PostingĀ ādank memesā likeĀ āwhen the autistic kid...ā actually harms autistic people.
And youāre awful if you post them.
Iām autistic. I see these memes here and there. Iām not laughing. Many autistic people are not laughing. I donāt give a flying winged fuck about who your audience is, you are harming autistic people with those memes.
Donāt give me a shit excuse likeĀ āItās just a joke.ā
NO, itās a matter of life and death!
Memes like that feed into already incorrect beliefs that many people have about autism.Ā
Weāre not lacking in intelligence or humanity.
Some of us have intellectual or cognitive disabilities as well as being autistic. Some of us arenāt able to communicate understandably. Some of us canāt live independently. Some of us wear diapers. Some of us canāt be in a room alone because we beat ourselves until we break bones and detach our retinas. Some of us depend on others for every aspect of life.Ā
Our most vulnerable autistic community members are hurt the most by yourĀ ādank memesā.
Donāt give me excuses of ātheyāll never read it!ā because the people who take care of them or see them every day very well could. They laugh at the memes and carry those beliefs into their caregiving. That can lead to the autistic person suffering abuse or worse.
The most vulnerable members of the autistic community canāt come here to defend themselves.
But Iām an autistic person who can make myself understood, so Iām coming here to defend them. Iām just one person, and I donāt expect anybody to keep reading, but Iām talking anyway.
Your memes arenāt funny.
Autistic people with extensive support needs are constantly abused (and canāt tell anyone) and murdered for beingĀ ātoo much workā for their caregivers. Itās been shown that many caregivers who kill the autistic person had access to extra support and didnāt utilize it.Ā
The autistic personās privacy is ignored in favor of putting crisis moments online as videos for people to gawk at and their humanity is thrown away to turn them into a side show freak.
Your dank memes do exactly the same thing.Ā
They dehumanize us. They hurt us. They remind us that people still see us as something to squash under your shoe like a bug.
Itās not cool. Itās not funny.
