Thread by @AutismInspired

Autistic activists: ABA is bad.

ABA apologists: It's just a few people who do bad things!

Autistic activists: How do you stop the bad ABA people?

ABA apologists: We have a strict Code of Ethics!

Autistic activists: Right, in terms of that strict Code of Ethics, how do we stop the abusers at the Judge Rotenberg Center?

ABA apologists: Ummm... we're not all bad!

Autistic activists: Just BCBAs are bad?

ABA apologists: No, BCBAs are good.

Autistic activists: What assurance do we have that you won't do bad things?

ABA apologists: We have a strict Code of Ethics!

Autistic activists: People who design and implement the torture at the Judge Rotenberg Center are BCBAs and BCBA-Ds.

ABA apologists: It's just a few people who do bad things!

Autistic activists: So are the bad guys breaking the strict Code of Ethics, but nobody is holding them to account?

ABA apologists: Weeee would never use those methods on ooooouuuur clients!

Autistic activists: So are the bad guys breaking the strict Code of Ethics, but nobody is holding them to account?

ABA apologists: Evidence-based! Evidence-based!

Autistic activists: So are the bad guys breaking the strict Code of Ethics, but nobody is holding them to account?

ABA apologists: There are many different types of ABA! Not everyone does Lovaas style ABA.

Autistic activists: So are the bad guys breaking the strict Code of Ethics, but nobody is holding them to account?

ABA apologists: The strict Code of Ethics allows for the use of Certain Measures in Extreme Cases.

Autistic activists: But yoooouuuu wouldn't use those Certain Measures?

ABA apologists: Right.

Autistic activists: Because you don't deal with Extreme Cases?

ABA apologists: Right.

Autistic activists: But if you had to deal with Extreme Cases?

ABA apologists: It's a specialist area, we don't specialise in Extreme Cases.

Autistic activists: So the BACBs at the Judge Rotenberg Center aren't really bad, they're 'specialists'?

ABA apologists: Look, if you have a problem with the Judge Rotenberg Center, why don't you take it up with them? We're not the ones doing this.

Autistic activists: Been there, done that, they don't listen, we're gonna #BanABA now.

ABA apologists: You want to ban an entire industry because of one institution?!

Autistic activists: You want to save an industry that refuses to listen?

ABA apologists: Evidence-based! Evidence-based!

Autistic activists: Evidence of listening?

ABA apologists: Trauma-informed!

Autistic activists: ABA survivors say ABA causes trauma. Trauma-informed action would mean stopping ABA.

ABA apologists: Evidence-based! Evidence-based!
Strict Code of Ethics!
Trauma-informed!
Extreme Cases!

Autistic activists: You sound afraid. Are you afraid of disabled people?

ABA apologists: If you're typing on Twitter, you're not very disabled.

Autistic activists: Are you afraid of disabled people who are not on Twitter?

ABA apologists: Real disabled people don't try to ban an industry that is helping them.

Autistic activists: And you only deal with these 'real disabled people'?

ABA apologists: People who need ABA aren't high functioning like you.

Autistic activists: So the autistic ABA survivors on Twitter and who call it abusive shouldn't have had ABA in the first place, because they were too high functioning, and that's why they didn't like it?

ABA apologists: ABA isn't right for everyone.

Autistic activists: Ah, so some people fall through the cracks and end up in the dungeon of ABA, when that dungeon is actually intended only for people who won't ever be able to voice an opinion, but you know they love ABA because they don't say they don't?

ABA apologists: You think you're the only people with autism who have an opinion on ABA! There are plenty of people with autism who speak highly of ABA!

Autistic activists: Speaking, where?

ABA apologists: See, this is the echo chamber you have created, you don't even know! Some have written books! Some write blogs, they have Facebook pages, some are even ABA therapists!

Autistic activists: These are so-called 'high functioning' people?

ABA apologists: They're like you! They just agree with ABA, that's the difference.

Autistic activists: So... if we type "ABA is bad" on Twitter it means we're too high functioning to be really disabled, and therefore not entitled to an opinion, but...

...if someone writes a book or blog or runs a Facebook page or becomes a BCBA, then they are disabled enough to have an opinion provided that they support ABA?

ABA apologists: Evidence-based! Thousands of studies! Peer-reviewed! It wouldn't be legal if it was that bad!

Autistic activists: So if autistic activists get ABA declared illegal in say, Ecuador, Mali and New Zealand, then it would automatically turn bad in just those countries, but...

...it would still be good in other countries where it's legal? Just like gun laws, abortion laws and laws on domestic violence differ from country to country?

ABA apologists: Now you're comparing ABA to domestic violence! Don't you people ever stop?

Autistic activists: Actually just pointing out a logical fallacy called Appeal to the Law, but hey, if the shoe fits...

ABA apologists: It's all just a game to you. You have never experienced Real Autism!

Autistic activists: Let's guess... Real Autism is when you're either an autistic who praises ABA on Facebook, or you're an autistic who's being denied a means of communication?

ABA apologists: Evidence-based! Thousands of studies! Peer-reviewed! It wouldn't be legal if—

Autistic activists: It wouldn't be legal if we were to succeed in our efforts to #BanABA.

ABA apologists: So what would you say parents should do instead of ABA?

Autistic activists: What do you say parents should do instead of wrapping their children in purple foil and flinging them to the moon in a giant catapult?

ABA apologists: Nothing, that's absurd, it doesn't have a substitute, it's something that nobody should do.

Autistic activists:

ABA apologists: Children have to learn some skills!

Autistic activists: Yes.

ABA apologists: How will you teach them skills without using ABA?

Autistic activists: Most humans throughout history have learned without ABA.

ABA apologists: You obviously coped fine with whatever education you got, but you're high functioning. You don't speak for all people with autism.

Autistic activists: You obviously didn't cope fine with whatever education you got, and you're not functioning optimally in this context. You don't speak for ANY autistic people.

ABA apologists: Faecal smearing diapers can't even brush own teeth can't talk can't follow basic commands headbanging biting people eloping masturbating in public obsessive stereotypy for hours non-stop smashing up the place screaming pulling own eyelashes clenching jaw 24/7

Autistic activists: Is that one of your Extreme Cases?

ABA apologists: Yes, that's what we deal with in ABA.

Autistic activists: When we spoke about the Judge Rotenberg Center, you said you don't specialise in Extreme Cases.

ABA apologists: Why are people always bringing up the bloody Judge Rotenberg Center? You can be in the UK, Australia, anywhere in the world, but when you talk about ABA, that's what they want to talk about. Can't we just focus on the many positive things that happen in ABA?

Autistic activists: You don't like people discussing their objections to ABA by mentioning an exception to the rule?

ABA apologists: Exactly! The majority of ABA professionals don't agree with that.

Autistic activists: The majority of autistic people don't agree with ABA.

ABA apologists: The people objecting don't do faecal smearing diapers can't brush own teeth can't talk or follow basic commands headbanging biting eloping masturbating in public obsessive stereotypy non-stop smashing up the place screaming pulling own eyelashes clenching jaw 24/7

Autistic activists: Those of us who are incontinent due to pelvic floor prolapse in Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, are we allowed an opinion on incontinence wear in older people, or is the training that BCBAs get on incontinence in autistic people superior to our lives experience?

ABA apologists: BCBAs don't get training in incontinence.

Autistic activists: Faecal smearing, those of us who did that as children or who still do it to this day, are we allowed to provide insight into why this happens, or do BCBAs get superior training in that beyond what we might understand from our lived experience?

ABA apologists: There are people on Twitter who do that?

Autistic activists: What other lived experience did you think people on Twitter can't have? Difficulty brushing our teeth? Getting our bodies to follow commands? Headbanging? Running away? Motor loops? Destructive meltdowns?Trichotillomania? Bruxism? Having a full-time caregiver?