-a huge amount of emails from christians trying to tell me that I was wrong, that I needed to listen to them, that I needed to stop saying these things.
And like... no. I believe what I believe and I'm going to keep expressing my ideas on the world and my experiences of it.
Conversation
Much as I'm not *actually* hurting the religous people; I'm not punching them, removing their rights, burning their houses down, I'm also not *actually* hurting the autistic people. The pain they feel, while real and valid, comes out of *their* perspective on the world.
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In this sense, the people who are hurt are hurt because they believe they should be hurt, not because I am actually doing anything hurtful.
So... I know they're telling me to stop, and that they're hurt. But I'm not going to stop. I think they should update their worldview.
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Much as religious people would probably experience greater freedom and less pain if they left their religion, I also think autistic people would experience greater freedom and less pain if they left their framework that leads to them getting hurt by me expressing myself.
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Unfortunately - that’s not how it works. We can’t just suddenly not feel insulted by people debating our existence
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Right, I agree! I would like to be able to lay out enough information such that we can learn to not feel insulted by these debates, though. It seems like a super useful skill.
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I think you’re missing my point there - doesn’t debating about whether or not we should exist feel strange to you? I think most people would feel odd thinking about others having an opinion on their existence in the world..
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Not at all? I can see how a reasonable person, who views autism as a really painful thing that makes life hard and creates suffering, might think that it would be a loving and kind thing to do to stop future autism from existing. I saw some autistic people express this sentiment.
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And like, maybe you disagree, even disagree really strongly (I'm in the mostly disagree boat myself), but I can easily see how someone with really good intentions can make a good argument for why this should be the case. And boom, that's the discussion we're having.
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I think if that was your intent was to have a discussion and such - you’ve got to be willing to accept that people might be upset by the thought of if they should exist or not, and esp when it’s a choice given to random non autistic ppl or people who don’t have these conditions🤷♀️
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I accept that some people might be upset by it. I also have zero intention to stop this discussion. If people are upset by it then I'd hope they simply mute or block me.
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I’m not asking you to stop your discussion- just asking you to do a bit more leg work on the background and ethics of this discussion - you can do whatever you like but as you said it might upset people and I personally find that as reason to adjust how I’m approaching things