"Make Me Normal" programme Channel 4

[Noetic]

Noetic

 

I borrowed the term Autistic-Proud from Lucas's posting, and take it to mean people, like Lucas, who are proactively putting their postive perspective forward.(or 'Proudies' as you put it).

 

I never meant to say that other people with Autism were not (or should not be) proud of it. I sorry if that is how it came across.

 

Simon

Sorry no I should have explained better - I didn't mean to say that you implied anything like it!

 

It's just that it does often seem to be presented that way (by 'proudies') that when someone voices arguments against 'total pride', this means they must automatically hate being autistic or that they want to be cured etc.

[Lucas]

Mossgrove,

 

Nobody is right and nobody is wrong. Everyone is entitled to hold and express their own opinion.

 

This is not an area subject to opinion, anyone can have an opinion but in an area where decisions are made which will affect a wider group of people, the opinions justifying those decisions MUST be right.

 

I, like many thought of as 'high-functioning', cannot get any help no matter where I go because of OTHER people's wrong opinions. I will tackle those ideas at their source. They will often come from Autistics who have been taught to hate Autism or consider views of it which are derogatory. I know they are wrong when I ask them what their problems are and they can only answer with a third-person description; there is no self-understanding or reflection.

 

They may say they have difficulty with somethings and I always ask them why, they seem to think Autism should be a self-evident explaination. Decisions are always being made based on the opinions of such people, but their opinions are shaped by the resources available to them which are always telling them that Autism is the cause of every problem they have which they can't explain. In contrast, views like mine are shaped in absence of external influence. I believed I was faulty when I was told I was and the illusion was maintained by the material I was given. I started changing when there was no longer any source of this.

 

Some might say that this is the case for me but may not be for others, they are wrong. What is consistent is how curbie Autistics describe their problems in third-person langauge, scripting, others do not.

 

Example:

 

3rd person: I had problems with poo smearing when I was little.

 

1st person: I tried to wipe poo off on walls because I didn't like it's texture, I didn't know how it got on me. My parents thought I was poo smearing.

 

You only have to read some of the stuff by Tito Mukhopadhyay(I'm suprised I can still spell that) to see. Tito is now one of the low-functioning Autistics that are pro-Autism. This group mostly stems from the fact that they couldn't understand the 'kill-Autism' mentality when they were children but could when they were adults. So they are most able to speak about Autism in terms not imposed on them: when people told them the cause of all their problems was called 'Autism', they couldn't understand, so they were able to work out what the real causes were in each case without the prejudice blinding them.

 

Tito was one of the first to explain to the wider world that he has trouble using more than one sensory channel at a time, this could not have been learned and told by those who had already been given the false explainations for the behaviour caused by mono-channel senses.

 

So I am against disparaging views on Autism because I can never squeeze any justification out of them and they hurt a wider group of people, including me.

 

Noetic has spoken of two opposite extremes, I hope she can learn quickly that they do not exist. To call something extreme there must be a comparison for what is moderate and assuming it is the middle ground is a fallacy.

 

For all the bluster directed at me she should remember she's is far from immune to leaps in logic herself when not able to accurately point it out in others.

[Kris]

All,

 

I think this topic has run it's course, and hence is now closed.

 

Kris