Autistic Hedgehog

[“Ohmigod my sibling has autism! Why, cruel world, why!? They are so beautiful and they have a beautiful soul and they’re like, so beautiful! How could life do this to me? Whatever will I do now!?”

Here’s a suggestion: Shut up, get over yourself, and stop making this about you]

I know I can’t be the only person who’s getting tired of these. Even when someone means well, it gives me such a headache. Look, allistic people: There are other things you can do than just flapping around like chickens with your heads cut off. Panicking and making assumptions about what this means for your autistic sibling/child/etc. is bad enough.

Panicking and making assumptions about what this means for you is just kind of insensitive. 

I can remember a few times when parents of autistic children contacted me on some website or another, wondering things about autism. Among other things, I would usually tell them that autistic children can learn, that all is not lost and their kids can probably live good lives. I never heard back from any of them, not even a thank you for my time taken responding. 

It’s like people don’t want to hear that all is not lost. Like they want to believe it’s all doom and gloom, so they can recline back on their drama couches, staple their hands to their foreheads, and whine about how cruel life is. Allistics, get your butts off the drama couch and educate yourselves. You can even start with the askanautistic tag right here on tumblr if you want some real insight into us. 

[See Autistic Hedgehog meme

Flap hands for joy!]

mod note: Created by one of our fans. We have fans! I don’t know why I’m saying ‘we’, I’m the only mod here.

[Autism. Related tags: actuallyautistic, night of too many stars, katy perry

Please just GTFO]

Seriously, I’ve had enough of this. The tags listed as relating to autism should have something, somehow, to do with autism, even if its a different but similar diagnosis. Katy Perry doesn’t have jack all to do with autism and I do not give half a flying rat’s ass that she sang with that autistic girl. 

You know what’s happening here? A bunch of allistic people are flooding the autism tag with this video, and many of them are accompanying it with insulting remarks, talking about how if you don’t cry over it you don’t have a soul. I haven’t watched Night of Too Many Stars, but what I do know is this: It’s apparently not teaching anyone that just because autistic people don’t always express their emotions the way allistic people do, it doesn’t mean we don’t have them.

So these people are posting this video alongside remarks that are directly insulting and even triggering to actually autistic people. And then they’re patting themselves on the back like they’re so damn great for watching it. 

So yeah, NoTMS people, GTFO of the autism tag. This is not the kind of “awareness” autism needs. 

[Under a microscope, autism looks like Alzheimer’s!

Under a microscope, a placenta looks like cancer.]

So, allistics, please stop with the false dichotomy re Comparing autism to diseases, okay? Okay. 

[“OMG ALL U HATERZ NEED TO LEARN TO APPRECIATE A GOOD THING” Yes, how dare I be critical of being treated like a circus act.]

In response to all the people complaining that Autistics are critiquing Night of Too Many Stars. We should just be glad they want to “help” at all, apparently.

[“Katy Perry sang with an autistic girl? She has such a beautiful soul!”

Yes, how arduous, singing with an autistic girl who knows how to sing. She puts Jesus to shame. Quick, guys, let’s canonize her.]

Whoa, hey, look at that, allistic people, sarcasm! Real live, dripping-scorn-like-a-hot-cinnamon-roll-drips-icing sarcasm. Gosh, it’s almost like autistics are real people who deserve better than to be showcased on a TV show like those animals the ASPCA puts on display whenever they’re trying to find homes for them! It’s–it’s almost like we’re individuals or something! Like, you know, some of us are good at certain things and some of us aren’t, kind of like every other freakin’ person on the planet.

———

Okay, we’re now below the sarcasm line. Everything below this line is straight talk.

So I’m sure by now a number of you have seen this whole Night of Too Many Allistics Stars thing and I know from looking at the tags that some of you have watched it. So send me your NoTMS related hedgehogs! Please?

pretty please?

No, seriously, I am straight up getting a little desperate here, trying to think up all these hedgehogs on my own. And anyway, I’m on the wrong side of the planet to even be able to watch NoTMS, so I need some help on this one. So really, please, if you have a bit of time, send me a hedgehog or two.

[Ill-informed allistic who loves Autism $peaks?

There’s an app for that!]

Yes, I am totally serious. 

I even went on iTunes to see for myself, and sure enough, it’s there. What would you even do with such an app? Track how much money Autism $peaks is wasting?

Get the latest updates on Jenny McCarthy’s bullshit “cures”?

Maybe they have something that keeps track of how many autistic people are on their staff. I mean, with a number that low, you wouldn’t hardly have to use any resources at all! 

(On iTunes there was also a reggae song entitled Autism Speaks. I have no idea if it’s associated with the organization–it does use their colors–but I listen to the preview and uh…I’m just going to try to pretend that never happened.)

[“Autistic people don’t like my offensive autism joke? You r****ds!”

Wait, which one of us lacks empathy again?]

Some days I feel like a broken record, but honestly, it needs to be said. Especially since I was the one who censored the r-word; not the asshole in question. I keep seeing shit like this pop up in the autism tag and somehow, despite us being the ones without empathy, other people never seem to get that this stuff hurts.