“In my opinion, what has created this online hostility is those of us who have very real AS, diagnosed AS, have been drowned out by those who think they have AS or who identify with AS but don't really have it.
In addition, those who fake AD have caused a very real and a very hostile environment for those with real AS and higher functioning forms of autism. Many parents have been deceived and they are angry with that.
In addition, many of the institutions of autistic self advocacy have contributed to this hostile environment that those of us with real disabilities and AS have to endure. We ask very little of our own community in ways of proof and we grab onto anyone with the ability to call themselves autistic and produce elegant, genius level prose.
We know in our hearts, at least many of us, that this is not right, but because we have such low self esteem and we are constantly under a society that browbeats disability, we quietly accept the compromise. It is the compromise that really does us all harm.
The compromise is that we trade in our "blink", our gut, that says this isn't real in favor of what is empowering, even if this a slippery moment of power knowing full well that this isn't real."
Norton's Notes: AS = Asperger's Syndrome (DSM IV-TR 299.8), AD = Autistic Disorder (DSM IV-TR 299.0).
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