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John Marble

29 Dec, 9 tweets, 3 min read

I’m happy to report the string of 4,736 radio ads I’ve heard in the #GASenate runoff has been broken!!

I’m sad to report the ad which did it was a “we can fix your broken kid” ad by #AutismSpeaks.

Give autistic people 1% of their bloated budget & watch the world change. 💯

I’m serious. Give autistic adults 1% of the budget of any big autism group and things would be SO MUCH BETTER for parents, kids, and us.

I’ve repeatedly said that to neurotypical people, but to quote Georgia native André 3000 “Y’all don’t want to hear me, you just wanna dance.”

It seems that every week I’m contacted by someone I know who has someone in their life who is a parent of a newly diagnosed autistic kid.

I spend SO MUCH TIME filling in the gaps that autism groups don’t fill-in because they EXCLUDE autistic people from their leadership...

I am so happy to do that, but it is EXHAUSTING. And I can’t help everyone.

My entire career has been about scaling impact - how are the MOST people helped in the most efficient way. It digs at my heart watching autism groups create such little impact because they EXCLUDE us.

I know so many other autistic adults exhausted by this as well. We have to build our own supports, those of our peers, build supports for parents we know, for newly diagnosed adults, etc.

The autism industry has totally failed parents and autistic people. There’s a better way.

I used to think that, by pointing out this inefficiency to autism groups, they would get it. They don’t...or, they do but instead want to hold onto their systems of power.

We wait...and wait...and wait.

Autistic adults KNOW how to improve the lives of autistic people; to better help parents who are left without information and support. Yet, we’re told by autism groups to be patient. Well...

“How much time do you want for your progress?” - #JamesBaldwin

I’ll try to stop this thread before it drives itself into a rant. But, I’ll leave you with this:

Autistic people understand autism better than any other group. This is a universal truth embedded in every marginalized group when it comes to every issue central to themselves...

If you want to help people, empower them. It’s that simple. So much time and resources squandered, so much suffering left whole, by allies assuming they fully know of things which they only know in part.

Bless all of you parents and beautiful autistic people. Change will come.

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More from @JHMarble

John Marble

@JHMarble

26 Sep

🧵 THREAD 🧵

Someone wrote that Judge Amy Coney Barrett would bring “heart” to ‘special needs’ if confirmed to the #SupremeCourt. After showing my respect for the person who wrote that, and understanding of where they were coming from, this was my response:

“Disabled people don’t need lawmakers or jurors to bring “heart” to ‘special needs’. That’s what has led to patronizing policy which has f%¥ked over the exercise of our equality and marginalized our full participation in society over-and-over-and-over again...

It’s one of the greatest things we organize and fight against and we will continue to fight against it until the law and policy makers recognize that we are just like everyone else...

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John Marble

@JHMarble

11 Sep

The whole #BobWoodward thing reminds me that our better politicians understand the press will try to ‘get’ them, and that’s a good, healthy thing for our democracy. They respect and welcome that.

—> It’s a BS check.

Bad politicians think the press is there to serve them.

*I should say it’s not as much that the press tries to “get” politicians, but that they don’t regard a politician’s messaging priorities when they are reporting stories. That’s an amazing thing, and when I was a press officer it drove me up the wall.

I hated it, but I loved it.

@WashBlade

And the #BobWoodward tapes remind me of #LouChibarro of the @WashBlade. When I was a press officer, he was so masterful in asking a question, letting you answer, then NOT SAYING ANYTHING.

The subject felt compelled to fill the silence with more information.
👨‍🍳💋

Amazing.

Read 4 tweets

John Marble

@JHMarble

6 Sep

I’m an autistic person with #dyscalculia.

So, while I very much *feel* #SpoonTheory in my being, it all falls apart when trying to use it as a metaphor with others (or as an accommodation strategy for myself). I constantly miscount and lose them.

I’m a #Spoonie without spoons.

When speaking, or in meetings, I’m often asked by folks to explain spoon theory. I usually just turn to someone I trust and ask “Could you explain it?”

For myself, I’ve learned to just make myself stop, slow down, or turn down requests when needed — and to be ok with that.

I mean, I’m a huge supporter of spoon theory as a metaphor to explain things to others and as an accomodation peoole can use themselves. It just all gets tangled and anxiety-inducing for me.

I love to laugh at that, though. You kind of gotta.

Read 5 tweets

John Marble

@JHMarble

4 Sep

@APAPsychiatric

I often think on how research, medicine, and psychiatry approach and ‘treat’ autistic people today in the exact same manner they approached and ‘treated’ homosexuality until 1972.

Then, thanks to #LGBTQ advocates, homosexuality was suddenly ‘cured’ by @APAPsychiatric overnight.

https://twitter.com/Bob_Witeck/status/1301951582905475072

Where are the endless research papers about the genetics and epigenetics of gay people?

Where are the warnings of “risk factors” for lesbians?

Where’s the pleading for “early intervention” for bisexuals?

What about environmental factors?!?!

We probably know less about gay people now than autistic people. But, we know enough not to funnel everything about LGBTQ people through a pathological frame.

All the questions we ask about autism are still there (and largely unanswered) for LGBTQ people.

Read 9 tweets

John Marble

@JHMarble

2 Sep

@GeographyNow

I just watched a @GeographyNow segment on Sierra Leone & it seems like such an amazing place.

My neighbor for 15 years in DC was the Sierra Leonean embassy & I regularly ate at a Sierra Leonean cafe, but didn’t know much else. It’s now a place I’d desperately love to go.

❤️🇸🇱

@GeographyNow

Here is the @GeographyNow segment on Sierra Leone.

@GeographyNow

And that smiling man in the third picture in my original tweet is Bubu (a genre of music I’ve been introduced to and listening to this morning thanks to @GeographyNow) musician #JankaNabay.

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John Marble

@JHMarble

1 Sep

“You’re so sassy!”

When I stopped at Tern Lake in Alaska, this #BlackBilledMagpie came over to eat the bugs off my car (and seemingly gossip). We chatted for a good five minutes, at least.

[Video Description: A black, white, and blue bird chirps and stands on my rental car.]

@DustinGrowick

Spending a good five minutes looking at this magpie in Alaska up close, it struck me how much birds look like dinosaurs (because they are).

It made me think of @DustinGrowick (an amazing and endlessly entertaining science/dinosaur educator...follow him!).

I mean this black-billed magpie actually had a system to visit cars right as they parked (because cars attracted swarms of insects to them). It was pretty amazing behavior and intelligence to watch.

[Video Description: A magpie walks on the roof of my rental car.]