Whose Planet Is It Anyway? has moved to Blogger. To read
this article on the new site, click here.
As a rule, I write about ideas, organizations, and social assumptions
on this site, not about the wrongheaded behavior of individuals. The way I see it, dumbasses come and go, but ideas
are where the real power lies.
But I decided to make an exception after I saw this argument between neurodiversity supporters and Generation Rescue's goons on Kevin Leitch's blog. The initial post quoted certain
insulting comments made by John Best Jr., one of the so-called "Rescue Angels" of Generation Rescue (comments that included,
among other things, comparing neurodiversity supporters to the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center), and asked
if these views were representative of the biomed community in general.
JB Handley, the founder of Generation Rescue, promptly showed up
to support his pet vicious pitbull. Although he disavowed the World Trade Center comment (too extreme even for him,
apparently), he also wrote that Best "has our full support" and "excels at helping parents" and that "we are deeply grateful
to him."
Apparently emboldened by this expression of support, the fuckwad
(I'm referring to Best, in case anyone is in doubt) posted a long and bigoted diatribe that shows what Generation
Rescue really thinks of the people they're claiming to help:
"Some autistic people (whose brains don’t work right) and others
think it is a good idea to try to prevent parents (whose brains do work right) from helping their children whose brains don’t
work right... Parents would be remiss in their responsibilities to their children if they allowed them to become adults whose
brains don’t work right rather than trying to help them become adults whose brains do work right. That’s why I
go to the bother of stating my opinion whenever I see nonsense that was written by people whose brains don’t work right."
There's more where this crap came from. A lot more.
The site owner finally locked the thread after it had grown to 144 comments. I'm not going to bother with copying any
more of it. It's all there, preserved for posterity. Go read it for yourself.
(Parents, take note: if Generation Rescue and other such groups continue spreading this sort
of intolerance, your autistic children will also become targets of hatred and contempt, just as soon as your children
start speaking for themselves.)
I expect the content of this page will bring up a Generation Rescue
advertisement at the top. Readers, if you're so inclined, click on it and waste some of their ill-gotten money.
I'm sure Tripod won't mind.
(Edit, December 2005: Hmmm, I haven't seen any Generation Rescue ads on free web-host pages
for the past several weeks. Maybe they're running out of money after buying that infamous junk-science New York
Times ad that was repudiated by several researchers whom they quoted. Let's hope so.)
