What is up, peeps?! I am back once again for another blog update! You know I remember when I had that run of 26 straight posts from June thru July and I must say I was a lot happier then. Maybe doing this keeps me from losing my shit. So with that being said, there are some things on this blog that that I will admit I really was worried about posting on because it may offend people. Yes, sometimes I worry about offending the stupid. If you have been a reader at any point you know nothing is off limits for me and I will call bullshit on anything and everything that deserves it. From rape to sexual harassment to racism to chauvinism to pedophilia I do not back down when I have something to say and fuck the world if they can’t adjust. So with that being said, back in February of 2006, I had a post about Jason McElwain, the autistic high school basketball trainer that got a chance to play in the final minutes of a blowout basketball game and scored 20 points in three minutes and some change. Everyone talked about how it was such a great story that an autistic child got a chance to play in a high school game and even score. However, I looked at it logically and said that they put this kid in during an already won game and let him jack up shots like Allen Iverson on a Red Bull binge which is the epitome of unsportsmanlike conduct, never mind the fact he had an “ailment.” Yes, I put ailment in quotations. It was a great story but as usual people looked at it how they wanted to and discounted the point that it wasn’t fair to the other kids. I am sure they were fine with it because the little guy had autism and more power to him. However, has anyone ever asked the question…
JUST WHAT IS AUTISM?
You see, at the time my only dealing with Autism was in college as I knew a classmate whose daughter had autism and in one of my classes in which I was to be a teacher for the summer I asked to be paired with a student that I found out as I was working with him had autism as well. Long story short, “doctors” say autism is a brain disorder that makes it difficult is not impossible for some people to communicate with others. In essence, there are parts of the brain that don’t work together like Whites and Blacks and that causes problems in relating to other people so in most cases autistic children take solace in inanimate objects or creating tasks, sometimes even creating a repetitious procedure such as constantly counting objects or being meticulous with said tasks (I.E: Drawing, building, etc). Sounds simple, right?
Well, let’s look at this. Now in both cases that I saw, and I can only speak from personal experience of what I saw and interacted with, the children were non-responsive in the “normal” way to social stimuli. Now when I say normal, they never really interacted with other children and when they did it was either short bursts of speech or repetitive phrases. These are typical symptoms of autism but one thing I also noticed was that (And I am not trying to be mean, here) they never really made the effort. I don’t expect all kids to run into the middle of a room and start doing the Soulja Boy but I honestly don’t see how not being social can be considered a disorder. Now I know there are other symptoms that go along with autism and since the human brain has been and will always be a mystery I will never know how individuals’ brains respond to things. However….just because children don’t act a certain way to stimuli doesn’t make them stricken with a sickness. They might just know that kids are mean and adults are fucking stupid.
What gets me is how this has become the new ADD or ADHD. Now I for one had to work with kids with ADD and all I have to say is that some were truly troubled. To the point that they couldn’t sit still even when they were focused on a task. However, remember when you would see commercials and news reports about ADD and how it was an “epidemic that needed to be wiped out?” So kids left and right were given Ritalin and other “calming” drugs to keep your kids doped up so they looked like they had went to a party at Heath Ledger’s house (Damn, that’s fucked up) and that’s when people realized that even though there were SOME children that truly needed pills to focus, some kids just needed a pop in the motherfucking mouth and be told to do their fucking homework and calm the fuck down:
Now I will not go that far with autism because I can’t. Mainly because the symptoms ARE EVERYTHING UNDER THE FUCKING SUN. Remember that Chris Rock joke about legal drugs?
That is pretty much how it is: everything is a symptom. I want all of you to be honest with yourselves. How many of you had at least ONE of these traits in school:
• Significant problems developing nonverbal communication skills, such as eye-to-eye gazing, facial expressions, and body posture.
• Failure to establish friendships with children the same age.
• Lack of interest in sharing enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people.
• Lack of empathy. People with autism may have difficulty understanding another person's feelings, such as pain or sorrow.
• Delay in, or lack of, learning to talk.
• Problems taking steps to start a conversation. Also, people with autism have difficulties continuing a conversation once it has begun.
• Stereotyped and repetitive use of language. People with autism often repeat over and over a phrase they have heard previously (echolalia).
• Difficulty understanding their listener's perspective. For example, a person with autism may not understand that someone is using humor. They may interpret the communication word for word and fail to catch the implied meaning.
• An unusual focus on pieces. Younger children with autism often focus on parts of toys, such as the wheels on a car, rather than playing with the entire toy.
• Preoccupation with certain topics. For example, older children and adults may be fascinated by train schedules, weather patterns, or license plates.
• A need for sameness and routines. For example, a child with autism may always need to eat bread before salad and insist on driving the same route every day to school.
• Stereotyped behaviors. These may include body rocking and hand flapping.
(From Healthwise)
Okay, seriously at least one of those EVERY ONE OF YOU displayed in school. If these were the ONLY symptoms to autism I would just take all the kids that have it, put those anti-social bastards in a room and play “Caramelldansen” until they danced the night away like we did last summer. Since they aren’t, I cannot typecast all cases of autism as just a case of kids not wanting to interact with others. It seems that there are some parents (Aint naming no names) that much like they used ADD and ADHD to explain why their children were worthless, unfocused little shits they are now using autism to explain why thsie kids don’t have standard social skills. You know, a lot of how your children with others is based off how you raise them and what you tell them. So if you don’t RAISE them and you don’t TELL them ways to address social situations they will shut in or handle it in their own way. Some are natural wallflowers and some will walk into a room and take that bitch over like Lil’ Jon. That is just the way children are. Now if they are that way because of a disability or an imbalance of chemicals then by all means they need treatment. Understand that some kids just don’t like people. Hell, I don’t like people and I’m fucking grown. Autism is almost literally the ADD of the new….last half of the decade. Don’t even get me started on Asperger’s Syndrome because….I may have to kill some people. I call it Asshaterexia.
In the end I don’t have it so I can’t say anything. I am not a professional doctor (douchebag douchebag cockmongering money-grubbing dickwad) or psychiatrist (UBER-douchebag cockmongering money-grubbing dickwad) but I can only speak on what I see and what is given. From what I can tell, autism is something that some people are truly afflicted with while others use it as an excuse for their children not wanting to interact with others or having stunted development. Just because they don’t want to play with other children doesn’t mean that they won’t make it in this fast paced society, it just means they don’t like kickball or have a lot of friends. That isn’t necessarily a sign of autism (Although it might be, I don’t know), it could just be that said child doesn’t know how to make friends or it could be that kids can be dicks and don’t want to play with them.
People say that autism is the fastest growing neurological disease in America and yet….they said the same thing about ADD about seven or eight years ago. Did they ever really cure that? Have we really gotten to the point where EVERYTHING is a disorder? I am a fat fuck, it is not a disease. It is because I eat too much and I don’t exercise enough. You know what I have to do? REVERSE THAT. Some would say I have a drinking problem (to which I would say FUCK YOU, FUCKY) but you know what I would do if I felt I had a problem? STOP DRINKING. Anyone noticed how all the syndromes that have come out over the last few years (Since the 90’s) don’t really have a remedy? Coincidence? I think not, people. Give people an reason to not accept difference and they will take it. An excuse is like reiatsu for people that are looking for something to explain why there is a problem. Not saying autism is the case, but a lot of times it sounds like it in my honest opinion.
Well, that is all for now. I will be back for a bit tomorrow (MAYBE) so until then stay up, peeps.
Chachi Out.
