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BBC Radio 4: The link between terrorism and autism.

PersonAnon

This quite measured piece (in which National Autistic Society staff are interviewed) was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 (I've mentioned this earlier in replies to another post).

It looks at the Prevent programme, and reasons why autistic people feature heavily amongst those who come to the attention of the authorities.

You have to listen to the whole thing, including the scene-setting in the first half where autism isn't mentioned.   

I'm personally fine with this, in the context of today, although I worry, slightly, that if we end up with an even more extreme Government, on the left or the right, at some point in the future, information like this would make all autistic people very vulnerable.  

I also worry, slightly, that the brevity required for a consumer radio programme is unhelpful (but unavoidable). 

On the principle of 'nothing about us, without us', they have interviewed the NAS, and someone helped by the Prevent programme, but the true nature of the spectrum is not explained to a consumer audience.  If you knew nothing about autism, you may come away with the misleading impression that such vulnerability covered everyone diagnosed with it. They do make the point that of the 700,000 or so people diagnosed in the UK, the vast majority would have nothing to do with terrorism. 

But people seldom listen to radio with their entire attention.  They are driving, or working, or looking after the kids, or on an exercise bike.  People with a full adult reading age and a good education will listen to this with only half an ear, and they'll take away soundbites, one of which may be "autism = terrorism".  

I'm not critical of the programme - it's part of a series investigating terrorism, and why people get involved, and it's good journalism. 

I'm not critical of NAS involvement, because their non-involvement would not prevent it being broadcast, and it's better that the programme goes out with their voice than without it. 

But I think this sort of thing places a huge pressure on autistic people, and particularly those whose autism does not affect language and their ability to marshal and present an argument, because we all need to be advocates for an intelligent approach to this stuff. 

The is not the fault of the journalism, to be clear; the journalism is merely reporting the facts, in this instance.  It’s not anyone’s ‘fault’.  It’s a difficult, harsh, truth that those of us on the spectrum have to deal with.

We all need to be well informed about this stuff, and to keep abreast of it, and if we don't, events which have a critical impact on our lives will, indeed, be decided without us.

Some of the key messages coming out from this (more resources needed for psychiatric and support services) are really good.  There's no inaccuracy, that I can see.  But I just feel that this is a high risk area for us, and we should keep careful tabs on it.

Here's the link.  Happy listening(!)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013swk 

(If the link doesn't work BBC i player / Terrorism and the Mind / The Mental Health Front Line / BBC Radio 4).  

Parents

  • PersonAnon, thank you for providing the link, this was an interesting programme. The man who became involved in the far-right group provided a poignant and articulate explanation for his experiences. I've read around this subject before, and what he said accorded with my earlier research, that ideological grooming isn't generally done by doctrine, but more often by social interaction. I've heard about religious fundamentalists organizing football games targeted at lonely children, with the focus on doctrine only occurring after they made friends they didn't want to give up.

    The statistics about the amount of autistic people involved in prevent were interesting, but I wonder whether they reflect the people who got caught. I think it's likely that the 'true believers' in these movements- the organizers who want to overthrow the state etc, have a very different profile from the vulnerable recruits featured in the broadcast.

    It also highlighted the social costs involved in poor mental health provision, which are seen in a number of areas.

    From a personal perspective, I would be almost impervious to ideological persuasion on these topics, as I'm very heavily focused on facts, logic, and evidence, but I sometimes worry that I'm open to emotional manipulation because of isolation and poor understanding of social situations. There are probably some ways in which autistic people are more vulnerable to radicalization, and some ways in which they are less vulnerable. I'm sure that autistic people with generally better lives where their needs are met have very similar risks to the rest of the population.

    On another note, this thread, and the subsequent discussion, is in my view a much better use of the forum that some other topics recently. Sometimes, I think the forum has become in danger of being crowded with conspiracy theories; in one recent thread, there was even a call to violence. These kinds of discussions are, in my view, more in keeping with what we need.

  • in reply to DiffidAnt

    Glad you appreciated it, and thanks.  Some interesting points.  I agree there have been some slightly bizarre posts recently, I tend to just ignore those(!)

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