Don’t post harmful, ableist opinions in the #autism tag and then act all superior and say you refuse to change your opinion when autistic people point out that your opinion is harmful and ableist.

butterflyinthewell:

You can walk away from sharing that kind of opinion about us or our caregivers and not have consequences other than a bruised ego.

Autistic people can’t.

Autistic people are bullied, abused and killed by caregivers with the same or similar harmful and ableist opinions you have.

If you care AT ALL about the welfare of autistic people, LISTEN when we respond to your opinion with why it’s harmful and / or ableist.

“Putting up with” an aggressive nonverbal autistic person whose communications aren’t understandable is not heroic. It’s being a decent person. You can learn a lot about a society by how it treats its most vulnerable members. 

An opinion that it is heroic of people to do the proper human thing by taking care of another human who is more vulnerable than them and unable to ‘give back’ implies that disabled / autistic people are needless, inconvenient burdens who should be grateful that you didn’t abandon or kill us.

That “opinion” is dangerous.

We don’t choose to be autistic / disabled, but you get to choose whether or not you “keep” us. 

Our lives, value and personhood are non-negotiable.

Saying anything to the contrary can have deadly consequences for us.