this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2024
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Autism

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A community for respectful discussion and memes related to autism acceptance. All neurotypes are welcome.

We have created our own instance! Visit Autism Place the following community for more info.

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Autism Sneaks (lemm.ee)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
31 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I didn't want to cook for myself tonight, but I read somewhere that the place I started ordering from is a sponsor of Autism Speaks.

Before placing the order, I tried to go on the AS website to check it out but I kept getting distracted by the stream of donation alerts that popped up at the bottom of the page.

It took me an additional five or so minutes to review their partnerships because it was so overstimulating.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Hi! I got here from the "everything" tab, while I don't have autism myself I want to support those with autism as best as I can. I have often seen that Autism Speaks is problematic, but I don't fully understand why, can someone please explain it to me?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Just a few points, you'll find much more just putting "autism speaks controversy" into the search engine of your choice.

They view autism as a disease that needs to be cured.

They made videos saying autism will destroy your marriage, your family and your life.

They advocate to develop prenatal testing for autism with the goal of having women abort their supposedly autistic babies.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They treat autism as a disease to be cured, which is a disgusting way to think about it. Their founder also claimed that it's "possible" that autism is caused by vaccines, which is scientifically disproven. There are also no autistic members of their board, which means no actual representation for the people they claim to want to help.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago (1 children)

There are a lot of reasons, but I think this article does a good job of listing the main criticisms: https://www.themarysue.com/the-autism-speaks-controversy-explained/

But in a nutshell:

  • They frame autism as a disease that needs curing
  • None of their board members are autistic
  • They spread fear and misinformation about autism
  • As a charity, embarrassingly little of their money goes to actually doing anything for autistic people
[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Well, donation/purchase popups are already a very big red flag in itself. Scam sites use them to drive FOMO. I have never heard of Autism Speaks so I don't know about this particular case.