your dreams will be reduced down to breathing, and you will be grateful

Posted in featured, Society

The thing about not-being-a-person is:

They will say those people and the price of being a person is to nod and agree that yes, those people aren’t people at all.

They will have no idea who they are talking to.
You yourself will start to forget, too.
They will say a million small things that sow the seeds for violence done against you, and you will smile and let them.

You will do math, constantly.

How much do I want to be a person today? How much do I want this …

...[Read More]

on 03/5/12 | 2 Comments | Read More

The Ghosts That Haunt the Human Mind

Alright then, I got plenty more; I’ll just keep tossing ‘em out, and you all catch the ones you like. It is, I think, a pretty standard practice among those who take the social model of disability[Read More]

on 02/25/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

The Autism Gene: Maybe Not So Scary

The eugenic annihilation scenario has been giving the autistic community nightmares for the past six years, ever since Dr. Joseph Buxbaum predicted in a notorious article that genetic research would l[Read More]

on 02/23/11 | 4 Comments | Read More

From the Link Cellar This Week

Fresh, resurrected, or newly discovered links from across the internet and the dusty reaches of Shift Journal’s archives. • • • • • • [Read More]

on 02/21/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

LEEEEEEEEEROY!!!!1!!!

It is with great relief that I remind myself it is not my job to convince others that I am right. If I’ve not changed any minds though, his past couple weeks on the site have been rewarding in other[Read More]

on 02/18/11 | 9 Comments | Read More

Elephant on the Loose

As Shift Journal’s sidebar indicates, we spend a lot of time around here discussing alternative ways of defining autism. That discussion got particularly lively over the past two weeks, with much b[Read More]

on 02/16/11 | 5 Comments | Read More

New Thread (If Not Us, Then Who?)

[continued from previous] I’ve said that I see a lot of thoughtful attention here; I’d like to also say that everyone (hi Diane, welcome; thanks for coming by) seems to be making sound arguments, [Read More]

on 02/15/11 | 6 Comments | Read More

From the Link Cellar This Week

Fresh, resurrected, or newly discovered links from across the internet and the dusty reaches of Shift Journal’s archives. • • • • • • [Read More]

on 02/14/11 | No Comments | Read More

If Not Us, Then Who?

Lots of nutritious back and forth in comments this week, with Rachel and Stephanie both taking exception to my post last Friday. Before diving back in to the fray, I’d like to lay out one context i[Read More]

on 02/11/11 | 10 Comments | Read More

On My Solitary Way

One of the enduring patterns of my life is my on-again, off-again relationship with large, conventionally structured organizations of all kinds: corporate, political, and religious. In the on-again ph[Read More]

on 02/10/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

Action Words

Among the many ideas that have been put forward in recent years to explain an apparent increase in the autistic population is the concept of assortative mating. According to this hypothesis, today’[Read More]

on 02/9/11 | No Comments | Read More

Picking Up the “Oops!”

When I first started studying how to be a parent, I read a lot of claims regarding the importance of monitoring, limiting, or disallowing television and video watching. However, when Willy first star[Read More]

on 02/8/11 | 3 Comments | Read More

Introverts, Extroverts, and Exercise

As one who habitually works out, I am constantly asked. “Isn’t it boring?” “Where do you get the willpower from?” I try to explain that I enjoy it for its own sake. But the response is usua[Read More]

on 02/7/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

From the Link Cellar This Week

Fresh, resurrected, or newly discovered links from across the internet and the dusty reaches of Shift Journal’s archives. • • • • • • • [Read More]

on 02/7/11 | No Comments | Read More

This Too Is Autism

I’m usually content to allow Gwen McKay’s light touch and considerable gift for understatement work their magic on their own but her most recent post titled Fault Lines touched a nerve for[Read More]

on 02/4/11 | 15 Comments | Read More

Fault Lines

Those of us who have raised children know what often happens after pointing out muddy footprints on the floor, dishes left on the table from an afternoon snack, or some other dereliction of duty. Wit[Read More]

on 02/2/11 | 5 Comments | Read More

WARNING! Oxytocin the xenophobia drug!

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has published online ahead of full publication a science journal paper with the title Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism In case you were not awa[Read More]

on 02/1/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

Collective Checkmate

There is no formal police force of social norms because no such organization is necessary. From mass society arises a self-enforcing slavery. One might picture a chessboard that sprawls as far as the[Read More]

on 01/31/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

A Year Ago at Shift Journal

Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • [Read More]

on 01/31/11 | No Comments | Read More

What’s So Funny About Wikileaks and Autism?

Caitlin Wray’s essay Be the Change: How to Shift Autism into the Mainstream appeared in this space last August, opening with her declaration that “I have a neighbour who can’t say ‘autism.’�[Read More]

on 01/28/11 | 4 Comments | Read More

Social Tips for People with Aspergers

There comes a time in every Aspie’s life, that having a life means facing our fears and going out into the world. I love to sing, do stand up comedy, go to restaurants and sometimes (although v[Read More]

on 01/27/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

The Dwellers on the Plain

Once upon a time—in the far distant past, or perhaps in a future yet to come—a herd of mountain goats dwelt atop a high plain. Steep jagged cliffs fell away from this isolated mesa on all sides. [Read More]

on 01/26/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

The Neurodiverse Workforce

The first proposed chapter for my book, tentatively entitled “Neurodiversity at Work: A Manager’s Guide,” is designed to introduce the concept of neurodiversity in a business-friendly context. M[Read More]

on 01/25/11 | 8 Comments | Read More

Music Preference in Introverts and Extroverts

For the majority of people in the industrialized West, music is primarily a means of social identity and unity. Millions listen to the same top 25 songs that everyone else is listening to. Of those t[Read More]

on 01/24/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

A Year Ago at Shift Journal

Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • [Read More]

on 01/24/11 | No Comments | Read More

The Autistic Cohort as a Distributed System

A few weeks ago I proposed that what the autistic cohort and the Wikileaks file-sharing drama had in common was that opposition to both came from centralized systems of power which in turn mistake aut[Read More]

on 01/21/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

Force of Habit

In response to my post last week about setting the stage for positive changes to happen, Stephanie accurately pointed out that it’s not just a matter of rearranging the environment and waiting to fe[Read More]

on 01/19/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

Why women aren’t funny (in general), and female autistics are up the creek without a paddle (in general)

After sitting in an idle moment watching one of those terribly popular cooking shows on TV, because someone else wanted to watch it, I have become convinced of my explanation as to why there are so fe[Read More]

on 01/18/11 | No Comments | Read More

Introverts and Travel

Since introverts carry the most important things within, they can thrive almost anywhere under any circumstances. They are consumate wanderers. Only one who is self-defined can move unscathed from la[Read More]

on 01/17/11 | No Comments | Read More

A Year Ago at Shift Journal

Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • [Read More]

on 01/17/11 | No Comments | Read More

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?

Just a few quick thoughts while I continue to piece together future posts. In comments to Sarah Schneider’s piece republished here last week (Allen Frances gave us the Asperger’s “epidemic” �[Read More]

on 01/14/11 | 3 Comments | Read More

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