I am Propaganda

After reading about the video "I am Autism" for several days I decided to take a look at it because I believe you should get to know something before you pass judgment. I was shocked on several points.

• It's badly made.
  
• It's completely from a Neural typical perspective.
  
• It portraits autism as a monster.
  

To a lot of people the quality of the video isn't that important but I'm a Film and a Potter nerd and Alfonso Cuarón is the man who made the best Potter film to date. For him to make something what can only be described as a lazy montage of home movies with a voice over is embarrassing. This is the director made "Children of Men", one of the best and most moving Sci-Fi films of the last five years. Billy Mann on the other hand has produced the likes of Take That and The Backstreet Boys, so to be honest I'm not that impressed by his track record.

It's completely about the parent/brothers/sisters/loved ones of those with autism and not about those who life on the spectrum themself. Granted that it can be difficult for a lot of people within the spectrum to express our feelings, especially those with more severe forms of autism but that doesn't mean you shouldn't ask. If a walking person would make a video like this about being in a wheelchair people will performer hit and runs with their chairs.

The most offencive part must be the portrayal of autism as a monster. I'm not making this up, here are a few quotes

• I am autism. I'm visible in your children, but if I can help it, I am invisible to you until it's too late. I know where you live, and guess what? I live there too.
  
• I work very quickly. I work faster than pediatric AIDS, cancer, and diabetes combined.
  
• And if you are happily married, I will make sure that your marriage fails. Your money will fall into my hands, and I will bankrupt you for my own self-gain.
  
• I will make it virtually impossible for your family to easily attend a temple, a birthday party, a public park, without a struggle, without embarrassment, without pain.
  
• Your neighbors are happier to pretend that I don't exist, of course, until it's their child.
  
• I will plot to rob you of your children and your dreams. I will make sure that every day you wake up, you will cry, wondering 'who will take care of my child after I die?'

This kind of rhetoric makes autism sound more like the mob or a child molester than a neurological condition. Just the act of explaining why all this is insulting seems insulting to me.

As I'm diagnosed less than six months ago and Autism Speaks not being active in the Netherlands (as far as I know) I have very little knowledge of this organisation but the more I read about them the more suspicious they seem. (update, done some reading, AS is bad people)

If you're still op for it here's the video.



Some other replies on this video.

LeftBrainRightBrain response
autismherd response
Cat in a Dog's World response