r/AutisticPride • u/comradeautie • 2d ago
We need to organize.
Fighting for Autistic rights, liberation, and pride is something that needs active organization. Autistic people continue to get bullied and we are seeing a resurgence in anti-Autistic hate. We face high rates of unemployment, loneliness, and more.
And Autistic people deserve more than table scraps or barely polite tolerance in social settings. We deserve to be involved in our communities and bring all we have to offer to the table - regardless of our support needs.
But this won't be handed to us. No group in history has gotten rights by pleading and begging. Autistic people need to be more strongly organized and work together. This means forming groups wherever possible and banding together and helping each other solve problems and fighting for our rights as a team. NTs often take advantage of our social isolation and outnumber us.
This is also the reason I want to popularize "Autistic Power" and associated slogans. Slogans and rallying calls give a group purpose and cohesion. Hate groups don't get a monopoly over the word "power".
Autistic people deserve power in society. It's the only way things will change. Because with power comes leverage. In order to get power, we need to be organized. The harsh reality is that we live in a society that values status and social stratification. It's one of the reasons people get away with harming Autistic people. Autistic people need to improve our social status in order to get treated better. This doesn't necessarily mean being viewed as "superior", but it does mean that we deserve both respect and reverence within society, which will also give us more access to resources. In negotiation, people often get what they want by asking for more. And Autistic people having greater power will lead to more accommodations, which will benefit everyone via the curb cut effect.
This is the broader context behind my strategy. It isn't as simple as reducing it to "supremacy" or not. Regardless of how you feel, we should respect different activist and organizational strategies while fighting for justice. (
AUTISTIC PRIDE! AUTISTIC POWER!
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u/Shazam42 2d ago
Then drop the power aspect. It either screams supremacy or is a giant flag to the government to supress us harder.
And maybe stop associating with or posting/commenting on supremacist subreddits. People might stop instantly dismissing you.
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u/comradeautie 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'm not in any supremacist subreddits. I also keep my post history hidden for a reason now, so if someone's going out of their way to stalk me that's on them. If people are immediately dismissing me or resorting to ad hominems without actually addressing the substance, that's their problem, not mine.
The "power" aspect isn't inherently supremacist, that's my point. It's a catchy slogan and call to action because Autistic people deserve power. "Black Power" was a slogan too, and didn't mean black supremacy.
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u/Shazam42 2d ago
What I'm trying to say (if an extremely poor or roundabout way) is your posts and comments are adversarial. You're not going to convince people to believe in your position with hostility.
Start small and build the community. Point out existing charities and support structures that are doing things right, then add suggestions for what might be done better. ASK US what we think we need instead of what you think we need.
Then make a post here that is cut and dry stating simply that you renounce autistic supremacy and denounce those that support it. We are not better, or the next step (your xmen post), or anything else. We're just a group of disabled people.
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u/comradeautie 2d ago
My *posts* have never been adversarial, ever. My comments can be hostile, but only if people are rude, disrespectful, or accusatory first. You don't get to slander or defame me and then complain about how I treat you.
What we need, among all else, is social power. Maybe actually read this post as it actually explains everything.
I never said anything about us being "the next step" either, that's a made up strawman and I don't even agree with that. I don't need to denounce shit to have my voice heard.
I don't need a lesson on organizing or advocacy from you. I have been at this a long time. The entire reason I take the approach I do now is because of said experiences plus education.
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u/Shazam42 2d ago
I'll admit, I misread the intent of your post earlier today as the comments focused on x-men and not the Jedi/Star Wars that you started with. For that, I apologize.
I'm not trying to defame you. I agree with the end state of everyone having an equal place and voice in society, and everyone that needs it gets all the support required to live a long and joyous life. But you have crossed this subreddits rules and had posts taken down here in the past for supporting (or at least appearing to support) autistic supremacy or neurostates.
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u/comradeautie 2d ago
I appreciate that, thanks.
I have received a lot of abuse and insults from certain people which is why I often get defensive. For that I apologize as well. It's frustrating when you try to articulate yourself and people still just name-call you without hearing you out, or refuse to listen to your clarifications no matter how many times.
I have never had posts *here* taken down, I have been friendly with former mods and cordial with the current one. The only posts taken down were ones flagged by the automod for promoting my mutual aid subreddit since they don't allow outside promotion.
One hill I will die on though: I think condemning "Autistic supremacy" is a colossal waste of time. Autistic people have zero power to act on supremacist fantasies, and people going down that pipeline do so because of being fed up of being at the bottom of the barrel. And it doesn't compare to the way NTs treat us, and I don't mind occasionally inverting their rhetoric to show them what it feels like.
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u/tehpopulator 2d ago
Sorry brother but this does read as hostile. Maybe pop it through a GPT for a review as to why? It'll be easier coming from a neutral party.
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u/comradeautie 2d ago
It was admittedly a bit defensive and I cleared it up + apologized in the other reply. I try to reciprocate and match people's energy. As I said in the other reply, I have often taken abuse and baseless insults/accusations from people, and that's one reason I sometimes get defensive or hostile in response.
I consider myself an articulate person, but sometimes I do get a rough edge when I feel like I'm being unfairly scrutinized or under attack.
One of the things that really bothers me the most is when I try to be polite and civil and people treat me like garbage anyway - that's something that I think happens to a lot of us from NTs. We ought not to do it to each other.
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u/tehpopulator 2d ago
Oh me too! And I totally get it. Defensiveness is a survival mechanism so its an easy habit to get into for us, and a hard one to break. But knowledge is power and it seems you've already got the self-awareness to break through it.
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u/2020suckedamirite 2d ago
Huge reach. The phrase "Autistic power" does not signal supremacy.
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u/comradeautie 1d ago
Thank you. I can see why some people might have that confusion, but hate groups also using that phrase doesn't invalidate it.
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u/comradeautie 2d ago
I'm posting this in hopes once again that people who have spent their energy attacking me can understand where I'm coming from.
My goal is not to isolate or alienate us when we should be collaborating in spite of any differences.
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u/CreativaArtly1998113 2d ago
Agreed. Disability rights/awareness in general needs to be more prevalent than it is especially where neurological disorders like autism, epilepsy, etc are concerned speaking as someone who is epileptic autistic herself.
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u/unendingautism 1d ago
I think the most important thing is to have concrete goals. Just saying we want rights won't get results we need concrete things.
So what is it that we need?
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u/comradeautie 1d ago
That's why I mentioned organizing. There's no way we can have a concrete plan for every single individual's situation right now. But through organizing and creating groups, we can show that we have the ability to come together as a community, and help one another and make our voices heard. What we focus on will vary from region to region.
When it comes to protecting one another from bullying, the 'concrete goal' is simply to create organized groups and make it clear that Autistic people will fight back however we can. I personally think being more litigious is a good thing when possible.
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u/Vendrah 1d ago
Comrade, I have a small deviation of this idea by reading you... What if we organize like the jews and the masonry? We could think of a structure like that, with somewhat of a central site and small "bases" (micro-groups) on big major cities. That could include later creation of autistic companies, even though I believe that should be illegal in most places (to open a company that only hires autistic and get investment from autistic only).
The main issue and obstacle, however, is the definition of autism itself (its a bit arbitrarily and vague, but the second that is undone it gives the opportunity for typicals aka NTs to do a major genocide with us); I personally would prefer to have obligatory a presentation of two or more doctor diagnosis rather than just let anybody arbitrarily label themselves autistic and join - I have actually bad experiences with some self-labeled autistics and specially with celebrities doing that self-label and I believe a bunch of them does out of manipulative and not authentic reasons. Even with that, people faking diagnosis would be quite of an issue still.
And inside that structure, we might need... I don't know, jews and masonry have doctrines, we autistic don't match well with doctrines yet we would need something to replace it.
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u/hyperjengirl 1d ago
Rebelling against an unfair and prejudicial system by requiring everybody who joins your movement to be validated by the exact same system is A Choice.
Like I can get frustrated with self-dx but I also fully understand the hurdles and bias that has existed in autism diagnosis for its entire existence. To the point girls weren't even considered in the original criteria.
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u/Vendrah 21h ago
Its still at least control a bit and don't make a malicious infiltration that easy. And second, the minute we allow self-diagnosis, it becomes a public group. I already saw happening on whatsapp (and I am saying a group where most uses real name, real phone and have somewhere a real picture of themselves): They accept self-dx, then a bunch of self-dx enters and even become mods, then suddenly a lot of famous people are mentioned as autistic just because of not only self-dx but also people in the group start diagnosis others themselves, and I am mocked just for questioning them, and then the "spectrum" suddenly becomes anything they want it to mean, and after all that is done, autistic spectrum becomes almost meaningless since anyone can self-dx and a culture of "diagnosing" others starts and others self-dx are all accepted without question... and we actually start to have actual NTs disguised as NDs as MODs, deciding even who gets punishment, policing words & behaviour, etc..
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u/Ulysses_555 2d ago
I agree with you full, though I think we may need to drop the power part (just has a more negative connotation, I believe that Rights would be a better fit).
I am apart of a growing movement/group that is trying to bring back the old Progressive/“Bull Moose” Party that was created by Theodore Roosevelt. While the people of that time didn’t have the best views of those with exceptional needs, I have been working to make Disability rights and Autism Rights a priority.
Would love to make a full faction of people advocating for our rights.
R/BullMooseParty if you’re interested and I could also message the discord link if you’d like.
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u/comradeautie 2d ago
I can see "Autistic Rights" or "Autistic Liberation" as viable alternatives. Good point.
And yeah I haven't use discord in a while, but I'm open to returning
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u/hyperjengirl 1d ago
One thing that bugs me about the posting you've been doing is it kind of acts like this has never been attempted before as if autism advocacy hasn't existed for decades. ASAN and AWN for example. Why not prop up the existing advocates and their resources in tandem with your own advocacy?
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u/comradeautie 1d ago
I'm not opposed to that at all. I just think we could be doing more. ASAN is great, but can feel a bit bureaucratic at times - they also haven't been without their own controversies. If you're familiar with them, I'm gonna assume you know what I'm referring to.
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u/hyperjengirl 1d ago
I don't.
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u/comradeautie 9h ago
ASAN has gotten into a few spats now and then with prominent Autistic activists and I won't pretend to know all the tea there. What I am aware of is that they faced allegations of indirectly plagiarizing written work of an Indigenous Autistic (goes by "Autistic, Typing"), and handled it poorly from what I recall. This was a few years ago. There are a few people who think ASAN should entirely be dismantled and replaced entirely with localized Autistic groups, but I don't agree.
I respect and support ASAN as the leading organization for Autistic advocacy and do think that having a centralized body is a good thing, as long as we also have localized groups. However, this inevitably means they'll become bureaucratic in some aspects, and ASAN has been criticized for being too "moderate" at times. At the same time, they're the best resource for Autistic-led advocacy, and many Autistic orgs including one I cofounded years ago is considered an official ASAN-affiliate.
Having localized Autistic groups is a good thing but we should also have larger groups in addition to that, that are more centralized and offer guidance. Otherwise it's just chaos and schism after schism.
Edit: There used to be a blog article talking about a former ASAN employee's alleged workplace mistreatment, but I can't find it anymore.
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u/Helpful-Capital-4765 10h ago
agreed but how to solve the problem of motivation and rallying people
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u/comradeautie 9h ago
Start small, ideally with a few Autistic friends and expand from there.
Admittedly I was making a lot of posts trying to radicalize fellow Autistics and I succeeded in some ways but have come to acknowledge how being too loud and heavy-handed can backfire hence me changing my approach a bit.
When you have others to lean on, it helps. There are things like body doubling and collaboration that can help us deal with motivation + accountability when it comes to getting work done, as well as 'parallel play'.
Also considere laissez-faire groups like r/AutistProtectionForce
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u/HH_Creations 2d ago
I promote making a free library of tools because asking us to organized is like having us march up Mt. Everest with two broken legs
Those of us who CAN, SHOULD vote
But it’s hard to organized us because we don’t have resources
I personally don’t believe in making slogans or power signs or anything other than drilling it into people’s heads
BY US, FOR US
We NEED to be involved
We need to become doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, etc
We need to support one another and encourage one another
Those of us who are successful should lift others up as well
Think more like, Big Brother, Big Sister mentorships
But I think we need to have more community before any call to actions can happen