Note For Anyone Writing About Me

Guide to Writing About Me

I am an Autistic person,not a person with autism. I am also not Aspergers. The diagnosis isn't even in the DSM anymore, and yes, I agree with the consolidation of all autistic spectrum stuff under one umbrella. I have other issues with the DSM.

I don't like Autism Speaks. I'm Disabled, not differently abled, and I am an Autistic activist. Self-advocate is true, but incomplete.

Citing My Posts

MLA: Zisk, Alyssa Hillary. "Post Title." Yes, That Too. Day Month Year of post. Web. Day Month Year of retrieval.

APA: Zisk, A. H. (Year Month Day of post.) Post Title. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://yesthattoo.blogspot.com/post-specific-URL.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Why, why, why do people think this is OK?

TRIGGER WARNING: Major ableism, making fun of things people with disabilities do, discussions of this. (Warnings also apply to all links.)

There is apparently a site called "The Tard Blog." It's mirrored and not currently updated, but it's here. I don't recommend actually looking at it, but it's there if you want it. It was written by people who worked with these kids and wrote about them on the internet. I have no way of knowing if they used their own real names or made them up, nor do I know if they changed the names of the kids. I seriously hope they did both, because if not, that information may be locatable when the kids are looking for jobs. That is NOT OK. And no, this should not be compared to putting kids into commercials with their parents consent, since:
  1. No information is provided on the question of the parents having consented to this.
  2. Unlike having been in a commercial, which usually doesn't have your real name made public if you are a minor anyways, this could actually come back and hurt the children in the future, when they, you know, grow up.
  3. I don't think parents should be able to put their kids in commercials without asking their kids first anyways, so you won't get any points even if you somehow convince me of the equivalence.
They have an FAQ and a Disclaimer in which they claim that if the site offends you, it is because you have prejudice about people with disabilities. Not because what they are saying is potentially hurtful, but because the reader has bias. Clearly people who actually have disabilities are all biased against themselves, since most people with disabilities whose reactions to this I've seen are roaring mad. Some gems against the site:
  • This is what we deal with all the time. This is how the people who are supposed to care for us and help us treat us.-autistichedgehog
  • Apparently mocking the disabled is funny.  If that isn’t neurotypical privilege at its most obvious, I don’t know what is.-goldenheartedrose
  • I don’t find it funny, and I find it very revealing of a person’s character if they admit they find this sort of shit funny. -goldenheartedrose
  • It’s even worse given the terms which they use to refer to the students. It’s clearly not meant to be ~harmless fun~. It’s meant to provoke laughter at the expense of the individual. Not okay by any means. -pooped
  • This could have been by any of my teachers in public school. This could have been about any of my friends and me.-the-goblin-king
  • Neurotypicals wonder why we distrust them…-snatching-fedoras
And some of what I saw from the one person defending them (With reminder about the trigger warning before you continue!)
  • Exactly! That is what I am saying! It is hurtful to people, and I couldn’t give a shit if I wanted to. [That makes you an jerk. Just saying. And oppressive, given the context.]
  • Jesus fucking christ some people act as though assholes are rare. Are you really surprised to encounter a douchebag on the internet? [Not particularly, no. We just sometimes take the time to call out the ones who are actively contributing to the oppression of people like ourselves.]
  • >Apparently mocking the disabled is funny.
    yes [Well, we know who to avoid.]
  • Man, as a cis, white, neurotypical, straight, heteromantic, nontransethnic, headmate-free, undisabled (did I mention white) blogger, your problems mean nothig to me. I will sit back in my throne and forever laugh at you peasants  [yes, these are all from the same person. That would be dusche. Might I suggest staying away?]
So, what we learn from this is that some people think blogging about funny things their students do without permission and possibly without changing any names is OK. We also learn that privileged people like to derail and victim-blame. And hopefully we learned that we do NOT make this kind of blog because it is actually hurtful and hurting people is bad.

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