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Another discriminatory article

MrsSparrow

Hi all

Not sure if anyone has seen this. Another media article comparing autism with negative traits in the disguise of reporting. Would he make the same comparison to a person in a wheelchair? Or blind?

www.theguardian.com/.../israel-suffers-collective-autism-hope-change

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, just upset they think it's ok to use autism in this way.

  • I think the issue is that it's highlighting the negatives of autism, instead of spreading autism-awareness in a positive way.

    How are people ever going to get a rounded view of what autism is, when they are led to believe we are all asocial (which often ends up being termed anti-social), unfriendly, uncaring people?

    That is what is discriminatory about it.  Both the politician and the journalist should apologise.

  • I think the article erroneously conflates autism with the psychology of a nation, and I don't notice any interesting possibilities. To label a whole nation autistic is absurd, and helps to propagate negative stereotypes surrounding the 'lack of empathy' and insularity of autistic individuals. The author of this article should have taken a more critical stance.

  • Do you really feel the article is discriminatory? The author is responding to a politician's use of the term, which might be discriminatory, and is trying to analyse whether the connection made is valid.

    I'm not sure how valid is the author's claim to have used the autism test by entering a country's characteristics rather than an individual's - that does sound far fetched - journalese.

    But speaking personally, and my view may be exceptional, I don't think this is a discriminatory use of the term autism.

    Indeed the connotation might have interesting possibilities, and if it helps people understand better what autism means so much the better.