I USE STRONG LANGUAGE ON PURPOSE FOR POLITICAL REASONS. USING STRONG LANGUAGE IS NOT POINTLESS EMOTIONAL VENTING, IT IS HOW YOU GET PEOPLE TO HEAR YOU AND HOW YOU CHANGE CONVERSATIONS IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE.
Don't tone police autistic people using strong language to talk about the impact of #ColorTheSpectrum and don’t remind us that “they just don’t know better!” it’s classic white moderate respectability politics bullshit and you’re going to drag us back into the last century.
Have y'all noticed what actually creates change? It's not telling people that they are already good but you have a suggestion on how they could be better. It's telling people that they are causing harm. They must see themselves getting bad PR & want to avoid it. get cynical.
The idea that if you make people feel bad they won't support your human rights is emotional manipulation on the part of the ruling class intended to silence you and it is the opposite of the truth. Making people feel bad is what makes them change bc people hate to feel bad.
“ABA is not a great therapy because it can be done in harmful ways” is trash. That is so easy to ignore. ABA is abuse. ABA is abuse. You have to say that so many times until every single time people hear ABA, they think abuse. Nobody wants to be associated with abuse.
ABA is abuse. Preventing autism is eugenics. These things are true. Of course the people who support them don't see it that way, but as long as they don’t have to see it that way, they won’t change. Yes, this language makes people uncomfortable. It should. That's why it will work
Having a one on one conversation is very different from having a public conversation. Talking to your neighbor is different than creating a movement. Audience, context, medium. They all matter. We are trying to achieve specific goals. Changing a culture is fucking hard. Push.
People are stuck on the idea that we have to change people’s minds. That is so much harder than changing a cultural conversation. You change the landscape, change the PR feedback cycle. Don't bother trying to change people’s minds, change what they do.
Don’t try to change a society the way you would change an autistic person’s mind. Come on! There’s a reason neurotypicals invented ABA and think it works. Focus on changing their behavior. We have to be smarter than they are & use what works on them, not what would work on us.
They keep making the mistake of trying to change us by using what works on them. If we make that same mistake, they get to kill us. Every time you feel uncomfortable, think of the kids getting abused in ABA right now. They are more important than anyone's feelings.
Neurotypicals - at least on the large scale where we have to put our focus, you can handle personal conversations w/ people in your life differently - care about money & their reputation. They don't care about reasoned arguments, they don't care about autistic kids. MONEY & POWER
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