#Autism speaks is a hate group

[zeroar]

An Open Letter to the People Who Support Autism Speaks

Autism Speaks is eighteen years old. The age they should start dismissing themselves as being an authority on autism like they do with autistic adults if they cared about consistency at all.

They were founded in 2005 by a couple of Hollywood executives who grieved the diagnosis of their grandchild. This was a full dozen years after the seminal "Don't Mourn For Us" by Jim Sinclair was penned and presented.

From the beginning, Autism Speaks was anti-autism. They sought a "cure" they could use to erase our existence from the planet, they fomented anti-vax conspiracies which are still plaguing our society today, and they fostered and continue to foster an environment supportive and understanding of child-murder.

But. They were connected to celebrity. And they had the endowment and reach to become the largest anti-autism group in the nation and world.

The primary method of advertising which Autism Speaks used from the beginning is known as "fear appeal".

Typically, they frame autistic children as changeling-like creatures which replace the allistic or neurotypical child you had with one which will never love you and will tear apart your family.

Autism Speaks spotlights the worst of having an autistic family member and pulls the drapes on any mitigating circumstances or assistance. They emphasize the burden we are and the harm caused to our families by our existence.

Autism Speaks then goes on to frame themselves as being the solution and the experts on everything autism. They say, don't listen to autistic people, listen to their parents and other people who have been negatively affected by their existence. Listen to these cherry-picked examples.

They talk vaguely about support for autistic children and families while they campaign ceaselessly to find the genes which contributed to making us... so they can unmake us.

As you might expect for people who frame themselves as being the victim of their children's existences, they have been easily taken in by snake-oil salesmen and conspiracy theorists.

To this day, Autism Speaks continues to emphasize the "environmental causes of autism" even while fully knowing (from the millions of dollars of research they put in pursuing a debunked study) that autism appears to be primarily genetic and our environment really only affects our presentations as autistic, not our realities as autistic.

"Environmental causes" is a dog whistle for vaccines because they no longer feel it is profitable for them to explicitly encourage widespread death and alternative disabilities of children, so they have started only alluding to it and finally, years after the study was debunked and retracted, agree that vaccines do not cause autism.

"Environmental causes" is also a dog whistle for things like heavy metal poisoning causing autism and various other external things that can be "taken care of" via chelation therapy and bleaching our insides. Yes, Autism Speaks is at least partially responsible for spreading bleach "cures".

I believe they've taken it down since I first started advocating for SPLC to recognize Autism Speaks as a hate group—something autistic persons have recognized for years—but as recently as a year ago they were still directing people to seek out these "cures".

They worded it in such a way that it was, "These 'cures' do not work and can cause harm, but you should talk to people who tried them for their children and see for yourself."

It's cruelty for cruelty's sake. Or it's believing scientifically disproven things in a way that promotes the torture of children.

Which brings us to arguably their biggest crime against humanity and against autistic people specifically thus far: the advancement of behaviorism or behavioral conditioning as the "treatment" for autism.

Behaviorism, that is, conversion therapy torture. When done on autistic people, it is commonly called ABA or PBS.

This is another reason why they cling to "environmental causes", because behaviorism is entirely consumed with external presentation.

Autism is a pervasive neurological state which colors every aspect of our lives. Their "solution" is to deny our reality, break us to their will, and have us pretend to be "normal".

Through their efforts, they have ensured conversion therapy is not just used, but frequently the only choice for covered treatment of autistic children.

I say "choice", but the torture is sometimes court-mandated (and this is more common when the parents are marginalized-by-society in some way themselves).

Autism Speaks is so very proud of their government influence. Shortly before I started the petition, I watched in horror as their testimony scuttled a bill at the state level intended to help autistic children which had the support of their parents because not enough torture was included in the "help".

People say they've "changed", yet it's not like their institution is so hallowed and sacrosanct that it is necessary to keep around even as it is continues to encourage harm and death to autistic children and autistic adults.

Autism Speaks is the multi-headed hydra of anti-autism rhetoric and hate in the world today. They have so many branches and have infiltrated so deeply that many of their supporters ( I hope ) are not even aware of the hateful rhetoric and active harm they spread.

People tend not to even question the premise that autistic humans are better off dead than alive, people have for ages not even thought of us as human. Autism Speaks recommends starting behavioral conditioning as early as possible in children as young as two. The least intensive programs they recommend are for dozens of hours a week.

This is what they recommend, push, and lobby for with *all* autistic children.

If they become able to accurately recognize autism in a fetus, then their genocide and eugenics will only accelerate. I am pro-abortion, but no one should be coerced into an abortion with lies and one-sided propaganda.

Showing hateful rhetoric and catastrophizing about our existence to a newly pregnant person is similarly abominable as the sort of thing anti-choice people do.

Autism Speaks has not changed, though they have gotten better at pretending normality. Maybe they put themselves through conversion therapy torture to learn how to pretend to be a force of good while being sympathetic of child murderers?

Or, you know, they've hired publicists and PR people.

If you were duped by them, I'm sorry that their hate is not more well-known. Can you imagine if the first place you felt supported you and understood your struggles was the bad guy? Who would think that by default?

But they are the bad guy. And they're using you. Preying on your isolation and desire for community and support.

They start early. Constant public outreach. Working with cops. University chapters. There may even be entire branches under their umbrella that are actively dedicated to good. But they support the hate and harm by supporting Autism Speaks.

If you support Autism Speaks, then you support the elimination of autism.

If you believe their fear-driven propaganda designed to earn more money for themselves, that may sound like a good thing to you.

But you cannot eliminate autism without eliminating the autistic person, too.

We cannot turn off our autism, some of us can pretend normality—frequently to our great misfortune—but others can't do that either. It's similar to what happens when you force queer people through conversion therapy torture / behaviorism regimes.

There is not some hidden switch in our brains to "fix" us. Even if there was, we would not be ourselves, we would be different people. You cannot separate autism from the autistic.

If this letter spoke to you, I hope you will consider signing my petition to get the Southern Poverty Law Center to track anti-disability hate and to recognize Autism Speaks as an anti-autism group.

You can find the petition here:

Thank you for reading, Zero Richardson

#actually autistic #actuallyautistic #neurodivergent #neurodiversesquad #behaviorism is torture #aba is abuse #autism speaks #autism speaks is a hate group #autism acceptance #autism awareness #acceptance not awareness #red instead #splc #southern poverty law center

[smolbtne]

Hell yeah it’s almost that time of the year again

#autism acceptance #autism acceptence month #red instead #light it up red instead #autism speaks is a hate group

[unicornlovers10]

Autism Acceptance Month is coming up soon. So here's your annual reminder that the puzzle piece is a hate symbol, and Autism Speaks is an ableist hate group.

#tia talks #actually autistic #autism acceptance #autism acceptance month #autism speaks #tw autism speaks #tw ableism #autism speaks is a hate group #tw ableism mention

[silliestcreature196]

Reminder: My existence as an autistic person is not an inherent burden, or a curse. I am not plagued by a sickness. I am not diseased. I was not born wrong. I do not need to be cured. You cannot fix what isn't broken. Fuck you.

#RedInstead #Red Instead #Autism Speaks Is A Hate Group #Fuck Autism Speaks #Autism #actually autistic #rambling #autism

[ribbondee]

Happy Autism Awareness ACCEPTANCE month from an autistic person.

#autism acceptence month #autism #autism speaks is a hate group #autism is not a disease

[lilyliveredlittlerichboy]

i wonder if tumblr users have gotten the memo yet that Jack Black supports Autism $peaks which is a hate group who support and promote ABA, which has been described as autistic conversion therapy (and that's just the very tip of the iceberg)

i wonder if my mutuals and followers know that, especially those of you who reblogged that video of him doing some funky dance that I've had to scroll past like 5 times already today. i wonder if the overwhelmingly autistic userbase here know that

if you think he's your "last unproblematic fave" im really sorry but he's just not

#jack black #autism speaks #autism speaks is a hate group #actually autistic #aba #i need a tag for my own rambles

[lesbean-sideblog]

I'm so fucking tired of seeing Jack Black pop up on my feed. The man has been an active supporter of autism speaks for years.

#and during autism acceptance month too #autism #autism speaks #jack black #autism speaks is a hate group #autism acceptence month #autistic

[fandomsoda]

JUST READ SOMEWHERE THAT MATPAT DONATED 1,000 DOLLARS TO AUTISM SPEAKS CAN SOMEONE PLEASE VERIFY WHETHER OR NOT THIS IS TRUE BECAUSE IF IT IS WHAT THE FUCK /neg

I don’t wanna immediately believe potential misinformation but if this is true I gotta know-

Edit: ok so it’s apparently hard to explain and kinda complicated,,, I was supplied with this Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/GameTheorists/comments/qeuvwz/an_open_letter_to_matt_from_an_exfan/

#text post #for those who don’t know #autism speaks is a hate group #autism #matpat #fuck autism speaks #as an autistic person #what the fuck

[sweetface-the-dollbaby]

Quick reminder that it’s autism ACCEPTANCE month not autism AWARENESS month. Autism “awareness” was a term coined by autism speaks, which is a hate group.

#autism acceptance month #autism speaks is a hate group

[rory-moment]

#autism #im so autistic #actually autistic #autistic spectrum #actuallyautistic #autistic #autistic community #actually asd #asd #actually audhd #audhd #audhd things #actually adhd #actually autism #neurodivergent #fuck autism speaks #autism speaks is a hate group #FUCK AUTISM SPEAKS!!!!

[caitas-cooing]

Sometimes being autistic and speaking out against things like autism speaks and aba feels like I'm the child in the emperor's new clothes. Like neurotypical people who don't know better are fooled by like advertising and general respectful and scientific appearance that they seem to have and I'm just pointing at it and saying it's all a lie

#actually autistic #aba is not evidence based #aba is abuse #autism speaks does not speak for me #autism speaks is a hate group #like does this make sense #I feel like it makes sense but idk

[djsherriff]

Despite everything, I’ll keep the light on

#autistic adult #animation #autism speaks is a hate group #procreate #autistic artist

[daringdoombringer]

I now feel like I can kill god knowing that I have more TikTok followers than autism speaks.

#autism speaks is a hate group #autistic #adhd #fuck you autism speaks

[fdelopera]

A not so friendly reminder to idiots on Tumblr that if you uplift the actions of JVP, you are uplifting a Messianic organization founded on Jew-hate.

And I stand by what I say, in calling JVP Messianics. They are getting Christians to believe that they can become Jewish through "self-conversion."

The Messianic movement goes both ways (getting both Jews and Christians to blend Judaism and Christianity), and the goal is to undermine Judaism.

The Messianic movement ultimately seeks to get Christians to infiltrate the Jewish community.

Most of JVP's membership are goys, and the few Jews who are members have tokenized themselves to the point where they are willing to attack the Jewish community for social media clout.

JVP is to Jews what Autism $peaks is to autistic people.

You do NOT get to call yourself a "Jewish Voice for Peace" when your membership is mostly goys, and when your goal is harassing and attacking Jews.

Stop uplifting these fuckers.

#jumblr #I did NOT need to see that post on my dash right now - fucking gross #JVP is an antisemitic hate group - they do NOT speak for Jews #JVP is to Jews what Autism $peaks is to autistic people

[theflyingravenbird]

https://chng.it/PRBbDqyFxH

Sign the petition to categorize Autism Speaks as a hate group.

#Autism #ableism #autism speaks is a hate group #autism speaks #actuallyautistic #disability #ABA is conversion therapy for autistic children

[flirts-with-dragons]

The two types of autism organizations:

- "aspie supremacy 💕🤪 level 2s and 3s don't exist because we said so"

- "autism is an infectious disease. We are developing the autism vaccine. Give us your money"

#ableism #tw ableism #tw aspie supremacy #(i dont want to attract aspies so im not putting it without the tw) #autism speaks #autism organizations #ableist organizations #hate groups #autism #autistic #actually autism #actually autistic