I’ve seen folks getting sad about a certain Hamilton creator supporting a certain not-great autism charity whose initials are "AS.” Truly, this bums me out, too—yet I don’t blame people who are trying to do the right thing for not knowing which autism orgs to trust. A thread: 1/
Our media conditions its audiences to fear and pity people with autism and other disabilities. And it’s not just sensationalistic, clickbait media outlets that impugn the rights and basic humanity of autistic people. 2/
Progressive publications & writers can be just as reactionary. But as we tend to trust “thought leaders” as both intellectually rigorous & socially fair, their ableism often goes unchecked and is far more dangerous than that of their unapologetically prejudiced counterparts. 3/
…And this priming & permission to view autistic people as subhuman explains why big-hearted celebrities don’t know any better than to support AS, or its stigmatizing campaign to find a “cure,” rather than desperately-needed supports and services for existing autistic people. 4/4
