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My Position:
Anger has a place in activism. It moves people to take on the challenges at hand. The cause of neurodiversity needs not inorganic voices but people who can hold a grudge and get things done. Anger inspires resistance to oppression. It ends talk and drives action.
Like anything else, there is a time and place for it. I recognize that my life has been hard. For me, these discussions are personal. They represent the future of the fledgeling identity to which I belong. They touch on the experiences I relive in nightmares. Anger comes easily to the surface which should sometimes be restrained. Even if you are a person with the societal privilege of being allistic or neurotypical, my anger is not your problem. If you have not, to my knowledge, specifically done something wrong, I will be decent to you. You did not choose to be what you are any more than I did. I have no more right to punish others for being born a certain way than you do.
Under these circumstances, I will have genuine discussions:
- When someone wants to know more about autism
- When someone wants to know about my experience as an autistic person
- When someone wants advice I can give
- When someone asks an honest question
- When a civil, articulate person disagrees with me and wants to talk
Under these circumstances, I will rebuff questions without condemning a curious person beyond mild reproach:
- When someone asks what I believe to be a genuine question that is offensive;
- When someone asks what I believe to be a genuine question that is too personal;
- When someone asks a question I cannot answer;
- When someone asks me to interpret the behavior of a nonverbal child I do not know;
If you appear to troll, I will engage and be unpleasant.
I will generally unfollow people who:
- Use slurs it is not their place to reclaim;
- Do not know the difference between disagreement and harassment;
- Deal with my faith in broad, negative generalities;
- Decide words have whatever meaning is convenient.
