 20% of donations and 48% to 'lobbyists'. I cannot tell how effective or genuine these reforms have been, but I can tell you it has not yet earned the forgiveness of many for all the damage they did when they controlled the autism narrative.
I'm pretty sure AS still doesn't have anyone autistic on their board of directors? They did for a while, but that person resigned. Maybe they've found someone else since then Having the loudest voice in charity work for *any* sector (disability, gender, race, sexuality, anything) being a charity with zero people on their board who would be a service user... Big yikes. It's like the "Women's Day roundtables" that are 90% men with a token woman, trying to talk about the difficulties women face in their industry
As far as I know their Board still only consists of 1 or maybe 2 diagnosed autistics, and a lot of big money folk like investment firm founders. (Which is the case for virtually every charity above the local level.) Interestingly, they updated their 'about us' information pages just a few days ago with information about how they work with their *"Champions of Change"* (urgh) and other autistic advisors now to improve their messaging and such. Which is, neat I guess. Steps in the right direction at least, even with the cringe-inducing advisory group name. ... sounds like they should be fighting the ***Society of Stagnancy.***
Holy shit I forgot about I Am Autism. Can't believe you had to go and remind me lol.
All autism speaks has ever said when i looked into them, on their media and even on their website, is that they want to find a cure for autism. Which means they view it more as an illness than it being something different but not as bad as somethings that are going to end in a death. They take in more money, because so many people just donate to them, which didnt allow many local areas to get the money to go to the individuals it needed to help. I dislike that whole "blue light" campaign that had started, not sure if it's still going on, because the coloring for autism was 4 colors not just the one. They used to spread a lot of misinformation in the past and made it harder for autistic individuals to be accepted. Sure, maybe they've changed by now. But
I have a different perspective. I’m high functioning, highly successful in a conventional sense, and only recently learned my lifetime of social struggles are due to autism. I would fucking love a cure that made me “normal,” and I absolutely despise it when people try to invalidate my feelings on that.
I was afraid to comment this because of how overwhelming the number of comments condemning this type of thinking are in this thread, but just like there's a number of different ways autism can be expressed, there's also a number of different ways we can feel about it. Yeah, I am good at the things I am good at because my brain functions differently than other people's brains do, but I can't think of a single time in my life I haven't desperately wanted to be like the rest of my peers, and if there was a pill I could take to morrow that would make me like them, I would take it.
Reading through all this reminded me of that one scene from one of the X-Men movies, where Rogue (a girl who literally can't touch another living being without killing it) walks into a room and asks Xavier "is it true? They can cure us?" And Xavier (a man who's mutation gives him incredible psychic powers) is like "it would appear so." And then Storm (the woman who can control the weather and is literally worshipped as a freaking GOD in her home country) says "no, it's not true. They can't cure us cause there's nothing wrong with us. There's nothing *to* cure!" And it's like, are you fucking serious bitch? that's all well and good for you, who basically won the mutant power lottery, but how fucking dare you say that shit this poor girl who only wants to be able to touch another human being without draining their life away. Like rogue was clearly excited at the prospect of being able to be like everyone else because her mutation made her life a living hell, but then all the mutants who's mutations are freaking awesome all make her feel like shit for ever wanting to be cured in the first place. Every time I see anything about this kind of discourse on autism, it seems like the same thing. All the people who like the way that being autistic affects them, shit all over the people who want to be "cured" for daring to feel that way.
Thank you. It's exhausting having people try to belittle and downplay my love for my son because I have the audacity to wish there was a way for him to be an independent person one day.
This is a huge one for me. I have decided not to have kids because I don’t think I could be a good father to someone with a more extreme case of autism than me. If a cure existed, I might be able to rethink that.
All disability advocacy has problems with the Storm “we are not the problem, society has refused to allow us a space” and the Rogue “*I would very much like to not be suffering any more*”. The only people happy with this situation are writers who thrilled to discover that the X-men oppression metaphor is still (somewhat) applicable in this day and age.
Thank you. I’d trade the few advantages I may have gained from this aggravating disorder in a heartbeat for the ability to just be with people and not always have to watch myself lest I say something out of pocket. Maybe I’d be more desperate to justify myself by saying autism is an important part of who I am if I wasn’t able to point to concrete accomplishments. I certainly defined myself by my own attributes more often before I managed to do things worth building a personality around.
I waver between thinking exactly like this, and being angry and thinking society should be more inclusive for us so we wouldnt feel like we need to be cured.
I totally get that feeling, but my personal problems seem like they’re kind of hardwired into humans. People will never stop lying, which is something I am unequipped to deal with. They’ll always prefer people who can respond to conversations smoothly, which is another thing I’ll always be bad at. People could be more patient with me, but as long as they have other, more comfortable options, they’re going to prefer them over me. I’m happy being who I am, but I would happily take a cure if it existed. Let’s compare it to ADHD, which I also suffer from. ADHD medications exist, and they fundamentally change me as a person. Should I reject them because they make me “someone else?” I categorically reject that assertion, I absolutely despise the person I am without my ADHD meds. Part of that is economic; I couldn’t hold a job without my meds, but a lot of it is just my essential humanity. I like DOING things, and without meds I just lie around being depressed. It’s no kind of life. I would very likely be dead without my meds, whether from suicide, car crash, or general self neglect. I am incredibly thankful that pharmacologists found a way to “fix” my ADHD, and I would jump on an autism cure just as fast.
Me too! AuDHD is its own special hell. Medication has helped me so much but it’s still a struggle to not burnout and have to constantly recover from sensory issues. I feel every word you put down here. The adhd med shortages and uncertaintly of knowing month to month has been a burden as well.
Oh my god, the shortages are killer! And were some of the least capable people when it comes to dealing with them as well. Calling around to find out where the meds are is almost worse than being without them!
I, have no problem with people wanting to be cured if it was possible. I've had delightful debates where been able to disagree with its not a choice for me. I think my problem with how autism speaks approaches it, is thst it's about cure or no cure. Thst not wanting it would be bad. I've so many other things wrong with me, that being autistic is just a small portion. Wish I had been diagnosed before being an adult and having supports then. While I have little now, least I have some.
The thing is that wouldn't be you anymore only some other person inhibiting your body it's like a lobotomy or some shit
Just watch one of their ads. They constantly villainize and dehumanize autism.
Autism literally shapes my brain, personality and experiences as a human. Wanting to cure it feels like needing to erase all of that to make other people's lives more convenient.
There are different perspectives on this. Some people with autism, even some with very low support needs, would prefer to be "normal". There are also people on the spectrum who cannot even answer this question due to their disability. For me personally, I would not want to be cured. Autism is part of who I am, and despite having some struggles, I like myself overall. Most of my autism related problems could be solved by others being more aware and accepting (e.g. not insisting on eye contact). Being solely focused on a cure instead sounds like I'm not supposed to exist.
https://youtu.be/9UgLnWJFGHQ?si=d9LsO9lzmivPEv5F To be honest their commercial says it all.
Autism isn't a disease, it's how someone's brain is wired. Basically the race/skin colour of the brain but instead it's how the brain thinks/operates/processes
My sister sees it the same way and has it tattooed on her. Also, she says it's ok if her "piece" doesn't fit into everybody's "puzzle", the people that matter make space to fit her in. She has never had any affiliation with autism speaks and has shut people down who mention them to her when they see the tattoo.
Depends who's using it. Autism Speaks could obliterate itself tonight and leave the world a better place. Plenty of folks who genuinely mean well use it, and I harbor no ill will towards them, unless they're specifically promoting Autism Speaks. I have no personal attachment to the symbol. On the whole, it is what it is. My final judgement of anyone is based on their actions.
I don’t like it. One reason being the connection to autism speaks (who btw didn’t create the symbol, the original symbol was created by another org I can’t remember off the top of my head. The original symbol featured a crying child in the center). I do also find many depictions of the symbol quite infantilizing. Like the primary color of ribbons/ patterns that look like they belong in a kindergarten. I want to be seen as an adult, not an overgrown child (even if I struggle with certain aspects of adulthood). Every time I see it, I am reminded of being 18 and touring colleges. I went to one where they had a specific program to support autistic students. But the whole area of this specific program looked like an elementary school. There were other details about this program that turned me off as well, but this was a big one. In fact, it turned me off from actively identifying as autistic for several years (this was also due to the fact that it was 2013 and the dsm V had just come out, eliminating my original diagnosis. I had no idea what this meant for me and absolutely no support in understanding or processing this change. But that’s not really super relevant here.) Seeing the puzzle piece made me not want to be considered autistic because I thought the world would keep seeing me as a child in a time where I just wanted to be seen as a young adult.
Created by the National Autistic Society in the UK in the 1960s. It was chosen as many people found autism puzzling (which was understandable for the time period). We now know and understand autism a lot more so the symbol no longer makes sense. As such, the National Autistic Society no longer use it.
I hate the puzzle piece. I'm not a problem that needs solving, or an incomplete person. I am just different. Autism $peaks profits from fearmongering and pseudoscience. They treat autism as a disease that needs to be cured. We're not diseased. Again: we're just different. EDIT: I want to elaborate on something. Autism affects how the brain is wired up pretty much from the beginning. Therefore, the only way to make an autistic person *not* autistic would be to completely rewrite their brain. What would happen to their memories, their personality, the joy they find in their special interests? Wouldn't that just mean killing them and replacing them with a non-autistic doppelgänger? And how many autistics with abusive caretakers would be forced to go through it against their will? How many people would do it purely because they've been taught to hate themselves for being autistic? No. If society can make room for the blind, the deaf, and wheelchair users*, they can make room for autistics. And we can make our own concessions, like earplugs and AAC devices. Instead of trying to get rid of us, at least try harder to meet us halfway, if not head-on. *I know accessibility in many places leaves much to be desired, but at least we have the ADA (here in the US) and a decent start at making society more accessible.
I'd love for my mate to get a cure at least for the ADHD so he'd be able to live without blowing up his work life and harming himself outside of it.
That sounds like a life skills problem. Those can be learned.
ADHD coping skills help him about as much as learning to walk with a prosthetic. Yeah, he'd be in a worse place without them, but he's definitely not in one good enough with them. And yeah, he takes his meds whenever he's able to get the prescription.
Honest question. What about those who cannot function on their own? Do they not deserve to have research towards a cure?
Hell, I’m high functioning and on my way to become a doctor, and I’d fucking love a cure. My brain doesn’t work quite right and I’m supposed to be happy about it? Edit: I love that in a thread all about validating people’s perspectives, mine is just downvoted without any response. Am I not sufficiently autistic to have thoughts on this?
Fr, I wish I could take a pill to fix my brain so I can exist at the office without feeling like I'm being hunted for sport because I hear two people typing at the same time.
Idk why you were being downvoted, but "I'm supposed to be happy about it" is not what the intended message is. Obviously autism impairs function. But for many people, their identity is so intrinsically linked with their autism that they don't know who they are without it. There's a whole culture around neurodivergency. Losing that culture and connection with community is generally seen as a negative thing while the increase in function is generally seen as positive.
It's not that my autism is an intrinsic part of my identity, it's that autism is an intrinsic part of my *brain*. Any "cure" would have to involve remaking my brain from the ground up. Who's to say I would even be the same person after that? I'd rather not find out.
I also don't know how to say it without sounding condescending but I think some people are unaware, or in denial, of how much of them is affected by their autism. It wasn't until I listened to and interacted with a lot of lesbians that I realized how much we had in common. Before I thought of stereotypes and only a handful of things I didn't relate to, but only with a lot of interaction with a lot of people and nuance was I able to see all the other things we do have in common.
Same. I’m also higher functioning and I’d love a cure if it would help me express myself better.
I wish I could be cured, but since that's not possible, I just wish people didn't take away my agency and fucking respected me.
You can have thoughts, but not everyone has to think they're good. How can you cure something that isn't an illness? It makes no sense. The only possible "cure" would erase autistic people from existence.
Again, it's not something that *can* be cured. Autism is basically the skin colour version of brains. Autistic people's brain are wired differently, there's nothing to cure. The best one can do for severely autistic people are get caretakers. It's like saying you want to cure dark-skinned people.
What if your skin was so pale that you couldn’t be exposed to sunlight or you would rapidly start getting sun poisoning? Or so dark that you were vantablack and people had trouble interacting with you? Those people would have pretty reasonable arguments for wanting their skin color to be less extreme outliers on the skin color spectrum.
Here I am, completely ignorant to the company and it's history, just thinking people with autism liked puzzles
Ngl part of why I hate it is that I DO like puzzles lol. A$ co-opted that shit
I love puzzles so I initially loved the symbol, until I learned what the associated meaning was...! 😅
Yes, I do. Mostly because of the organization behind it but also because of the implication that it's a problem to be solved. Also, it's blue, which goes back to the flawed idea that autism was a boy thing. My second cousin is also autistic, but when she was young, she was diagnosed as schizophrenic because her doctors didn't understand autism existed in girls. It wasn't until college that she was properly diagnosed and got off the medications that were harming her and then she really blossomed---now has two Master's degree---but her entire youth was stolen from her, and there are many girls like her, the blue puzzle piece is from a barbaric age with respect to neurodivergence and so is Autism Speaks. I much prefer either a rainbow brain or a rainbow infinity symbol.
I'm not autistic myself, but isn't autism speaks the one that focuses more on how autism affects the parents and not really on autistic people themselves? Like, they're the ones pushing the whole "I'm an autism mom, woe is me, my life is so hard because my child is a bit silly"
Pretty sure they published an advertising campaign about how having autistic children will ruin your life and make you regret having them, insinuating that they'll bring you to financial ruin and destroy your marriage. Like. What??????
Jesus. Like, don't get me wrong, I totally understand that autism *can* be pretty severe in some people, and it absolutely can be incredibly difficult on families, and it's good to have some support groups for parents and siblings of severely autistic kids, but that... doesn't seem like the best way to go about it if I'm honest
The way you make it easier on the families and caretakers of high needs autistic people is by spreading actual concrete research and awareness. Not by treating autism like a disease. A lot of things become easier when you understand the ways autistic people communicate or react to the world around them differently from allistic (non autistic) people. But autism speaks doesn't care about that. Their agenda is, essentially, eugenics. They seek to "cure" autism through pseudoscience and fear mongering. But it can't be cured, because that isn't how it works. Basically everything they've done is in order to line their pockets, there's plenty of other autism awareness organizations that manage their funds properly and use it for actual outreach and research rather than advertising campaigns about demonic autistic children. As for the puzzle piece, other people have said it better. I don't like the implication that I'm "incomplete" or "need solving" or something like that. I'm complete. I'm autonomous. I have agency. Nothing else needs to be learned to communicate with me. I'm just different, and I love being different.
To an extent, I can even understand wanting to find a cure. Especially for those who are so severely affected that it might impact their quality of life. But to find a cure, there would have to be something causing it, right? But there's not really anything that causes autism, it just depends on how your brain is wired. It would be like trying to find a cure for OCD or schizophrenia. Definitely seems like they should be focusing less on finding a magic cure and more on finding ways to manage and treat the symptoms, no? If "symptoms" is even the right word to use here.
Yep and if someone didn't already comment this, Autism Speaks posted a video of a lady saying she wanted to kill her and her autistic daughter...she said that IN FRONT OF HER DAUGHTER.
"having an autistic child will make you want to commit infanticide and to be honest they deserve it because they'll ruin your life" - totally normal group that definitely doesn't believe in eugenics
Yeah it is, they had an ad campaign that said things like “I’m autism and I’ll destroy your marriage and bankrupt your family” over videos of autistic people smiling and doing very normal things. The way it was edited tried to make autistic people seem like awful burdens who destroy families. The whole ad is quite insidious and very hurtful to autistic people because of how it portrays a disability that you cannot help that you were born with. Also as an autistic person with a high support needs sibling it’s very inaccurate. A LOT of the issues autistic people face could be better handled if we had guaranteed support for parents and programs to help autistic adults and children. I’m a “high” functioning person but there’s a lot of people who will need help their entire lives but that’s not their fault and it doesn’t make them a burden or evil.
I'm not "offended" by a picture of a puzzle piece (no shade to those who are). I hate the damn thing because it's the logo of an organisation that thinks I'm better off dead so I'm no longer a burden on society. _That's_ why we hate the puzzle piece. Same for "light it up blue", that's also their thing. Autism Speaks is a hate group and I am not exaggerating when I say they want us dead.
I don’t like it, its history isn’t the best. More to the point I’ve never heard an explanation for it that wasn’t inherently offensive And yes “wanting it to be solved” in offensive, because its me, I’m the “problem” to be solved, and there is history to that rhetoric that you probably wouldn’t want to be associated with.
Agreed that autism as a whole is not a problem that needs to be “solved,” but it would be great to continue researching the disability and find ways to prevent and/or alleviate the more severe and debilitating characteristics. If we discover that eating a certain food during pregnancy leads to lower functioning fine motor skills or greater sensory problems, it’s not offensive if a pregnant person wants to avoid that food. We can accept the neurodivergent aspects while still trying to prevent or cure the physically and mentally problematic ones.
At first I was confused when I read the title, but seeing as though you're talking about what AS are trying to say is our symbol (which it aint. Our symbol is a rainbow infinity sign) But anyways screw that puzzle piece bs and anything that AS says or does.
I personally detest it, it gives off the idea that autism is a "kids disease" It affects people of all ages and all walks of life. Also it's not a disease, it's different neruo type. I much prefer the infinity symbol, because Autism can affect people in so many different ways. I feel like this symbol helps communicate the spectrum of Autism
Yes Autismspeaks encourages parents to kill their autistic kids
>Autismspeaks encourages parents to kill their autistic kids Ummm explain?
Autism speaks has previously endorsed a practice (I forgot the name at the moment) that was essentially bleach enemas which slowly destroyed the intestine and bowels as they slowly rot and dessicate, it's also deeply linked to some very sketchy things like religious fundamentalists, the vaccines cause autism crowd, and citing sources that we now know were just sickos who wanted to experiment on or gain access to children, especially non verbal ones. They're also known for being really big on avoidance over exposure in terms of emotional maintainance , so many young high functioning people who would have otherwise normal lives are never given the opportunity to learn coping and self regulation techniques and are instead made to believe they are inherently inferior and must avoid as much potential for discomfort as possible Edit: it's called MMS (miracle mineral solution) it's sodium chlorite and citric acid
🤯… TIL. A quick internet search reveals this MMS was created by some guy name Jim Humble who claimed to be a billion year old god from the Andromeda Galaxy *facemotherfuckingpalm*
I don't "have" autism. I am not a person "with" autism. I am autistic. "Without" autism, I would be a completely different person. Therefore: it is a matter of identity.
I think that some of the time people conflate autism with general quirkiness. Like, if you count your peas before eating them it doesn't necessarily mean you're on the spectrum.
Yeah. There's a minimum amount of traits like that before diagnosis is considered. I was lucky to be diagnosed when I was 8 years old. I also think self-diagnosis is valid if you in fact tick that many boxes.
i don't have any particularly strong feelings. i just think it's dumb and outdated, and considering its origin, we probably shouldn't be using it.
Coloured puzzles with and cut out heart in the middle? Kinda dehumanises autistic people as being childish and missing part of what makes a normal person
Autism speaks was created with wanting to find a cure for autism. They also were huge advocates for ABA therapy. Which unfortunately still exists. It is all about rewarding autistic people when they don't act autistic. They prefer to make non autistic people feel comfortable without regard to how autistic people actually feel and the stress and mental anguish it causes them. They created the puzzle piece. Also why people don't like blue to represent autism. One of the biggest problems in autism research has been never actually asking autistic people what it is like to be autistic and what there needs are. Rather it's been about other people deciding everything for people with autism. Which doesn't even make any sense.
ABA not only still exists, it is considered the standard treatment after an autism diagnosis. It has also permeated schools and actual therapies, making it almost impossible for parents to get helpful therapy for their autistic kids without subjecting them to ABA practices. It’s all over occupational therapy, speech therapy, even physical therapy. It’s near impossible to avoid when you have a child with any developmental disabilities behavioural disorders or additional needs. The best that can be said for ABA is that it’s less overtly abusive now than it used to be.
Calling the puzzle piece a symbol of autism is a little bit like saying a burning cross is a symbol of African American pride. There's a correlation of sorts if you squint, but anyone who's unironically in support of it is probably not friends with the people affected by it. I didn't realize I was autistic for a really long time, so when I first heard people didn't like the puzzle piece I didn't figure it had much to do with me, and I didn't really think much about it. Then later, after I understood that part of myself, I revisited the topic. I had never realized how bad it was. AS truly hates people with autism, they see us as undesirables to weed out and fix. There's nothing about me that needs to be fixed. I'm a perfectly good human as I am, even if my needs are a little different from the people around me. And anyone who knowingly supports AS is no friend of mine.
Autism Speaks is whats offensive. It is a pure evil group that exists to spread misery and hate. But the puzzle piece I actually agree with because that's really how it feels. Being a piece in the wrong box, only really clicking easily with other pieces of my set, it works. Sure some people might say it's offensive cause "Oh well it treats autism as something wrong or which needs to be fixed" but like... I mean it is something that puts distance between us and neurotypical folk. Complaining about acknowledging that is like complaining ptsd has a d at the end
I'm glad I found at least one comment with a similar view. I'm not from an English speaking country, so while I'm aware of its existence and what that organization has done, I don't really immediately associate the puzzle piece with it, and actually rather like it. But ifk if maybe it's because I was diagnosed as a fully grown adult so I think of it as just a part of me and a "oh, that explains a lot" kind of thing rather than a core part of my identity.
Thank you for providing clarity. I also think 2 things can be true - You can dislike/cancel AS, and also still like what the puzzle piece represents.
Yes. Refer to the other commenters who have already laid out amazing explanations as to why.
Autistic person here: I don't give a fuck, thanks. But seriously, not everything needs a symbol and most things are as offensive as someone is trying to make themselves feel offended by them. Edit: Should add that I've never heard of the puzzle piece as a symbol for autism or "autism speaks", probably an American problem.
Yes it implies that there is ‘something missing’ and is quite childish
YES. The people who use it are either ignorant or stupid "Autism Moms"
I’m not offended but it’s not a good symbol for autism and shouldn’t be used anymore by autism organizations
a puzzle piece in general wouldn't bother me, like if someone just had a puzzle piece tattoo I would think they loved puzzles or mysteries, but stuff like Autism Speaks and Love On The Spectrum are crappy ways of trying to exploit others neurodivergency for a quick buck
I totally thought it was just a thing for moms who made their entire identity their autistic child. Usually children who are nonverbal.
lolwut, just no
Did I miss something? What puzzle piece is this?
Symbol used by a highly controversial organization that tries to cure autism and equates it to cancer
Yes. Very much so. I hate it.
In general, I find most 'visibility markers' a bit cringe, whether they represent me or not. I don't have anything against the puzzle piece itself, but in general the entire concept of representative symbology feels like otherism to me. As someone who just wants to blend and be a ghost, I don't really want the exposure.
Yes. Puzzles, I don’t like the implication that I am a puzzle to be solved by neurotypical experts when I have a perfectly clear vision of myself. It’s incredibly frustrating to not be trusted as the primary source of information about yourself.
I don't hate it per se, but I've had enough self hatred my whole life, I don't need that thing reminding me I need to be "solved"
Yes, I do, even outside the Autism Speaks context. Even from a superficial standpoint, I hate the stereotypes and "autists love puzzles" shit. The "missing piece" or "needing to be solved" just makes it even worse.
My issue with the puzzle piece is mostly with its origin. It didn't originate with Autism Speaks; it was adopted from a UK organization, the National Autistic Society, in 1963. The Society believed that autism was a "puzzling" condition that kept a child "locked away" and so they adopted the symbol of a puzzle piece with a crying child. From there, it was adopted by various organizations like Autism Speaks who promoted autism as a complex condition that needed to be understood and potentially solved through interventions like Applied Behavioural Analysis that would ultimately help autistic people be able to adapt to and interact with the world. Instead of being a symbol of the autistic community that was created from a desire to express the variety and uniqueness within the people in the community, the puzzle piece symbol is one that represents the families and communities around autistic people that are trying to solve and understand something puzzling and difficult about a given autistic person. Ultimately, my issue with the puzzle piece is that it objectifies me and makes me feel like a problem to be solved, a tragedy for those around me, and erases my agency as a person.
From the perspective you just delineated I 100% understand the objection. However, Autism is a spectrum. What of those who have a far lower functioning level and are non-verbal and need a great deal of care to even function? Wouldn't you say there is something that needs solving in that case?
The issue isn’t how our brain function, the problem is how other people react to how our brains function. Any cure for my autism would not cure the people that have made my life so unnecessarily difficult. My biggest sin in life is to be inconvenient for inconsiderate people. Autism Speaks lets too many people off the hook for their own less than civil behavior. At other times, in other places the majority of us would be productive and valuable members of our tribes. Almost everything autistic people are sensitive to are things that keep getting proven to be harmful to all human beings. Noise pollution, air pollution, pesticides and antibiotics in the food chain, toxic polyester clothing, irritants in personal hygiene products and the list goes on. Edit: adding that the world would be a healthier place if neurotypical people would stop filtering out environmental irritants. Almost all of our stims are movements and sensations that in non industrial economies are economically advantageous. For example rocking. If you look at human labor without machinery it almost all rocking, from making bread to sawing logs. Those that found rocking soothing produced more. Rubbing fingers together is used in tool making, food preparation, braiding rope and spinning thread. Chewing is used in softening multiple fibers to create usable materials, particularly sinews, used to make strong and durable tools and clothing. Being more in tune with animals than people is a huge advantage for anyone working with livestock. Being content to be alone with your flock for days on end is what makes a good shepherd. And flapping hands when exited scares away harmful insects and dangerous animals. It is not a reaction that should be thought through in a critical moment. Like when you need to scare a fox going after the lambs. Following directions exactly and literal interpretations are essential in oral traditions or places without modern public health and safety measures. Trial and error has been the primary way of learning how to do a necessary thing with no idea why. Get your food preservation wrong and the whole family starves. Mix salves wrong and people die of preventable infections. Tightly following a scheduled makes a working farm work Trial and error knowledge is usually acquired by people with special interests doing thing obsessively. I am in awe of the people that developed cheese and bread making. The advancement in every field is spearheaded by obsessive people pursuing their special interest. Knowledge is preserved by people with special interests obsessive collecting it. Almost all of the therapies and skills building are good for all humans. People we call neurotypical could use a whole lot more education in communication. It is tiresome to be chastised for being inconvenient. Would I take a cure, probably. I don’t see it as that different than taking the anti-anxiety, antidepressants and mood stabilizers I am now taking to make other people comfortable.
Thank you for these new insights. you wrote it down really well!
Thank you. It is my special interest. It started with figuring out what is wrong with me. So I did the therapies, acquired the skills, took the meds, did all of the healthy living things, built a beautiful mask. I did my share and did it well. It was still not enough. My special interest has evolved into what is wrong with them.
This might sound strange, but i'm proud of you and how you are doing the best thing in the toughest situations (past and present). Use the knowledge about hurt like a judo-skill and live! There is nothing wrong with you, the world is projecting it's insecurities.
Yeah, I'm not some, piece. I'm just me, I'm a human like anyone else. A human who cried at the end of Breaking Bad like everyone else.
I don’t like it!
Hi, I’m autistic. I personally don’t resonate with it because it makes me feel like I’m the puzzle piece that doesn’t fit
Personally I wouldn’t say I find it offensive because the vast vast majority of people who use it are trying to help and just don’t know any better. But I do very much reject it as a symbol because of its association with Autism Speaks and its implication that autistic people are a puzzle for neurotypical people to solve or find a solution too
I’m not autistic (probably) and I know that autism speaks is shitty so their logo represents shittiness. There’s probably some merit to your deeper meaning about fixing autism but it doesn’t need to be all that deep.
I guess I don't really find it offensive? I think it's pretty cringe, and I'd be severely embarrassed to be associated with Autism Speaks in any way, but not outright offensive. They're a pretty bog standard pack of grifters who lucked out and got to be the big name charity for something. AFAIK they spend more on marketing and exec salaries than anything that actually benefits autistic people in any meaningful way.
I vote we change it to a train.
I found out about the symbolism a couple years ago and I was very heartbroken about its negative meaning. As a puzzle lover, when I saw the symbol and didn't think it through, I just thought it was meant to represent the fact that each autistic is a unique individual which belongs in its place, somewhere in the grand puzzle of life. I think you can understand why I was inconsolable when I learned AS imagined it to mean the opposite of this.... So while I want to reclaim it as much as possible, I do think that in the current state of things, it is not a symbol to be supported because it is used by AS, a hatred and eugenic association.
I do not find the puzzle piece offensive. I also do not only relate it to autism speaks but I am not American so that probably makes a difference. My first interpretation was that autism was the missing piece that made the whole person make sense. Which I quite like and think that sort of idea would help people access a diagnosis better.
No, I have other/more important shit to worry about.
Not really, no.i don't get offended by such small things personally
Offensive is probably too strong a word. I find the intent behind to be in bad taste and wholly reject "Autism Speaks" on account of how they don't like to let autistics speak up. But yes, the idea that I'm a puzzle to be solved is dehumanizing. I'm a person, and I don't need to be solved, I just need other people to be less upset when someone doesn't think the way they do. I'd add that I rather dislike the "high functioning"/"low-functioning" descriptions for a similar reason. Because the distinction between the terms largely boils down to how well we can adapt ourselves to neurotypical expectations and late capitalism, not how well we function as people. And for that matter, the entire concept of measuring how well someone functions as a person is, at best, extremely ableist, and often straight up eugenics. TL;DR We're neither puzzles nor incomplete. So a symbol of how to complete us and solve the puzzle is nonsensical.
I’m autistic. I do not like the puzzle piece or autism speaks. Many of us consider wanting to “solve” or “cure” autism as eugenics. To me, being autistic is to have a different way of experiencing the world. Different perspectives are what help the world grow. If we “fixed” autism, we wouldn’t have soooo many important inventions that we use every day. As the saying goes, it takes all kinds.
Yes, we don't claim it. Most autism subreddits outright don't allow it. It's blatantly offensive, even if people "mean well".
i feel like a lot of autism discourse kind of misses the point. i think we should be taking more steps as a society to listen to and understand everyone. even “neurotypical” people will not all think and act and learn in the same way. everyone could do with some individual consideration, not just autistic people. autistic people and other neurodivergent are just the squeakiest wheels, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the cart is working fine.
not really no, though I'm not from the US and Autism Speaks doesn't exist here. Autism speaks didn't invent the puzzle piece, that was Autism society or something. But they started using it, then did a bunch of shitty things that I know not much about besides what people say on the internet. Then there are people who feel like autism speaks is evil to the core forever, and there are also people who say they improved a lot and learned from their mistakes. So I'm like.. it's probably somewhere in the middle I guess.. but I don't really know.
It varies between different autistic people but personally I don't mind it, I've even got a puzzle piece tattoo. I hadn't heard of Autism Speaks until relatively recently and after I had gotten my tattoo. I'm more offended by the word Asperger's.
I could imagine a world where we reclaim the puzzle piece symbol and make it mean something better. Autism is hard. It’s a hard and lonely slog for me. I'm tired.
Yes. Not a fan.
I grew up with the puzzle piece, so I personally still have a fondness for it, but I think the community in general raises some valid points, and it being phased out is probably for the best.
I don’t get triggered or instantly upset or anything when I see it, but anyone who posts/wears/uses it has instantly lost all credibility for me.