No, I don’t like the autistic movement for a lot of reasons. First, they take extreme and untennable positions. Especially, the rejection of any treatment for anything whatsoever. The regarding of every trait as a difference and not a disorder and that it should be afforded the same dignity. They’re not for reducing the scopeContinue reading “The Autistic Movement: Do I Like it?”
Tag Archives: Diversity
How to Run a Special Needs Ministry
My first piece of advice when running a group for people with special needs or any mental health condition is contrary to the typical rhetoric surrounding these things in contemporary culture. The first rule of safe spaces are to set boundaries and expect delicacy. That’s a problem for the obvious reasons that when handling mentalContinue reading “How to Run a Special Needs Ministry”
Are Autism Experts Experts in Autism?
No, I recently had an email exchange with a psychology professor at the College of Charleston who specialized in autism and it didn’t go well. I was working with her on creating sensory-safe parties and other special needs support on campus. I’m not going to recount it all here but that would be tangential. TheContinue reading “Are Autism Experts Experts in Autism?”
How Autistic Am I?
Very. Yet, I am not of the most common subtype. I share plenty of traits with them with the most common subtypes. I make deep connections with people quickly and am much less censored in my topics of conversation. I memorize social rules much more than I read social cues. I tend to come acrossContinue reading “How Autistic Am I?”
Giving Toxic Relationships Happy Endings
It used to be a cliché that bad boys were faustian bargains and ultimately girls would be hurt by them. In the last few decades, they did a Taylor Swift and rewrote the ending so that Edward Cullen and Christian Grey, bad boys with so many red flags they may as well have been Soviet,Continue reading “Giving Toxic Relationships Happy Endings”
Appropriation: Physical and Cultural
A lot has been written about cultural and physical appropriation. The family of Henrietta Lacks recently filed a lawsuit over the nonconsensual use of her cells. This is stupid, they should just give all rights to them for free medical research because to do anything else would be evil. Those are legal rights since, morally,Continue reading “Appropriation: Physical and Cultural”
Applied Behavioral Analysis: An Autistic Perspective
ABA is not the most effective means of reducing problemaic behaviors in autistic people. It is not useless and it is a tool that should be used but, let’s be clear, it is not a great means to treat most autism. The most effective means is trial and error in the context of social immersionContinue reading “Applied Behavioral Analysis: An Autistic Perspective”
Sociology of the Apocolypse
Bullying is a hot topic but it is too often treated as the monolith that it isn’t. There are multiple forms of bullying with different psychological roots. The type of bullying most common where I grew up in and around Charleston was the pseudo-ethical type where the bullying takes the form of vigilantism. Furthermore,Continue reading “Sociology of the Apocolypse”
The War for a Bourgeois Utopia
I am against catcalling but with regards to the wave of new laws against it, I’m against those too. What frustrates me about the anti-catcalling laws is this. To reduce mass incarceration, we need a united left that doesn’t advocate for criminalizing minor anti-social behavior. If a hobo calls you “sugar-tits” then just roll yourContinue reading “The War for a Bourgeois Utopia”
Cultural Relativism and the South
When I was a freshman in college, I took an intro to Antrhopology course and in the course of it we were taught the traditional postmodernist line that we should respect the customs and morés of cultures. This made me boil with rage and seethe with anger. At that time, I was in the middleContinue reading “Cultural Relativism and the South”
The Autistic Resistance 