NB: This is a longer version of the letter first published on Autistic Dark Web.
Dear Autism Parents
It is too easy to say the militant autism lobby are speaking ‘not in my name.’ I mean, it’s true, but it probably doesn’t help much. The uncomfortable truth is simply this: these people are vicious, and vindictive, and there is just no end to their hate. Autism parents should have a voice. So should freethinking autistic people. That’s why the Autistic Dark Web was set up (including the website).
I hope the time will come when people who disagree with the mainstream fanatics will have more of a voice. I’m not just fighting for myself, but for other future generations. I hope you will not be put off by the thuggish hooligan tactics of these doctrinaire true believers. It’s like arguing with Communists or the Alt Right. Hopefully things will change one day soon.
The treatment of people like Judith Newman is an absolute disgrace. Just as Ayatollah Khameini notoriously said ‘There are no jokes in Islam,’ so also do the neurodiversity lobby say ‘there are no jokes in autism.’ Any lightheartedness, or indeed any dark humour, is verboten. It’s all about ‘subject positions.’ The Oppressor cannot speak. The Oppressed can say whatever they want. If you believe this is simplistic, you are not wrong at all. It is beyond simplistic. It is of the very essence of doctrinaire ideological rhetoric.
I cannot singlehandedly change the world.
Nor can any other individual from the Autistic Dark Web. But all of us, whether liberal, conservative, socialist, libertarian, centrist, populist, whatever…
We are doing our best, however imperfectly, to fight for a world where YOUR voices will be heard as well.
We are not omnipotent, any more than we are infallible:
But we hear you.
We hear your pain.
And we grieve also, with you.
We want you to have your place at the table, and not be frozen out.
The uncomfortable truth is simply this: these people are vicious, and vindictive, and there is just no end to their hate. Autism parents should have a voice. So should freethinking autistic people. That’s why the Autistic Dark Web was set up (including the website). I hope the time will come when people who disagree with the mainstream fanatics will have more of a voice. I’m not just fighting for myself, but for other future generations. I hope you will not be put off by the thuggish hooligan tactics of these doctrinaire true believers. It’s like arguing with Communists or the Alt Right. Hopefully things will change one day soon.
Until that day, our love is with you.
Believe us.
We know you are suffering.
We are suffering too.
For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable ones in the furnace of adversity.
Be strong.
For our part, we will try our best.
— Wallace