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New York, 10:42 PM
Wed Dec 2
51 posts in the last 24 hours

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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of GuyBitchy GuyBitchy
    01/13/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    Do not take the vaccines.


    Just saying.

     Reply
    GuyBitchy was starred GuyBitchy was unstarred
    Image of pepelicious pepelicious
    01/13/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    I hate to see autism portrayed as it is on the cover of Time - A cherubic autistic child trapped in an elegant world of beauty, much like the beauty that surrounds him. The cruel irony being that he can't bridge the two.


    My mother in law "teaches", if you can call it that, a group of autistic children at her school. More often than not they are total nightmares who are physically abusive and shit their pants on a regular basis.

     Reply
    pepelicious was starred pepelicious was unstarred
    Image of Seeräuber Jenny Seeräuber Jenny
    01/14/09

    @pepelicious:


    People should try watching a documentary called Today's Man. Parts of it were funny, but the subject, an autistic man, who had very famous parents, was incredibly obnoxious. There was a scene where he wanted to work in a midtown Manhattan bank, but got fired in part because he complained noisily that he hadn't expected there to be so many black employees; he felt as if he were in Harlem or something.


    Then his family got him a job at some place like the Manhattan Theater Club and he got fired for telling people who called to cancel their tickets after a bad review that the play was indeed awful.


    [www.imdb.com]


    It's also perfectly apparent that he had great parents, in particular, his mother was extremely attentive.


    Made you wonder about all those poor autistic kids.

     Reply
    Seeräuber Jenny was starred Seeräuber Jenny was unstarred
    Image of CherriSpryte CherriSpryte
    01/13/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    I prefer the "We hate your kids" of Gawker's heyday to this new "Problems that affect you and your kids" thing.
     Reply
    CherriSpryte was starred CherriSpryte was unstarred
    Image of search.scientist search.scientist
    01/13/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    I think that I'm the only parent of a child with Autism to comment so far so here it goes......


    Autism is far from being understood in full. In the brief 8 years that I have dealt with it (for my son) I can tell you that many things that scientist were "certain" was correct about treatment, cause, medication and other areas have been turned on their ear. The fact that this is a spectrum, as Owen pointed out, is what make finding the proverbial silver bullet cure more elusive than other syndromes.


    The sole truth that has held true with treatments is that early intervention is the key to giving the kids a fighting chance at a real life.


    The sole falsehood is that we have ruled out the triggers. With all due respect Owen, you are dead wrong when you say that early shots/vaccines have been ruled out on the list of suspects. The jury is far from out on that topic in large part to the lack of any real research in this area. The CDC simply claimed that they "looked at it" and didn't see any relationship. Hardly a valid examination of a serious and wide reaching disease.


    We need accurate information and commentary on this topic at all times. For some great resources visit the Cure Autism Now, TACA or The H.E.L.P. Group web sites.


    To all who have commented and shown interest; thank you. Public consensus that this is a serious issue for public discussion, involvement, funding, research and advocacy is the best support us parents.

     Reply
    search.scientist was starred search.scientist was unstarred
    Image of GuyBitchy GuyBitchy
    01/13/09

    @search.scientist: Well said.


    And folks, if you don't think the potentially massive civil liabilities involved won't prompt corporate cover-ups--or at least coordinated sand-throwing in the proverbial umpire's (unbiased researchers, doctors, the public, the media, etc.) face--you are dangerously susceptible to bullshit.

     Reply
    GuyBitchy was starred GuyBitchy was unstarred
    Image of Seeräuber Jenny Seeräuber Jenny
    01/13/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    The worry now: Are we all perhaps a bit autistic?

    The worry now: Are we all perhaps a bit depressed?

    The worry now: Are we all perhaps a bit OCD?

    The worry now: Are we all perhaps a bit ADD?


    It's always something.

     Reply
    Seeräuber Jenny was starred Seeräuber Jenny was unstarred
    Image of Seeräuber Jenny Seeräuber Jenny
    01/13/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    It's a timely obsession. Just as polio captured the Cold War's feeling of paralysis....


    Not really. Polio was a public health problem long before The Cold War. Per Wikipedia, it was identified as a distinct condition in 1840.


    The Salk vaccine came out in 1952. The Sabin, 10 years later. The Cold War lasted a lot longer.


    [en.wikipedia.org]

     Reply
    Seeräuber Jenny was starred Seeräuber Jenny was unstarred
    Image of happymisanthrope happymisanthrope
    01/13/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    Wow way to nitpick on an analogy.


    I think Owen may be right about something. Many people today seem to be ill at ease with what used to be regular conversation. I think of my own friends who would rather text message each other than call and deal with a conversation. Who have no idea how to behave in a group of strangers and complain that meeting new people, and making meaningful relationships, is too hard. We have been able to reduce the complexity of emotion to a emoticon (that is, if you think about it, never really that simple). Perhaps the two are somehow related. It might be that autism isn't the right analogy, but for now it seems to be the media scare du jour.

     Reply
    happymisanthrope was starred happymisanthrope was unstarred
    Image of JohnQPublic JohnQPublic
    01/12/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    I have a theory that's unpopular but so be it. I think autism is linked to the rising age of parenting. We were not meant to breed at age 35 or 40. We were meant to breed in our teens. If you look at egg donor banks, you'll note that they don't want any donors over the age of 30. There's a reason for that.
     Reply
    JohnQPublic was starred JohnQPublic was unstarred
    Image of VoxPopuli VoxPopuli
    01/12/09

    @JohnQPublic: Meh, I don't know about that. My mom was almost 40 when she had me. I know there's an increased chance of Downs when the mother is older, but I don't know if autism has any such link.
     Reply
    VoxPopuli was starred VoxPopuli was unstarred
    Image of Carol Gardens Carol Gardens
    01/12/09

    @VoxPopuli: I've always wondered about that as well.
     Reply
    Carol Gardens was starred Carol Gardens was unstarred
    Image of happymisanthrope happymisanthrope
    01/12/09

    @VoxPopuli: my mom's side of the family has always had children later on in life. She was nearly 40 when she had me, her mother was nearly the same age when she had her first born. We have long generations in my family.
     Reply
    happymisanthrope was starred happymisanthrope was unstarred
    Image of Carol Gardens Carol Gardens
    01/12/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    Uh, no.
     Reply
    Carol Gardens was starred Carol Gardens was unstarred
    Image of Hydroceph Hydroceph
    01/12/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    The consensus seems to be that we're seeing more autism cases because we're more primed to look for its symptoms. In other words, we see autism everywhere because we want to.


    Not so fast. That's been debunked, too: [www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu]

     Reply
    Hydroceph was starred Hydroceph was unstarred
    Image of sample032 sample032
    01/12/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    If only I could turn this disease into a musical...
     Reply
    sample032 was starred sample032 was unstarred
    Image of mmstk101 mmstk101
    01/12/09

    @sample032: If you do, make sure not to let Piven audition.
     Reply
    mmstk101 was starred mmstk101 was unstarred
    Image of SubarnaCaiti SubarnaCaiti
    01/12/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    I'd never given autism a second thought, until my oldest son was diagnosed. He's not midly autistic, but severely affected by the disorder. I can't keep him safe from himself, I can't keep his younger siblings safe from him and living with this beautiful boy is like a constant state of panic every day. We have been fortunate that economically we have been able to get our son more help than many other families are able to. But he needs 1 to 1 care at all times, has hours of therapy everyday in addition to his school day and still progress is very slow. It is absolutely a real and life altering disorder- please don't disregard it because of the perception that we are looking to label our children.
     Reply
    SubarnaCaiti was starred SubarnaCaiti was unstarred
    Image of Owen Thomas Owen Thomas
    01/13/09

    @SubarnaCaiti: Well said. The pain of dealing with autism surely plays into our cultural reaction to it.
     Reply
    Owen Thomas was starred Owen Thomas was unstarred
    Image of Cheap Shot Cheap Shot
    01/12/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    My cousin is autistic and trust me, it took alot of hard work by his parents to help make him handle himself among other people and if it weren't diagnosed early I'm not sure how easy it would have been to help him improve.


    Anyway, I have my own theory which is relative to this post but I wonder if the rise of autism is really the next step in our evolution. Technology goes well with autistic people, they are usually exceptional in one area only whether it be math calculations or reading.


    I was with him on Christmas and some other kids came to visit and I knew one of the kids were autistic also. Not to go on about this but I was amazed to see how they consumed content on the internet. Everything from youtube to google they went to town on and it just seems that it will speed up so maybe an autistic mind would have an advantage?

     Reply
    Cheap Shot was starred Cheap Shot was unstarred
    Image of pantsonfireliarliar pantsonfireliarliar
    01/12/09

    @Cheap Shot: In order for autism to be our next step in evolution, it would basically mean their autism would have to contribute to a rise in their survivability to the point where being autistic makes it easier to procreate and spread their genes.
     Reply
    pantsonfireliarliar was starred pantsonfireliarliar was unstarred
    Image of Carol Gardens Carol Gardens
    01/12/09

    @pantsonfireliarliar: Um...sounds unlikely to me as personal computers have not been around long enough for evolution to take place at such an extraordinary speedy clip.
     Reply
    Carol Gardens was starred Carol Gardens was unstarred
    Image of billybobnyc billybobnyc
    01/12/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    For goodness sake. People use the (: to make sure that the person on the other end of the message is clear that they are joking, or whatever, because sarcasm does not translate well via email.

    While I agree that people may spend too much time on the Internet, it is ridiculous to insinuate that it is making us a "bit" autistic or that he thought even crosses most people minds. Who's worry is that? Really? In real life, most people have no trouble expressing themselves, and maybe people who didn't spend all day pontificating about this or that theory to get pageviews and discussions going would understand that.

    Nothing personal, of course.
     Reply
    billybobnyc was starred billybobnyc was unstarred
    Image of paragrab paragrab
    01/12/09

    @billybobnyc: I believe the point was that there could possibly be a relationship between paranoia about epidemic disease and societal paranoia of the time. Cold War paralysis/polio, Sexual revolution/AIDS. The possibility of our being more sensitive to a disease that prevents normal human interaction when humans are physically interacting less and less is, I believe, a salient point. Not that spending time on the internet is causing autism, but that having to use an emoticon to demonstrate a feeling that would be readily observable in person demonstrates that disconnect. I think it was a rather elegant point.
     Reply
    paragrab was starred paragrab was unstarred
    Image of happymisanthrope happymisanthrope
    01/12/09

    @paragrab: Or even the anxiety it seems a lot of young adults face at talking to people outside of their social group.
     Reply
    happymisanthrope was starred happymisanthrope was unstarred
    Image of Beautiful Stranger Beautiful Stranger
    01/12/09

    In reply to Autism, the Disease of the Internet Era
    I still think Jett had Kawasaki Syndrome which is caused by eating raw sushi while cleaning your carpetting.


    It is okay to eat raw sushi before or after cleaning your carpets just not while you are actually cleaning your carpets. (To be safe you should wait til the sushi is fully digested before cleaning) I learned this the hard way.

     Reply
    Beautiful Stranger was starred Beautiful Stranger was unstarred
    Image of Seeräuber Jenny Seeräuber Jenny
    01/13/09

    @Beautiful Stranger:


    Avoid people with mercurial personalities.

     Reply
    Seeräuber Jenny was starred Seeräuber Jenny was unstarred
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