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Niantic are supporting Autism Speaks (Negative reaction from the Autistic Community)
- Thread starter Jonneh
- Start date
Wait what? Is there an example of this I can see? That seems like a pretty high item on the "what not to do to the people your charity claims to support" list.
Sure, there's quite a bit here under the "Criticism and Hate Group" tab
http://autism.wikia.com/wiki/Autism_Speaks
Well fuck..
"Don't align yourself with torturers" should also be pretty high on that list...
Yikes, what a massive blunder. I can only hope this is a honest mistake and they rectify it asap.
Fucking hell, this is a bad look.
I hope they apologise at least, but they might be too locked in at this point to cancel the event.
I hope they apologise at least, but they might be too locked in at this point to cancel the event.
Holy motherfuckin' shit!
"I work faster than pediatric AIDs, cancer, and diabetes combined.And if you're happily married, I will make sure that your marriage fails.Your money will fall into my hands, and I will bankrupt you for my own self-gain.I don't sleep, so I make sure you don't either."
What kind of "education and outreach" is that?! D:
Probably Autism Speaks approached them and had a convincing speech, because PR is where they spend the vast majority of their money. Niantic fell for it thinking they are doing something good.
Hopefully they listen to the autists agonized outcry and retract. :(
Interesting how respectful to Niantic these top Twitter replies are. Let's see how that works out.
whoa what the fuck
hopefully they stop their support for this "charity" very soon. this is inexcusable
Its more like they are suporting the event rather than them, but yeah... probably is lack of information on their background.
Anyway, people should consider that this kind of events are GOOD for at least creating awareness. I would probably not give my money to people who dont know how to use it, (and its good to speak out their wrongs if they are doing something like this) but we must do so while avoiding to mix into that the message of such events, thats something that should always be preserved to keep the good things out of this.
Awareness, concientiation, and fund raising are never a bad thing (probably there will be others working in the event)
Anyway, people should consider that this kind of events are GOOD for at least creating awareness. I would probably not give my money to people who dont know how to use it, (and its good to speak out their wrongs if they are doing something like this) but we must do so while avoiding to mix into that the message of such events, thats something that should always be preserved to keep the good things out of this.
Awareness, concientiation, and fund raising are never a bad thing (probably there will be others working in the event)
when the people from the community tell them to stop, and the evidence of the evil things they do is so numerous, they should stop ALL association with that organization. that organization is using them for good publicity and niantic shouldn't give them the opportunity.
I was happy for a split second, then remembered Autism Speaks is the organization that treats ASD as a disease and how much of a burden you are for your parents. They help the parents deal with having an autistic child, and not actually helping autistic children. One of the things they even enforce(d) is that people with autism can't make their own decisions.
This is really disappointing, especially since I grew up with my parents believing them and taking their advice. It made my childhood miserable.
Autism Speaks is the one that will benefit the most. It's not awareness for autism, they're actively against supporting people with autism.
This is really disappointing, especially since I grew up with my parents believing them and taking their advice. It made my childhood miserable.
Autism Speaks is the one that will benefit the most. It's not awareness for autism, they're actively against supporting people with autism.
Indeed, me too. I was thinking how good it was for Niantic to support as Pokemon Go seems to have helped a lot of people with autism in my community.
Then I read the replies and articles on the charity. Oof.
My apologies, I too want a feel good story after all these ethical blunders.
maybe change the title in a way to reflect the true nature of this news?
this is bad news and people who just read the thread titles without clicking should know that too
So I hadn't heard of Autism Speaks before that I can recall.
I am now very angry. Like...wow.
Raising awareness in a harmful way is far worse than not raising awareness at all. First impressions are always key, and whatever way you introduce a topic when raising awareness for it, sets the stage for future interpretation of it.
I am now very angry. Like...wow.
Raising awareness in a harmful way is far worse than not raising awareness at all. First impressions are always key, and whatever way you introduce a topic when raising awareness for it, sets the stage for future interpretation of it.
thats another point XD but yeah. im only saying that people should thread carefully on this kind of things to avoid mudding everything.
they should inform niantic obviously, but being aware that most people dont do background checks on everything, probably their community manager just got asked for a little promotion on twitter on this subject and went for it xd
See, Niantic actually triggered something good. More people learn of the horrors from "Autism Speaks" (more like "Money Talks"...). Even though that takes effort from the actual autists (and friends / family) speaking up.
Believe me, if 52 minutes ago you haven't heard anything, you haven't heard half of it by now.
When supporting an organization, it is extremely unprofessional to not look into that organizations history and public reception.
I'mma stop reading cuz I really oughta not be filling my head with that kinda negativity at 5 am.
But yeah I feel sufficiently convinced to let others know about it.
This is a right-wing advocacy group that treats autism as a disease to be eradicated. There's really nothing good about letting people like this spread awareness. Their goal is to poison public understanding of autism at a conceptual level.
Thanks for posting this. I had no idea this organization wasn't at all what it purports to be.
I do hope Niantic release some sort of statement and back out. It would be super easy for someone to donate to this because they saw Pokemon Go attached to it and trusted it at face value.
I do hope Niantic release some sort of statement and back out. It would be super easy for someone to donate to this because they saw Pokemon Go attached to it and trusted it at face value.
Big oof, I remember volunteering for this organization throughout high school as it was the only autism organization we had. Did not know about the shoddy history it had.
Can confirm. A family friend who does a lot of work for the community has had some choice words about them in the past....
I'm on the spectrum, and yeah, Autism speaks isn't the best. They've done some really bad PSAs in the past, and have made clear that they are more for families and parents of children with Autism than actual autistic people.
Personally, I think the biggest issue lies within the definition. Five years ago the DSM merged the definitions of Autism and Asperger's into one diagnosis - Autism Spectrum Disorder. While this was done so that people with Asperger's would have access to the same benefits as those who just have Autism, it's created an unfortunate labeling issue where now people with Severe autism are the same as people who are more mild, and so forth.
Personally, I think the biggest issue lies within the definition. Five years ago the DSM merged the definitions of Autism and Asperger's into one diagnosis - Autism Spectrum Disorder. While this was done so that people with Asperger's would have access to the same benefits as those who just have Autism, it's created an unfortunate labeling issue where now people with Severe autism are the same as people who are more mild, and so forth.
Still blows my mind Autism Speaks is shitty. I've seen their little puzzle piece logo everywhere and I always assumed it was some kind of charity/advocacy group for helping autistic people and their caregivers.
I mean, they wanted to do a nice thing it seems and went for the largest and most known autism charity. Do you really expect them to just dismiss the "most influential" charity around what they got interested in just because they also appear to have a fair amount of criticism when just being the largest is enough to warrant that in today's world? I don't see niantic as having done anything wrong and if the charity really isn't what people like me who haven't done deep research into it think then someone higher in the food chain than niantic should shut them down or something and then the actually good ones can feed off of that shut down. It's not like they wanted to support some shitty people with this move or something.
Edit: oh, just read that one page and it's enough to shed light on what these guys do. Oops. Disregard my previous comment, it should have been easy for niantic to figure this out. Meh. Unless that page isn't so unbiased of course.
Edit: oh, just read that one page and it's enough to shed light on what these guys do. Oops. Disregard my previous comment, it should have been easy for niantic to figure this out. Meh. Unless that page isn't so unbiased of course.
I really *really* hope Niantic backs out. Autism Speaks is what happens when you create an organization for disabled folks but don't actively involve disabled folks. Like picture a Women's Rights organization run completely by men and I think you can imagine all what may go wrong.
But yeah, the scorn for A$ in the autism community is pretty much universal scorn and it's just an organization that becomes more problematic the further you dig.
Also, while people are learning about A$ for the first time, be aware that the puzzle piece, 'light it up blue' or associating blue with autism ('fun' fact: look up why they chose blue), as well as April being Autism Awareness are all associated with A$.
Also, might be abpet peeve, but a few language things. A lot of language tends to be politicized along disabled community and disabled *adjacent* community lines. And since a lot of A$'s problem is that it represents issues of disabled adjacent folks, but not the disabled folks themselves, it's hard not to read subtext. The first instance is person VS identify first language (' person with autism' VS autistic person'). ASAN on identity language. The other is 'awareness' VS 'acceptance' where disability is seen something to be aware of, but not necessarily accepted, by the disability *adjacent* community; disability community wants to be accepted. I realize a lot of y'all are probably not familiar with the political subtext of this language, but because PFL and 'autism *awareness*' are so heavily associated with A$, yeah, it's hard *not* to read the subtext even when I know you mean nothing by it.
Mostly stopped by to post since it seems a lot are discovering this awful organization for the first time.
But yeah, the scorn for A$ in the autism community is pretty much universal scorn and it's just an organization that becomes more problematic the further you dig.
Also, while people are learning about A$ for the first time, be aware that the puzzle piece, 'light it up blue' or associating blue with autism ('fun' fact: look up why they chose blue), as well as April being Autism Awareness are all associated with A$.
Also, might be abpet peeve, but a few language things. A lot of language tends to be politicized along disabled community and disabled *adjacent* community lines. And since a lot of A$'s problem is that it represents issues of disabled adjacent folks, but not the disabled folks themselves, it's hard not to read subtext. The first instance is person VS identify first language (' person with autism' VS autistic person'). ASAN on identity language. The other is 'awareness' VS 'acceptance' where disability is seen something to be aware of, but not necessarily accepted, by the disability *adjacent* community; disability community wants to be accepted. I realize a lot of y'all are probably not familiar with the political subtext of this language, but because PFL and 'autism *awareness*' are so heavily associated with A$, yeah, it's hard *not* to read the subtext even when I know you mean nothing by it.
Mostly stopped by to post since it seems a lot are discovering this awful organization for the first time.
Hey guess what if you're going to be seen to publicly support another organization as a company it's in your best interest to do some basic ass research, that's not some unreasonable burden to place on them.
Man, being on the spectrum and getting into Pokemon GO again in the last few month, I was pretty happy for a moment, but alas. Guess good to be aware of how crappy Autism Speaks is.
Wow. That's a really unfortunate mistake by Niantic. They really are pretty incompetent, lol.
To be fair though, I had no idea "Autism Speaks" was some monstrous organization until this thread either. Hopefully the message gets through and they drop these bastards quickly.
To be fair though, I had no idea "Autism Speaks" was some monstrous organization until this thread either. Hopefully the message gets through and they drop these bastards quickly.
To the best of my knowledge, yes.
Most autistic women believe that the diagnosis process is simply biased as a way to explain the gender disparity in autistic diagnoses. I'm inclined to believe them.