A few days ago, for some reason, I was thinking on how to get my revenge on an Autism researcher who knows nothing about his subject and completely eclipses a woman who does, when a really wicked thought came to me. Email!
Now, unless someone is a confirmed Luddite like Richard O’Brien, for example, the likelihood is that they will have an email address, and this becomes a cerainty if they work at a university as my target does.
So I persuaded my friend (who shall remain nameless) to email Simon Baron-Cohen with a short message that included a link to the article about him at this website, glossynews.com.
The reply is as follows:
From: Professor Simon Baron-Cohen
Re: Article about you
Sun, Dec 16, 2012 03:21 PSThi. as you may know, this is a fictional interview written satirically, with not a grain of truth in it. trust the internet at your own risk. best wishes, simon bc
On Nov 26 2012, ###### ####### wrote:
Dear Professor Baron-Cohen,
I thought you might be interested in reading an article that was written by an Autistic individual. I’m emailing a link to it rather than an attachment because of the virus risk. http://glossynews.com/society/health/201209040054/autism-expert-proven-he-is-anything-but-2/Enjoy!
Yours sincerely, ###### #######
And his reply.
Simon Baron-Cohen, FBA
Professor of Developmental Psychopathology,
Director,
Autism Research Centre,
Cambridge University,
Douglas House, 18B Trumpington Rd,
Cambridge CB2 8AH, UK.
Tel 01223 746057 Fax 01223 746033,
www.autismresearchcentre.comWhen my friend first received this reply, I was round his, so we read it together, then sat there sounding like a couple of cats hacking up hairballs we laughed so hard. As I had guessed he might, the esteemed Autism ‘expert’ at Cambridge had not only assumed correctly that the sender of the initial email was an Autistic showing off what another Autistic had written, but had also assumed incorrectly that said Autistic was as gormless as the good professor had just proven himself to be.
And that is my true story of how I successfully trolled the cousin of Sacha Baron Cohen.