Thread by @ialika_lifina

Another hate campaign...
This time it's #endautismnow.
This is a truly vile one, and it's good to see so many #ActuallyAutistic people speaking against it. Here's my thoughts on it.
This'll be a long one...

CW: ableism, child abuse, violence, trauma, mentions of eugenics.

Okay, so first and foremost:

There is no 'cure' for autism. And even if there was, us autistic people wouldn't want it.
We experience life through the unique viewpoints that we have, and suddenly losing that perspective would be the height of trauma.

I'm talking about a full on existential crisis here... So much of how we perceive the world is shaped by our autistic minds. We would not recognise the world should that change so drastically.

No, instead we simply manage our difficulties and find ways to live. Most allistic people prefer it if we're forced to 'fit in', because it means not changing anything. To this end, they subject us to all kinds of abuse...

These forms of abuse are meant to somehow 'stop us from being autistic'. It can often involve torture methods and is frightfully close to conversion therapy. And they prefer to do all this to children... This often scars the people affected for life, causing things like PTSD.

We're already at an elevated risk for mental illnesses, mostly due to our experiences and our masking, and intentional abuse is absolutely disgusting... And the people doing it talk about it as if it's all okay, and don't respect just how much it damages us.

The next issue to mention is the 'search for a specific cause of autism'. There's many reasons why this is bad... The first is gatekeeping. It's bad enough when people without formal diagnosis or being diagnosed as adults are looked down upon by people diagnosed as children...

Imagine being told "you're not autistic" because some specific marker wasn't present. Or because you act in a certain way that doesn't exactly match their criteria...
Oh wait, that does already happen!

The second is how needs are assigned... This is often referred to as 'functioning labels'. People deemed 'low-functioning' receive more support, but in ways that infantilise them, and deny them agency. People deemed 'high-functioning' often receive no support at all.

Searching for specific causes takes attention away from support entirely, and further ensures only the 'low-functioning' group receive support at all.

The third is potential applications of eugenics. Imagine if a specific cause was found that can determine if a foetus would develop autism. This would be used as an excuse to practice selective abortion. Or abandoning the newborn at birth.

And if it was applied to children, it would be used as justification for forcing them into adoption agencies or subjecting them to torturous 'therapies'. Oh wait, those ones happen as well! Geez, these allistic parents really don't want autistic children, do they?

The reason for these campaigns is simple. To eliminate autistic people from society. Many allistic people often feel 'uncomfortable' with how we think, feel and act, and act as if it wasn't there. This is why we're often forced to mask and this is why they subject us to abuse.

Of course it could be worse... We could be targeted for violence due to our behaviours, even from authorities. Or we could have registers labelling us as 'defective', which could then be used to exterminate us.
Hey wait, that's happened too! And police violence still happens...

Considering that many of the people supporting this campaign likely support ABA, 'cure' research or even anti-vaxxer conspiracies, it's no surprise that it doesn't respect the existence of autistic people at all... Heck, I'd be surprised if they even consider us people...

Autistic children exist, regardless of how much people try to reject it. And these children grow up to be autistic adults. Nobody can 'end us', nobody can erase us and nobody can eliminate us. Please stop trying to erase us...

Instead support us, listen to our experiences, and allow us the chance to exist in society together. Because together we can make a world that is accommodating of all neurotypes.

Some context behind why I made this thread:
I am an autistic adult.
I was formally diagnosed at the age of 10.
I was bullied a lot as a kid, not just by other kids, but by teachers, school administration and medical professionals as well, often as a result of my being autistic.

@threadreaderapp unroll please