I often talk to my cats and they often answer, I try and work out what they're trying to say. Boris my tuxedo cat has a good range of swear words, especially when I put any flea or worm drop on him, it sounds to me like 'FILTH, FILTH, HASSOCKS!' I can get the filth bit as hte stuff does smell a bit, but hassocks!?
He says milk, and if he dosen't it or dosen't get it fast enough, he stretches up and digs his claws in a bit just under your bum cheek and then tries to pull down your trousers!
For any members who are interested in "trying" to unpick these responses - please know that my response that starts "Fwiw" was posted 1st - and it appeared for about 5 minutes, before being "disappeared." I then made my second post that starts "My original" about 1 hours after my "Fwiw" post had been 'disappeared'........and then.....as if by magic, within 5 minutes of that second post, my 1st post "re-appeared."
Does NAS understand that WE ARE AUTISTIC......and therefore, that this "performance" is -at best- poor, and -at worst- DEEPLY damaging for us?!
My original response to your post here Craig has been "disappeared"! I hope you (and others) saw the original. AND FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF DOUBT, AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE, THERE WAS NOTHING THAT REQUIRED "CENSORSHIP" IN MY ORIGINAL POST HERE.
Something, is going BADLY wrong on this forum at the moment.
Oh my Goodness ....... I've just had another of my responses "disappeared" from here on this thread ....... and HONESTLY ........ that is not OK.
My post "appeared" here for about 5 minutes .... and was then "disappeared."
I'm not sure who or what is "punching" my buttons......but I will get to the bottom of it......whether here as a member....or by other means.
Fwiw.....I actually don't think there is any malice nor forethought on the part of NAS......I personally think that "events have simply overtaken them/us" and there is either insufficient resource and/or insufficient stomach and/or too rigid a "cloud" structure, to enable them to keep this as a safe and inclusive [AND HUMAN] place for human autists to reside within.
Like I say, it does make me sad - and like I say = I do wish you well!........but I also fear for the souls of people like me who came here in need of solace......I'm not sure that "solace-providers" can/will summon the fortitude to survive here for too much longer.
Godspeed brother.
Thank you but yeah, I'm not willing to be part of anything that censors free speech, I can accept that no swear words be permitted but being censored for words that basically are used in everyday comment is a bridge to far for me.
I do thank for the advice and support given when I first joined but it seems NAS is doing it's best to destroy all that.
Thank you for sharing your thought process - rather than just disappearing. I fear that many of us may soon reach the same conclusion for similar reasons..........and yet.........if some of us don't stay to defend the perspective that you express.....then the whitewash is complete?!
Craig - I wish you well.......and am genuinely sorry that you feel "drummed out" of this place. That makes me sad!
I've just logged on for the 1st time in a wee while and I looked at the heading "Cat Language" and thought, this sounds for good reading and I would post a comment about my cat.
Instead, it's mostly a topic of censorship around certain words that "someone" deems offensive and not permitted to use.
I didn't join this organisation and discussion forum to be under censorship and this, sadly is what it is. so for that, I'm removing my account, I do not wish to be part of something that censors people's use of words that is deemed to be offensive when it's not a swear word in any shape or form.
I hope you feel more yourself soon, its really hard supporting others and not taking their stuff onboard as your own, (( )).
You give others much support and I hope you soon feel less overwhelmed. Take care of yourself.
Nicely put and seconded.
I want to apologise to all concerned for the upset that I caused with my earlier posts in this thread. I’ve been reflecting on things for the last few days, as I felt very confused, upset, and disappointed with myself about it.
What I’ve concluded is that I spoke from an overly-emotional / unusually dysregulated place. I’m always concerned to support those whose difficulties are greater than mine. But this was particularly heightened when I wrote those replies, which, coupled with over-tiredness, regrettably led me astray.
Last weekend, I’d been involved in this community, including via private messages, in trying to support someone in crisis, which had included calling the emergency services for them. Unsurprisingly, this was a deeply unsettling experience. It was also a grim reminder of how many of us are desperately in need of being better heard, understood, and supported than we are - in some cases, including by medical professionals. It left me feeling very off balance.
Also, in respect of ableism generally, I just want to clarify: I have felt very surprised to see some clear examples of it elsewhere in this forum recently, but the clumsy way that I tried to introduce / mention the subject within this thread wasn’t fully developed and, in hindsight, was ill-advised - this wasn't the right time or place for it.
Although I didn’t intend any personal offence with any of my posts, I didn’t formulate them at all well, and can fully understand how they were taken that way. I again offer my sincere apologies.
Overall, I’m still feeling overwhelmed, and I know that I don’t have the capacity to discuss this further. So, without meaning to be rude, please don’t expect me to respond to any replies. I just wanted to apologise, and ideally to then move on from this. Thank you in anticipation of your understanding.
Bunny, I think you are very far off the mark in asking us if we have internalised ableism, I think most of us are aware of the differences in understanding, in mental ages as opposed to how many years we've been on this planet. I actually feel quite insulted that you feel the need to say this, you may be looking at statistics, and NAS may want to be as inclusive as possible, but its efforts to do so are alienating more and more users. This has been going on for the year or so that I've been here and hiding behind statistics and being an appologist for poor systems whether human or artifical does none of us any favours, maybe we need a fora for under 14's or something?
There is a bigger issue at stake here than the P word. Some AI filter decides that our posts contain objectable words and censors them. The moderator agrees with the AI.
In the near future an AI decides which benefit claims are fraudulent and terminates them. The human civil servent agrees with the AI because it's the lazy thing to do.
Can we just "paws" for thought here please, as I feel this thread is getting a bit discombobulating....
In a discussion about cats, Cat woman innocently used the P word to describe a cat. This led to posts by me, Debbie and Number about what we thought were amusing quotes by a character in a sitcom about her cat, which had a double meaning.
Rosie mod deleted the P word from our posts and reminded us that swearing was not allowed, which confused a few of us as we didn't think we'd been swearing and had no idea we'd offended anyone.
I started a discussion regarding the age of those who should be able to view posts. To cut a long story short, it appears that although NAS won't allow under 18s to join the community, anyone of any age can read anything we post on here. Bunny also gave us some statistics showing that many autistic adults have a "mental age" of under 12.
I agree with Bunny that the community should be inclusive and obviously I feel that abuse, bullying or posting offensive content should not be tolerated, but I don't see how any post in this thread was offensive (although I'm happy for someone to explain how they are, if they think I'm wrong)
There are other threads on this forum which deal with serious issues such as suicidal thoughts, bereavement, relationship or intimacy issues, work or housing problems. These are not topics that I feel are appropriate for under 12s (or adults with a "mental age" under 12) but it's important that we have this space for people to talk about these things and get advice and support. But good mental health is dependent not just on getting advice about serious issues, but also about being able to connect with others in a meaningful way and sharing ideas and jokes and making people smile (sometimes laughter can be the best medicine it is said) So as long as the context isn't offensive, I don't see any problem in that?
Thank you, although I do have cause to presume that I was reported for "swearing" specifically.
From what I can gather at the moment, this place is becoming wholly safe and inclusive for all...so long as you are prepared to "take the knee" for a particular form of self-righteous indignation and....shall we say...."granualisation."
It's sad.
I'd liked to be included in the group that you think are missing the point please. This is an inclusive place, after all?
Perhaps we are not missing the point, but perhaps you are unwilling to entertain a perspective that is different to your own assertions?
How do ther sites get people to confirm thier age? Would that be the right approach here
Even the dreaded social media asks people to confirm they are at least 13 before opening an account. Here - no safeguards.
If I'm writing a post in a forum section called "autistic adults" I'd expect my posts to be able to be read only by adults.
I’m afraid you’re all continuing to miss the point. For example, working from the stats that I posted above:
100% of autistic adults in the 50-59 age group would be “adults”, per the terms of this forum. Regardless of whether any age verification measures were in place, that would not change the fact that around 40% of them would have a maximum “mental age” of 12.
This place should be - and rightly is - inclusive, not discriminatory.
So we can a send humans to the moon, unmanned vehicles to outer space to probe distant planets, but we are unable to create a system that looks at the context of words in the sentences they're used in?
It would never have occured to me that using the names of common garden birds, male chickens, body parts etc could or would be construed as swearing. If I wanted to swear then it would be a lot more offensive to a lot more people than naming garden birds, the full name of cats, or anything else, I could even use my intellegence to come up with some truely horrifying insults and language without using a single "offensive" word.
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Rosie, to be honest, I think you're reminder about inappropriate language was unnessercary, if you actually read what was written can you honestly say it was offensive?
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Bunny thanks for your input and stating that you believe we should all be reduced to baby talk in case we accidentally cause offense. How do you suggest we describe common garden birds, male chickens etc, without causing offence? I'm sorry if this sounds like I'm having a go at you, I'm not, but I'm seriously fed up with a system that encourages such banality. If someone has a young mental age, then hopefully they'd be too innocent to understand the other meanings of such words, do you wonder if would not cause more confusion? Will we not be allowed to name popular childrens tv programes like The Muppets, in case someone takes offence? I take offence at having my normal language policed.
Bunny, I agree that I might have a lack of awareness of the issues faced by those whose difficulties are greater than mine. But I don't see how using my intelligence, a dry sense of humour or a sense of irony is "ableism"? As long as I don't deliberately try to offend or belittle any other forum member, I fail to see why I should not be able to.communicate with other autistic adults "on my wavelength" in this community. If someone told me I had offended them I would apologise, as that is never my intention, and I do try to be careful what I write, but of course I see things from my own perspective and we're all different. And I'm always happy to explain if people don't understand me.
You do raise an important point though about anyone being able to read the content of this forum, including children. I thought that NAS raised the age for members from 16 to 18 to comply with child protection, but if it can be read by people of any age, that makes no sense to me. If I'm writing a post in a forum section called "autistic adults" I'd expect my posts to be able to be read only by adults.
