Pardon me, I am not celebrating yet.

One of my Fudgebook friends shared a news item. In it, the commercial entity known as Build-A-Bear Workshop announced (apparently to a mailing list) that they were ending their partnership with Autism Speaks For Normie Assholes. Great news by itself. But a wider context must be considered.

How you do not talk to an autistic adult. (Again.)

Let us get this out of the way first: compared to when it started, I am adding things to this journal at a very slow pace, and I do not anticipate that changing any time soon. Part of the reason has to do with simple loss of morale. Some of it has to do with feelings of exclusion from the mainstream “autistic community”. But much of it has to do with a simple feeling of it not being worth the effort.

Neurotypical slurs.

Read this article. Three paragraphs in, the author slurs autistic people twice in just one sentence. This sentence being

He suffered a severe form of autism and was unable to communicate verbally.

But really, you can cut this down to 

He suffered a severe form of autism

And it is two slurs in just seven words. Now, before the jump, I am going to warn in advance. I have not one fukking thing to say about Avonte Oquendo. I am sure his family is suffering terribly, but this is completely irrelevant to what I have to say.

No, your ignorance is harmful, normie.

There is a saying, or rather there are a variety of sayings, that revolve around the idea that ignorance is bliss. What you do not know will not hurt you. And on and on it goes.

Hate crimes against the autistic. Why they should be prosecuted.

Very recently, it came to my attention that some very big, brave person delivered an anonymous letter to the mother of an autistic child. This letter spared no effort in stating to said mother that the author wanted her to either move or euthanise her child.

The meaning of awareness. The real meaning, in the real world context.

Autism Awareness. Autism Awareness. Autism Awareness. Autism Awareness. Autism Awareness. Diabetes Awareness. Cancer Awareness. Spina Bifida Awareness. Down’s Syndrome Awareness. Retardation Awareness. Being born without limbs Awareness.

See where I am going with this yet, normies?

Some photos that I took (with no pervasive theme)

Some time ago in this journal, I posted a statement that I was going to start posting some of the things I photographed with my Nikon D5100. After setting up a little Photobucket account and trying to get to grips with how Photobucket in its present form actually works, I started uploading some photographs that I took or edited in order to provide some examples here.