Share this page!

meyer lemon zest autistic Profile picture
Twitter logo
20 Dec, 6 tweets, 2 min read
Approaching 1k RT's and I haven't received a single serious complaint about the content in this piece. Every autistic person who has read it has cosigned it, with minor caveats that I've tried to adjust for.

I'm more confident than ever that journalists (and editors!) must read.
But something else that keeps happening -- people keep RTing this and saying "But not just journalist, I'm sharing this for my fellow {educators | doctors | academics | etc}" and I'm so fucking moved.

NOBODY knows what Autism is; it's important to talk about it carefully.
If your knowledge of Autism is based on something you learned in school more than a year ago? Your knowledge is out of date, and probably harmful.

If your knowledge comes from experience working with Autistic kids? Your knowledge is heavily limited, and corrupted by power.
If your knowledge of Autism comes from parenting an Autistic kid? Same as those who works with kids.

Nobody questions your dedication and love for your kid but you need to listen to Adult Autistics to learn what's really going on.

Too many parents assume their kids aren't real.
If your knowledge of Autism is incomplete, comes from a patchwork of sources that you know not to fully trust, and includes a mechanism to allow you to update it when you receive new information?

Congrats, you're ahead of the curve. You will learn a lot here.
I'll ask one more time for everyone to please share this piece with the Blue Check Journalists in your circles, but also with the Doctors and Teachers and Researchers -- anyone who interacts with Autistic people.

Which is everyone, because there are more of us than you think.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with meyer lemon zest autistic

meyer lemon zest autistic Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @mykola

meyer lemon zest autistic Profile picture
21 Dec
This. This is the way, we need to focus on the goal.

The goal can’t be to replay our own traumas against other struggling parents, which let’s be real does happen.

This isn’t to excuse abusive parents, quite the contrary!

We want to protect their kids. That has to be the goal.
This is a hard thing to do, because most often it’s obvious to us when the thing the autistic kid needs protection from is the parent.

And we feel powerless against an authority figure we can’t seem to win against.

And that’s excruciating and *wrong*.

…but what’s the goal?
If the goal is to protect the autistic kid then the play has to be to find some way to make the parent let up.

And the way to do that is often to show the parent compassion and allow them space to process complexity that nobody seems to want to acknowledge.

But:
Read 5 tweets
meyer lemon zest autistic Profile picture
20 Dec
Hey new journalist followers, do you know about the ABA “debate” regarding Autistic kids?

Do you want to blow the lid off a story of deception, manipulation, exploitation and the $4B driving it?

Because I have a story for you that will make you famous and make you enemies.
The short version is, there is a four billion dollar growth industry called Applied Behavioral Analysis.

This practice was based on work by Ivar Lovaas, who also invented gay conversion therapy.

The premise is that you can make an autistic child seem more normal through abuse.
I wish I was kidding.

This is the ONLY therapy covered by insurance in America for autistic people.

When I was diagnosed as an adult I asked my insurance company for help and they sent me a list of ABA providers.
Read 15 tweets
meyer lemon zest autistic Profile picture
20 Dec
BTW, if you are autistic and white I want you to think really hard about America’s prison population and how many of them are there for behavior or needs that are no different than yours.

(I’m not talking rapists and murderers.)

Prison reform IS an #actuallyAutistic issue.
How many of us smoke marijuana?

Have had public meltdowns or outbursts?

Gotten stuck in a feeling and been unable to respond reasonably under stress?

We are white, we get all the second chances. People *just like us* with dark skin don’t.

Be angry about that.
If your problem is that you think it’s not fair to punish an autistic person for harmful antisocial behavior on the grounds that he’s autistic, congratulations, you are into prison reform if not abolition.

Lean into that and see where it goes when it’s not just a white boy.
Read 4 tweets
meyer lemon zest autistic Profile picture
20 Dec
A similar defense was used to plead for leniency for Dylan Roof.

Look, I don’t know where folks get the idea that Autistic people cannot cause real harm or be held accountable for their choices.

Everyone there on Jan 6 had terrible judgment, that’s not autism.
Autistic people are vulnerable to manipulation. Not because they’re autistic, but because they spend their lives being told that their way of thinking is incorrect and they have to listen to others.

As we keep trying to tell you, this is a recipe for disaster.
Here’s a case where disaster struck - this autistic asshole was radicalized into a violent hate group.

That sucks for everyone involved, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t face consequences.

Now, if you want to talk about criminal justice reform, yes, let’s. But.
Read 7 tweets
meyer lemon zest autistic Profile picture
20 Dec
I think I am not going to get through this holiday week and omicron crush without lapsing on my marijuana break.

I already lapsed once, and I don't regret it, but I feel a strong desire to be stoned through a lot of the ups and downs that are coming.
I'm really struggling to know how to reason about it. On the one hand I've made a commitment to quit for two months, and that's mostly going well.

On the other hand there's no need to endure a rough patch if I know it's coming and can get some weed in advance. Right?
We canceled our holiday plans due to Omicron and won't get to see loved ones after all. So like, it'll just be more of the same, sitting in the apartment, watching things on the television, working, dwelling, passing the time.

I can do it sober, sure. But it's a holiday?
Read 4 tweets
meyer lemon zest autistic Profile picture
20 Dec
So we did Matrix Reloaded this weekend and I have THOUGHTS.

1) The movie opens with Neo having a nightmare about Trinity dying. Neo has achieved a tentative unity with their inner self, but that unity is fragile.

To me this is clearly about how healing is fraught and fragile.
2) Neo knows who he is now, but he doesn't know what to do with that information. "Ok, now what?"

Well, now-what is he has to work through a series of gatekeepers to reach The Truth, which is that everything he was told is a lie.
3) Very strong Kafka "Before the Law" vibe here. He is made to perform various identities -- for Seraph, for Persephone, for Morpheus, for The Architect.

Each time he makes a choice to submit, provisionally, until the end when he chooses not to.
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @mykola has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @mykola!

Read all threads by @mykola

:(