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Ten

This is pretty good. Just sharing. Second Life Herald: Does Autism Speak in SL?

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Travis Lambert

I can understand that highly functioning people with Asberger's syndrome view their autism as a personality trait to be embraced rather than a condition - and don't want to be 'cured'. That's cool.

But (unless I'm reading this incorrectly) proposing that its wrong to find some sort of treatment for low-functioning people with severe autism? Comparing prevention to genocide? You've got to be kidding me.

Perhaps there's more to this, but from the article: the anti-Autism Speaks folks appear hysterical, and the Autism Speaks folks appear professional. The holocaust comparisons certainly don't help.

Joshua Nightshade

Gareth is a nutjob.

Siyu Suen

If people are going to be paranoid about any research, better to go insane about the mapping of the human genome instead. Any sort of genetic anomaly able to be pinpointed, identified, and, goodness, possibly bred out?

ZOMG WE'RE GOING TO BE BRED INTO A RACE OF SUPERHUMAN TIGER WOODSES

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Mecha Dinosaur

I refuse to do the golf victory fist pump.

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Ewan Took

I can't help wondering if there's religious zeal beneath this.

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Lucifer Baphomet

Gareth is autistic.... that probably explains his somewhat muddled self expression.

I have an autistic son, I'd love it if he communicated like other kids his age.. he doesn't though.

Thing is... higher fuctioning Autistics HAVE made great contributions to science, music, etc etc.
Autism is a double edged sword.

I agree with neither side in this debate.
But I see valid points on both sides.

Ten

Gareth sounds just fine to me. Has he been DIAGNOSED?

WarKirby Magojiro

Has anyone tried reading the comments on that article. For example, Gareth's last comment is a lengthy argument backed up by several links.

The majority of the anti autism comments there are clearly less articulate

It's just a parade of ignorance. Wtf?

Can someone please explain why "Gareth is a nutjob" when the evidence seems to be strongly against that statement ?

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WarKirby Magojiro

yes

Travis Lambert

There were zero comments yet when Josh or I posted. Note that I said "From the article..."

Regardless, immature 'lulz' comments are par for any Herald story. They come out of the woodwork.

I realize that Autism is a big tent that includes folks with Asbergers at one end of the spectrum, and folks that can't care for themselves at the other end of the spectrum. It just seems to me that the things that Aspies like Gareth are fighting for sound crazy when applied to the other end of the spectrum.

Also, FWIW, my father is a highly-functioning Aspie He was (mis-)diagnosed with full-blown autism as a child in the 1950's, and it was reccomended to my grandparents that they institutionalize him. He went on to become an attorney

Ten

Okay. Let me explain this slowly. Those comments were from other people, not Gareth. Please go back and read Gareth's commentary, not for the grammar and the spelling, but for the content. Also go onto his forum and read those comments. Then go onto Laynie Link's blog and read his comment THERE.

He's not all together correctly. His puzzle pieces are mashed.

Ewan Took

I find the whole thing confusing. I've worked with children with autism. A lot of them are like some how 'trapped inside themselves'. I remember one boy had to wear little gloves as when he flew into rages and scratched his face until it bled. They didn't want to make eye contact and most had problems with language.

The people protesting sound nothing like this. They sound articulate and able to put forward their beliefs. You can understand why they're upset that an organisation seeks them to cure them of what they consider is them. Maybe the organisation shouldn't speak for people with Asperger's?

Ingrid

I've read that there's a push by some people to have the defintion of autism narrowed a little because of this.

I agree. One of my best friends has a 4 year old "low functioning" austistic child and she would do anything to make it possible for him to have a better, more independant life. He is at the developmental level of a 9 month old child. Life is really tough for them.

Joshua Nightshade

Reading the forum that he has created has been the greatest indicator for me that he has this cult-leader approach to this issue.

Gareth was asked to leave the OpenSim project some time back for reasons it wouldn't entirely be my place to get into (srsly, please don't ask, there's enough in his forum to make a judgment on his crazery), but both before that incident and his behavior afterward (slamming his fists and deciding he's making his own competing grid all alone using OpenSim's code instead) I knew him to be a total asshole. How he handled himself after that escapade cemented it for me that he was nuts.

You can read his forum if you'd like, it's full of persecutionist propaganda and weird statements suggesting that higher-level autistic are X-Men and the further evolution of humanity. He's crazy, ergo, nutjob.

The Herald shouldn't have given him any sort of airtime, but when has that stopped them?

Joshua Nightshade

Also I really have to put forth the viewpoint that others have hinted at. I have a cousin who is autistic. He's thirty seven years old and cannot drive, has never had a job, is on disabilities and lives with his sister. He has never been functional at all whatsoever in his life. He will never be able to take care of himself. He will never be able to live on his own, he will always be reliant on others.

The posts in that thread do not seem remotely close to anything I have experienced with him or with others who are autistic.

While I can understand that someone who is functional and merely anti-social might not appreciate being lumped in with the ones who aren't, the fact of the matter is that those with Asperger's represent a small minority of the range of autistic people, and suggesting that any sort of treatment at all be scrapped is wholly irresponsible.

I also have to question how many of them even have a diagnosis of Asperger's, much less autistic, at all. You can be uncomfortable in crowds without having a mental affliction. I really question how many of the people posting in his forum have an actual diagnosis and not an online quiz. To allow them to be spokespeople for a group that cannot speak for themselves is dangerous to me.

Io Zeno

A group that is against genetic research into the causes of serious cases of autism automatically has made themselves irrelevant, to me.

Do they think that the research being done with diabetes is going to result in people aborting children born with it or the hope, based on the research so far, that the malfunctioning dna can be repaired? Do they realize the hope that this gives parents of children with diabetes?

Liona Clio

There's an irony here I'm picking up in two different threads

In one thread, Scientologists are calling psychology a pseudo-science, and making extremist PETA-like videos. People in these threads decry the SoC, as psychology is a valid science that is beneficial.

This thread talks about people with Asburger's Syndrome, and how people want to narrow the view of the disease. People with AS don't want to be considered autistic.

So. Combine the two views, and we get the idea that psychology is a wonderful science...until it calls *my* behavior abnormal. Then it's marginalizing me.

I call BS. Self-esteem issues need to be kept separate from psychological classifications. Otherwise, we'll end up with *every* mental illness becoming just another 'phase' one's going through, or a 'talent' one has.

One's self-worth needs to be separate from outside influence...that's a major issue everyone with *any* metal trait has to wrestle with.

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Joshua Nightshade

Heaven knows I might have Asperger's too!

I don't like to be touched, I don't like crowds, I have an easier time talking to people in text instead of in person. Hell I can never recognize faces and names either.

ZOMG.

Lucifer Baphomet

The thing is...

Autism isn't a condition in the classic sense. Its a broad collection of symptoms and dependant on how many, and which ones are displayed, may or may not place you far enough along the autistic spectrum, for it to be considered a problem.
Almost everyone fits somewhere on that spectrum, the majority, however sit the extreme end of the spectrum in the area we call normal.

What I'm trying to say is, it's a broad definition, which covers a large number of conditions.

Joshua Nightshade

When I posted there were no additional comments on the article. If you could call it that.