Saturday, December 15, 2007

Ridiculous ad

"We have your son. We are destroying his ability for social interaction and driving him to a life of complete isolation. It's up to you now... Asperger's Syndrome"

That was the text from a recent ad supporting helping the 'mentally handicapped.'
I find this somewhat insulting. I myself have been diagnosed with a (rather mild, truth be told) case of Asperger's, and I find this whole thing kind of, well, incorrect. It hasn't destroyed my ability for social interaction. I can interact with people just fine, I'm just 'wired' a bit differently. I didn't pick up on all the little nuances like 'normal' people are supposed to, true, but I have a pretty good understanding at this point of how everything works, and in fact, I'd say that the only effects it's had on me are my high verbal IQ (and not-quite-so-high-but-about-average mechanical IQ) and somewhat of an outsider's view of said little nuances, which has led to me looking at some of the little things we do and saying "Why the hell do we do that? It's kind of pointless."
Basically, I'm just saying that I'd like it if they realized that there are people with Asperger's that can read and that it might be found kind of offensive, or at least inaccurate, by said people.

EDIT: I just found this comment on Fark:
Cerberus9:
"Don't they have homes for these retards anymore?"
...
Wow. I have one description for you: Superman.
Really, that was easily one of the most offensive, closed-minded, and misinformed things I've ever read.

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