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Confession time

firemonkeyfiremonkey Citizen
edited February 2021 in General ASD
I find  that more than a few advocates for autism are intimidating. I think it's the hypercritical and zealous nature of some of them.
 I believe in a gentler approach to 'educating'/'raising awareness of' being ND/mentally ill/physically disabled.

Comments

  • verityverity Administrator, Citizen
    edited February 2021
    I agree.
    I think this an issue in advocacy an civil rights in general. Not just ASD rights.
    People notice differences in people so really this is an expected behviour that may well be innate. I don't think that you can fix bigotry and misconceptions through bigotry and misconceptions.
    If we believe they don't relate well to us, then we have to consider how empathetic we are to them.
    Awareness only come through interaction.
  • AmityAmity Administrator, Citizen
    firemonkey said:
    I find  that more than a few advocates for autism are intimidating. I think it's the hypercritical and zealous nature of some of them.
     I believe in a gentler approach to 'educating'/'raising awareness of' being ND/mentally ill/physically disabled.

    Yes also in agreement, a combative mindset is not conducive to communication about issues that impact on an entire community, triggering the stress response is counter productive to learning about anything really, knowingly triggering it in the target audience is reckless.

    I believe we are caught in a time of change where we wont see the fruits of our labor, but the generations behind us will, I believe knowing that comes with an ethical responsibility.
  • kraftiekortiekraftiekortie Citizen
    I believe most “combativeness” is people wanting to show off their supposed superiority to others.
  • MagnaMagna Citizen
    When you say "advocates for autism", do you mean people of some level of notoriety as advocates on the global "stage" or do you mean people in autism forums?

  • HylianHylian Citizen, Mentor
    Do you have examples of this "intimidating" behaviour?  There are so many autistic advocates with different approaches to it, I don't really get what specific behaviours you are talking about. 
  • firemonkeyfiremonkey Citizen
    Intimidating when it comes to things like use of language . Can come over as quite aggressive.
  • VelorumVelorum Member
    Some or my work within children's mental health services concerns raising awareness and advocacy. Interestingly my NT colleagues take a more robust line that I do.  I generally tend to avoid confrontation and when I do need to disagree or take issue with someone I prefer to remain calm and logical. 
  • verityverity Administrator, Citizen
    Velorum said:
    Some or my work within children's mental health services concerns raising awareness and advocacy. Interestingly my NT colleagues take a more robust line that I do.  I generally tend to avoid confrontation and when I do need to disagree or take issue with someone I prefer to remain calm and logical. 
    which is more likely to work.

  • AmityAmity Administrator, Citizen
    @Magna I focussed on examples of "hypercritical" -excessively and unreasonably critical, especially of small faults with a zealous energy.

    My interpretation of advocates includes all autistic people engaging in self advocacy and not specifically the well known or famous advocates.

    I seen this recently when reading online/global reactions to Sia's movie 'Magic'.
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