How The Progressive Media Sells Out Autistic People

Our media conditions its audiences to fear and pity people with disabilities.

If autistic people like my teenage son make you uneasy, you’re wrong — but it may not entirely be your fault. Our media conditions its audiences to fear and pity people with disabilities. And it’s not just sensationalistic, clickbait media outlets that impugn the rights and basic humanity of autistic people. Respected, progressive publications and writers can be just as reactionary. But because we tend to trust “thought leaders” as both intellectually rigorous and socially fair, their ableism often goes unchecked and is far more dangerous than that of their unapologetically prejudiced counterparts.

This priming of progressive readers and listeners, this permission to view autistic people as subhuman, explains a lot: Why all those big-hearted celebrities don’t know any better than to support Autism Speaks and its stigmatizing campaign to find a “cure,” rather than desperately-needed supports and services for the autistic people who are already here. Why journalists openly scoff at neurodiversity activists, and accuse them of not understanding the plight of the “truly” disabled. Why readers share stories about parents murdering their autistic children that present these crimes as “understandable,” given…