• Replies 27 replies
  • Subscribers 90 subscribers
  • Views 6765 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Is this really a safe space for autistic adults?

M

Recently I have noticed more comments by partners and parents of autistic people, and quite often they are derogatory towards autistic people. 

Do other people feel that this is a safe space? 

In particular, I'm upset by the thread questioning the validity of celebrities being diagnosed as autistic. Many of us have had a lifetime of struggling and discovering we are autistic is empowering as we finally make sense when so much often hasn't made sense pre-diagnosis. I don't feel that we should have to be faced with people questioning that in one of the few spaces designed for us to discuss our innermost thoughts and feelings. Sometimes I actually wonder if we are even being trolled and people aren't what they make themselves out to be. 

I just wanted to get that off my chest because I'm upset and anxious after using the forum tonight, which isn't a sign of safety. 

Parents

  • To me the safest space is one where you can say things with out worrying about whether you are going to be vilified for it. I know these things are relative but to me being berated and silenced by people who don't want to engage with my arguments or opinions is far more scary than having people tell me I'm wrong and try to argue with me, far more scary than having some one express an opinion I personally don't like or find repugnant.

    My idea of a safe space is a place where a person can say what they really think and feel and the next person can stand up and go into all the reasons why they think they are wrong. That's what makes me feel safe.

  • in reply to Peter

    Not sure that exists, certainly not absolutely anyway. Some opinions are too hateful to be allowed a platform. 

  • in reply to M

    I was on a site where the most vile and hateful people were free to spew their hatred unrestrictedly. Stuff like covid & race arguments would trigger vicious interchanges between the more deranged, and hardcore fact based debate amongst the more powerful, but it was educational.

    Prohibiting such people from ever receiving any opposition (because they aren't allowed to speak) drives the problem out of sight and out of mind.

    In my own case, seeing "hatreds" similar to those I'd first been taught by society and then been taught to suppress by society as they became "unfashionable" actually being played out "harmlessly" on an online forum rather than in the streets allowed me to see where the truth really lies, and what a useless and disempowering emotion hatred actually is.

    Extending vitriol and hatred towards those you perceive as "haters", is such an effective strategy isn't it? 

Reply
  • in reply to M

    I was on a site where the most vile and hateful people were free to spew their hatred unrestrictedly. Stuff like covid & race arguments would trigger vicious interchanges between the more deranged, and hardcore fact based debate amongst the more powerful, but it was educational.

    Prohibiting such people from ever receiving any opposition (because they aren't allowed to speak) drives the problem out of sight and out of mind.

    In my own case, seeing "hatreds" similar to those I'd first been taught by society and then been taught to suppress by society as they became "unfashionable" actually being played out "harmlessly" on an online forum rather than in the streets allowed me to see where the truth really lies, and what a useless and disempowering emotion hatred actually is.

    Extending vitriol and hatred towards those you perceive as "haters", is such an effective strategy isn't it? 

Children
No Data