@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-09-23 11:58:48
TL;DR: spending money to find the cause of autism is a eugenics project, and those resources could have been spent improving accommodations for Autistic people instead.
To preface this, I'm not Autistic but I'm neurodivergent with some overlap.
We need to be absolutely clear right now: the main purpose is *all* research into the causes of autism is eugenics: a cause is sought because non-autistic people want to *eliminate* autistic people via some kind of "cure." It should be obvious, but a "cured autistic person" who did not get a say in the decision to administer that "cure" has been subjected to non-consensual medical intervention at an extremely unethical level. Many autistic people have been exceptionally clear that they don't want to be "cured," including some people with "severe autism" such as people who are nonverbal.
When we think things like "but autism makes life so hard for some people," we're saying that the difficulties in their life are a result of their neurotype, rather than blaming the society that punished & devalues the behaviors that result from that neurotype at every turn. To the extent that an individual autistic person wants to modify their neurotype and/or otherwise use aids to modify themselves to reduce difficulties in their life, they should be free to pursue that. But we should always ask the question: "what if we changed their social or physical environment instead, so that they didn't have to change themselves?" The point is that difficulties are always the product of person x environment, and many of the difficulties we attribute to autism should instead be attributed to anti-autistic social & physical spaces, and resources spent trying to "find the cause of autism" would be *much* better spent trying to develop & promote better accommodations for autism. Or at least, that's the case if you care about the quality of life of autistic people and/or recognize their enormous contributions to society (e.g., Wikipedia could not exist in anything near its current form without autistic input). If instead you think of Autistic people as gross burdens that you'd rather be rid of, then it makes sense to investigate the causes of autism so that you can eventually find a "cure."
All of that to say: the best response to lies about the causes of autism is to ask "What is the end goal of identifying the cause?" instead of saying "That's not true, here's better info about the causes."
#autism #trump
P.S. yes, I do think about the plight of parents of autistic kids, particularly those that have huge struggles fitting into the expectations of our society. They've been put in a position where society constantly bullies and devalues their kid, and makes it mostly impossible for their kid to exist without constant parental support, which is a lot of work and which is unfair when your peers get the school system to do a massive amount of childcare. But in that situation, your kid is in an even worse position than you as the direct victim of all of that, and you have a choice: are you going to be their ally against the unfair world, or are you going to blame them and try to get them to confirm enough that you can let the school system take care of them, despite the immense pain that that will provoke? Please don't come crying for sympathy if you choose the later option (and yes, helping them be able to independently navigate society is a good thing for them, but there's a difference between helping them as their ally, at their pace, and trying to force them to conform to reduce the burden society has placed on you).
@aardrian@toot.cafe2025-10-22 15:57:33
OpenAI / ChatGPT is shit at UI #accessibility:
• https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2025/08/15/ai-effluential/
•
@andres4ny@social.ridetrans.it2025-11-22 19:50:50
Wow. I've dealt with various toxic personalities in software development, but a good portion of the time those toxic personalities were at least extremely knowledgeable in their (often, very limited) domain.
AI, however, seems to be enabling toxic personalities *who are completely clueless*. Impressive!
https://github…
@Techmeme@techhub.social2025-11-23 13:01:19
A researcher details an LLM-based AI agent that "demonstrated a near-flawless ability" to bypass bot detection methods while answering online survey questions (Emanuel Maiberg/404 Media)
https://www.404media.co/a-researcher-made-
@heiseonline@social.heise.de2025-09-24 03:35:00
Apple Card und Toyota entkommen US-Verbraucherschutz
Die US-Behörde für Verbraucherschutz im Finanzbereich ist bei Republikanern unbeliebt. Sie muss ihre Arbeit deutlich reduzieren. Konzerne profitieren.
https://www.…
@pre@boing.world2025-10-24 14:40:48
Paint samples arrived today and it was obvious which was gonna work better so I ordered a full 2.5l can.
Only to get an email back saying they can't make that colour in that varnish. Weird. That was literally the only actually blue they said they'd do last time they said they couldn't deliver what the website let me order.
After some discussion they have referred it to the Tainting Supervisor and it's apparently going to be here Monday.
Similarly for the wood, failed to arrive again today. They reckon Monday this time really for reals. Fingers crossed coz the carpenter can't do more until the wood arrives really and he's going on holiday this time next week.
So assuming the wood comes, four days to build the doors and finish off the walls of the closet and stuff.
Hopefully it can all be done in that time. Or at least the hard bits leaving the easy stuff for the less carpentery builder.
@aral@mastodon.ar.al2025-10-24 06:54:42
If you read one thing today…
1. You should read more
2. Make it this 👇 https://mastodon.social/@danielquinn/114793526868620928
@cdarwin@c.im2025-11-23 22:47:41
ICE says the computer ate its records the day after it was sued for abuse.
404 Media reports that after ICE’s Broadview Detention Center outside Chicago was sued October 30 for allegedly abusing detainees,
the agency said that 💥two weeks of video footage that could have shown how immigration detainees are treated in the facility was lost in a “system crash” 💥 on October 31.*
“The government has said that the data for that period was lost in a system crash apparently on the …
@aardrian@toot.cafe2025-10-24 12:06:30
Probably the best thing I did this week was make the OpenAI anus / Atlass butt plug logo into a Goatse gag.
But then Microsoft comes along and outdoes me with this vitamin-yellow-tinted puddle of spunk and I am just… wow.
Well done, Microsoft.
@heiseonline@social.heise.de2025-09-24 15:45:09