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.
Community:
Values
- Acceptance
- Openness
- Understanding
- Equality
- Reciprocity
- Mutuality
- Love
Rules
- No abusive, derogatory, or offensive post/comments e.g: racism, sexism, religious hatred, homophobia, gatekeeping, trolling.
- Posts must be related to autism, off-topic discussions happen in the matrix chat.
- Your posts must include a text body. It doesn't have to be long, it just needs to be descriptive.
- Do not request donations.
- Be respectful in discussions.
- Do not post misinformation.
- Mark NSFW content accordingly.
- Do not promote Autism Speaks.
- General Lemmy World rules.
Encouraged
- Open acceptance of all autism levels as a respectable neurotype.
- Funny memes.
- Respectful venting.
- Describe posts of pictures/memes using text in the body for our visually impaired users.
- Welcoming and accepting attitudes.
- Questions regarding autism.
- Questions on confusing situations.
- Seeking and sharing support.
- Engagement in our community's values.
- Expressing a difference of opinion without directly insulting another user.
- Please report questionable posts and let the mods deal with it. Chat Room
- We have a chat room! Want to engage in dialogue? Come join us at the community's Matrix Chat.
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- Are you seeking education, support groups, and more? Take a look at our list of helpful resources.
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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?
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.
Thank you!
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.
Thank you!
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:
Thank you!
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.