Mainstream online communities are annoying

[u/Overall_Future1087]

Hi, after reading too many posts in other subreddits about how much they hate the puzzle piece, Autism Speaks and how they want to change the name of the Autism Day, I'd like to share it will all of you. Because this is the only normal autism community around here.

We all know the harm Autism Speaks has done in the past. That's undeniable. But the way people keep complaining everyday, policing others about the puzzle piece, the "with autism vs autistic" argument...It gets exhausting. And honestly, it makes them seem annoying.

There's also the misinformation, which I absolutely hate. Misinformation is too common in the mainstream communities, and instead of doing the research by themselves they just start hating or supporting something because they were told to. Like the self-diagnosis, they believe more in what they read in a random reddit comment than scientific papers.

There's more harmful organizations out there, and not only in the USA. But they only complain about the same one over and over again. It gets to the point they don't even believe the things they defend or attack, they just repeat what others have said.

Countless of posts all day of people complaining about the same thing, flooding every subreddit. It happened yesterday because it was April's Fools in the USA, and today with the Autism Awareness Day. If only they could comment on those posts instead of creating the 100th post of the day saying the same thing.

I'm not trying to deny the harm Autism Speaks has done. I'm just exhausted of the mainstream online communities being a hive mind and trying to policy others. For me, the puzzle piece means "finding" instead of "missing". The way they personally see at it also matters, and I suspect some of them started to have negative thoughts towards it because they were told so.

It feels instead of actually spreading awareness, they did the opposite.

[u/meowpitbullmeow]

Also autism speaks has done a lot to do better. Like it's changed a LOT

[u/Overall_Future1087 → u/meowpitbullmeow]

That too, but if they already get crazy if you say you like the puzzle piece, I can't even imagine what they'd say if you tell them that. I did the research and yeah, they've changed a lot. But for some reason, they keep obsessing over Hans Asperger and Autism Speaks, and with misinformation about them

[u/meowpitbullmeow → u/Overall_Future1087]

They've had me write blog posts for them as a diagnosed autistic adult to educate parents soooooo lol

[u/Murky-South9706 → u/meowpitbullmeow]

Yeah I was gonna say, they really turned themselves around I actually follow their youtube

[u/SugarMountain2]

I personally like the puzzle piece. To me it represents how autism is a puzzling disorder, and we have to piece things together to understand ourselves and learn how to make our lives less difficult.

[u/Unlucky_Picture9091]

with autism vs autistic

They're gonna go crazy when you tell them you can say the same thing with different syntax with no political/ideological subtext whatsoever 

[u/Overall_Future1087 → u/Unlucky_Picture9091]

Yes! They go on a full argument about autism being all of our identity, how we can't be separated from it...And yeah, we can't be separated, but I'm also more than my autism and mi identity goes beyond that. I guess that's what happens when we don't have our disorders as our whole identities

[u/Curious_Dog2528]

I was diagnosed with pddnos at 3 1/2 years old thank shit my parents didn’t have me in ABA therapy I was diagnosed in 1996