balddumborat:

yamino:

I’ve seen a few people dismissing my previous posts because you think as non-disabled person, I’m putting words in the mouth of the mentally disabled and have no right to speak out.

For reasons of privacy, I’m not about to tell the whole wide internet why abelism towards the mentally disabled…

We mentally disabled people can fend for ourselves, I don’t need people like you trying to censor the fact that we exist just to keep from “offending” us.I am SICK AND TIRED of it! I am so disgusted by people always going “nooo how dare you make fun of the retards, you know it hurts them because they have hearts of glass and need to be cover loved and protected meh meh meh meh meh!!!”

We have feelings, and being treated overly nice and bubbled like this is just as bad as being treated badly. Either way, we are not being treated as equal people. It’s disgusting. I’m not special, I don’t need special treatment, I don’t need to be offended by seeing the fact that “oh hey we exist in the media”. It’s like there can’t be a mentally disabled person in anything without being offensive, unless they have some big heart of gold and act SUPER DUPER smart. It’s either “be important, or get the hell out, you little dumbasses.”

Amen, sister.  The mentally disabled / developmentally disabled community does not have a single, monolithic opinion, and cannot be spoken for as a whole without someone getting left out.  I have my politics, my religion, my opinions, and I will argue for them as vigorously as anyone.  I like what I like, and dislike what I don’t.

I’ve been traumatized, I’ve been wounded deeply by people I considered friends until they proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they weren’t willing to be friends.  Not as much as some, and more than others.  Why do someone’s words take on more weight the farther down the scale of “having been hurt” they are?

Having heard all the sides on this particular issue of censorship of the disabled, including the production team’s, I believe that the first voice was a mistake, as was the use of the fan name, and that the “fix” was necessary but wrong, and badly done.  We humans mess things up so easily, especially when we think we’re doing someone a favor.

(Readers, do yourself a favor and read BDR’s full post.  It’s worth it!)

And artists, never go “full derp” unless you’re willing to play it to the hilt and then defend it from all who can’t stand to see art so raw and real.

First observation:  I realized today that neurotypicals are better at creating and then discarding temporary ontologies of limited scale.

Part of my problem with generalization is that anything new must be found a place in my master ontology.  Yet I’ve never had that problem with fictions; each has its own ontology, a separate world within which specific rules apply.  It’s ironic that fantasy is easier than reality because it’s less real.  Or is it just apt?

Second observation:  the difference between ability and skill is like the difference between iron and steel.  A teacher can teach ability, but the student must practice in order to forge skill from that raw element.

kaidraws:

>friend makes post about how wanting a cure for autism is a perfectly reasonable thing based on her own experiences and struggles as an autistic person and noting how there are people with autism that have a lot of trouble functioning and some of them would probably like a cure as well

>a bunch of people jump on her for “internalized ableism”/”not accepting diversity”/”I don’t want a cure how dare you try to speak for all of us”/”you’re promoting aborting autistic children”/using the term “crazy” to refer to people who believe autism is caused by vaccination

>for fuck’s sake, people.

tumblr is a magical land of tolerance and magic

The problem is that people don’t know what the friend wants to cure.  Sensory issues such as not being able to stand being in a room with a cold draft, or hearing every sound simultaneously such that the world is one big piercing alarm?  Yeah, that’s something that might be useful to solve.  Not being able to grasp a “simple” conversation about a homework assignment because the teacher is mixing social, logical, and research-based contexts on two different levels?  Kinda important.  Screaming and yelling because someone said one slightly ambiguous word?  Neurodiversity can get bent if that’s their poster child.

There are only so many ways to say ability is desirable before somebody takes the inverse as a truism that disability (and therefore someone disabled) is undesirable.  I revel in the social and communication abilities I’ve developed, and I wish I’d developed them sooner!  And yet with all my adaptation to a neurotypical world, I have not become the bullies I feared, the excluding shunners who made me feel unwelcome, or the religious elitists who drove me from my home church for a time.

If there was a pill that would give instant hearing to the deaf, the Deaf would complain about a unique culture potentially disappearing.  Yet the deaf who didn’t want to be deaf or Deaf would hail it as a miracle.  The analogy is not perfect, but I hope you get my drift.

Are you a psychiatrist, psychologist, or other mental health professional in the greater Albuquerque metropolitan area?  Do you need continuing education credits to keep your license?  Do you know jack-squat about autism beyond what you’ve seen on Rain Man, Nightline, or Touch?

Help me contact your CE provider, and get $5 off a speech to your church, social club, or other group event.

I’ve been fascinated by the Robot stories of Isaac Asimov since my youth.  His moral algorithm, the Three Laws of Robotics, was the initial basis for my understanding of morality in general, and started me on my philosophical quest.

I find philosophy about artificial intelligence near and dear to my heart.  What makes a person, a person?  If an AI asked Jesus to save it, would He?  Is there a difference between a p-zombie and humans of a materialist nature?  Would a robot citizen of the USA have the right to bear arms?

Autists and aspies like myself often find ourselves drawn to these stories and themes because they are about emotionless intelligences, or minds that simulate but do not experience emotion. We’re drawn to logic because of the certainty it promises, a certainty that neurotypical society seems to delight in denying us.

Men are from Mars.

Women are from Venus.

Geeks are from Vulcan.

(with apologies to John Gray)