An email to Autism Speaks
[sent to all addresses available on the Autism Speaks website]
[subject] Your "I Am Autism" video is an OBSCENITY
To Autism Speaks, all agents and associates thereof,
For an organization that so loudly proclaims "it's time to listen," it is a savage irony that you should prove so unspeakably DEAF to the sensibilities of the very people you purport to help. Countless stakeholders in the "autism debate" have labored to educate you on the difference between advocacy and atrocity, charity and self-indulgence, help and HARM. And what have you done?
Simply put, your new "I Am Autism" video is the most repugnant example of thinly veiled Machiavellian hate-propaganda I've seen in years. It is an obscenity, an offense, an insidious threat and feckless endangerment, not only to Autistic citizens (children and adults; "high-" and "low-" functioning; ALL Autistics), but to the very spirit of human decency itself.
To be sure, the overall flavor of the piece -- crudely calculated misinformation and histrionic bravado -- is exactly what I have come to expect from Autism Speaks. But I never would have expected you to take it to such an extreme of brazenness. The blind arrogance and deceitfulness are absolutely breathtaking. The only thing missing from your little lynch-mob revival is torches and pitchforks. What's next? Will you tell the world that Autistics are really just al-Qaeda terrorists and "commie vermin, who hide in the shadows and breed like cockroaches, waiting for their chance to serve Satan, rewrite the rules of baseball, urinate on the flag and put LSD in mom's apple pie"? Given your current trajectory, that seems to be the logical next-step for Autism Speaks.
What the hell is wrong with you people? You should be ashamed of yourselves.