I think a lot of the problem is that many autistic people don’t want to be “treated” or “cured,” any more than LGBTQ people wanted it. As an autistic person, and the mom of an autistic son, I think *support* and helpful interventions are crucial. But trying to make autistics “normal,” or to try to “cure” is…

Behaviorist therapy is the most common - although unquestionably the worst - “treatment” used on autistic kids. There are plenty of places these practices still take place, out in the open.

Before the Obama administration, the only “therapy” for autism that insurance would cover directly was ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis). ABA was developed by the SAME PEOPLE who developed what became known as “conversion therapy.”

“As I suggested, politics bein’ kinda brutal business, you find out who your friends are, that’s for sure, and I know that you all probably go through your own battles, maybe with family, with friends, you know, trying to, you know, at least in the arena of ideas, duking it out, trying to find that best candidate to…

My first experience was with Prodigy, fall of ‘88. I got flamed for having the temerity to like *both* The Smiths and The Cure. Very damaging for my 8th grade self, but at least it prepared me for the rest of my life on the internet.

I love PPP polls for this reason. They have an amazing track record, and their data is very easy to access. I love their blog, too.

They’re also lovely just sliced and sautéed in a skillet with lots of butter till soft but not mushy. If you want to be fancy you can add a little chicken broth, white wine, rosemary, and/or sea salt in any combination. But I would basically eat fried parsnips like all the time if I could. And sweet potatoes. I am way…

Or the ones who “accidentally” smother them during some screwed up “rebirthing ceremony.” Honestly, I have to stay away from all that because it makes it hard for me to function.

My whole family is autistic, and I think I’m now going to start explaining it by telling people it’s like we’re running McAfee.

Speaking as the proud mother of a vaccinated, autistic son, hell yeah. Why are people more afraid of autism than measles? You can’t die from autism. And I’ve never met an autistic kid I “wouldn’t want.” Any parent who feels that way doesn't deserve to be a parent.

Don’t even get me started on the HPV vaccine. I got it for my son, because, you know, I don’t want *him* getting those strands of HPV and even unknowingly spreading it to his future partners (and I do mean “future,” as he's a geeky young teen who probably won't get laid till college). So it absolutely amazes me how…

I fully understand people who are coming at it from this point of view. Most of the hippie anti-vaxxers I know fall into this line of thinking. I disagree with them, but I have had bad experiences with doctors, too. I'm naturally suspicious myself. But these folks don't tend to be rabid in their anti-vax fervor, and…

Especially since she still has the option to keep her most important kid in the world non-vaccinated. She might have to homeschool him, or send him to some ultra-special private school that’s founded just for anti-vaxxers. But I doubt her kid goes to public school, anyway.

And of course, there *were* autistic kids in their classes. No one called them that, because we didn’t start diagnosing “autism” until the 40’s, and our understanding of it as a spectrum disorder has grown over the intervening years. I’m a perfect example of someone who would easily have been identified as autistic…

Which is exactly what makes them a hate group. #notallantivaxxers, I'm sure, but an avowed majority would like to see autistics disappear forever.

As an autistic mom of an autistic kid, it starts to border on hate rhetoric for me. They might as well literally say that they would rather risk killing their children than having them turn out like mine. I’m sure that most anti-vaxxers aren’t thinking their position through to this outcome. They believe that they’re…

Except for the major tenets that 1) communism was supposed to be a post-capitalist stage of economic development and 2) communism was supposed to be a global phenomenon. They tried to skip ahead from basically feudal/pre-capitalist economies to communism, without having developed the necessary economic base. And they…

Technically, we’ve never had anything like true/Marxist Communism, because it was meant to be a post-Capitalist, post-nationalist phase of economic development. We haven’t actually gotten to the point where the entire world could form one economy/one world government. Marx didn’t believe you could have Communism in…

As a mostly sane person, I’d agree with this. My boyfriend at 23 and I fought constantly, explosively, and sometimes violently. We were passionate, and terrible for each other. We talked about marriage and kids, which would have been a disaster. One or both of us would surely have ended up in jail/bankrupt/with major…

I hear you, I really do. And honestly, I’m not disagreeing. Just sayin’, as someone who has been through it, that you can commit yourself fully, and put the work in to every moment of parenting, and “give 110%” and all that jazz, and still have a terrible, horrible, very bad, no good day with your kid(s). If it…