• Replies 5 replies
  • Subscribers 82 subscribers
  • Views 140 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

Simon Baron Cohen

Kvothe

I am wondering why Simon Baron Cohen is associated with NAS after his opinions have been widely condemned by autistic people on a video.

The video in question is - the worlds leading autism expert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJg2_EVheY4&t=1668s

in this video he basically compares autistic people to Elon Musk who i am not aware was formally diagnosed as Autistic, and basically says Autism is a blessing.

Here are some of the comments from that video:

*OMG I spent most of this podcast rolling my eyes. I have ADHD and autism and it's something I would cure in a heartbeat. It makes my life hard and exhausting. I'm constantly overwhelmed. I have no friends. Wanting to prevent autism is good, not eugenics!

* He said autism doesn't cause human suffering and we shouldn't try and prevent it. He's an expert in the field yet lives in a fantasy world where autism always means interesting quirks. As a parent of a severely autistic child who is none verbal, I see daily how much suffering it can cause. Something as simple as walking past a shop with their door left open will change a happy child into a child having a two hour meltdown while scraping the skin off his own face and trying to smash his own head on the concrete. I see this daily and it's terrifying and heart-breaking.

* I’m so sick of people acting like being neurodivergent t is a blessing. As someone who has this myself, yes I have some abilities others don’t. But it is still debilitating. It’s like saying a blind person is lucky because their sense of smell becomes better. We need to find a cure for those who want it

* My son has autism, if there is anything we could have done to prevent it, we would have risked life and limb to do so. There is an incredible amount of suffering related with it.

*This interview is a disservice to all those negatively impacted by autism.

*I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only one shocked and rolling my eyes as the over-corrective “acceptance” mentality of this expert. It’s one thing to be compassionate and highlight the strengths of autism, it’s another thing to not want to prevent it or package it as simply an almost cosmetic difference. Ridiculous.

These are just some of the comments on that video and there are 6840 comments.


Do the National Autistic Society stand by him? He seems to not understand the plight of autistic people at all and i am wondering why thy NAS has him as a Patron, do they agree with his stance on autism or disavow it?

I prob wont be able to reply to most messages on this post as i find this site and the NAS too overwhelming, but will try if i can.

Parents

  • Ive never heard of him but two immediately personal perspectives on this are:

    1. Autism very often is a curse and debilitating and I don’t understand the desire by so many to want to be this  

    2. But I wouldn’t wish it away, it is part of who I am, part incredible, part damaged. I do not want to cured of it any more than say my accent or hair co,our  

    His views as presented here seem too complex to simply “stand by” or “disavow”

Reply

  • Ive never heard of him but two immediately personal perspectives on this are:

    1. Autism very often is a curse and debilitating and I don’t understand the desire by so many to want to be this  

    2. But I wouldn’t wish it away, it is part of who I am, part incredible, part damaged. I do not want to cured of it any more than say my accent or hair co,our  

    His views as presented here seem too complex to simply “stand by” or “disavow”

Children
  • in reply to Alice-nice-Alice

    Having been autistic all my life, undiagnosed for most of it, misunderstood for all of it, I can't imagine life without autism, for me there are other health issues that stop me doing things that I'd much rather be cured of than autism, such as osteoarthritis. I'm 64 now and I like who I am, who I've become and I'm looking forward to seeing who I grow into.

    I do find Baron Cohen a difficult person, personally and as someone who's done so much to bring awareness of autism into the public arena, but for many years his emphasis was on "extreme male brain" being what autism was, which we now know it isn't, so does he to be fair, but I do feel he took us one step forwards and two steps backwards, but ignoring non extreme male brain autistic presentations and that of course excluded many women.