The main event that is he is talking about is a rather minor one where an individual, Rebecca Fisher, attempted to get an event with Andrew Wakefield canceled. It is hard to say what really happened, but there is no doubt that Ms Fisher did contact the hotel hosting the event and did attempt to pressure them into canceling it. Whether you call that being a "bully" or not depends on your definition of the word.
Of course Sullivan also wrote about the outrage over the recent attacks against Dr. David Gorski, aka Orac, aka smearblogger extraordinaire. For those of you who don't know, the crew at Age of Autism attempted to get the good doctor in trouble at work for failing to disclose possible financial conflicts of interest. While I don't condone the sort of behavior, I can't help feeling that it is somehow poetic justice. Using his alias Orac, Dr Gorski has launched many, many, many, many, many, many personal attacks against other people and has smeared other doctor's reputations. His writing is littered with insults against his opponents, belittling their ideas and impugning their character. Or in other words, Dr Gorski is one of the bigger bullies out there.
Finally we have the subpoena against blogger Kathleen Seidel. This is the same Ms Seidel who is involved in the OSR #1 controversy and wrote to the university that Dr. Haley is associated with and attempted to get him into trouble. Wait, isn't it "wrong" to do this? It certainly was, according to Sullivan, when this happened to Dr Gorski, so I have to wonder what makes Ms Seidel's actions different.
But the thing that bothered me most about the entire post was the shear audacity it takes for LBRB to talk about bullying with a straight face. LBRB is known to harbor notorious bullies, such as Clay Adams, and the comment section on the site is filled with attacks against those who don't drink the kool-aid. Back before they started censoring my comments, I was the target of many attacks and bullying attempts (well, I say target but I mainly just laughed at the attempts).
And lets not forget that the site itself also engages in bullying. There have been a quite a few incidents like the one last year where LBRB ran an article featuring the actions of an anonymous stalker. This anonymous stalker had, well, stalked a mother online and then wrote a lengthy article belittling her attempts to help her child who has autism. It that isn't bullying, then I don't know what is.
Bullies don't get to complain when their victims fight back.
Don't you see? It's only OK to engage in this behavior if you agree with their paradigm. Anytime anyone they disagree with engages in this behavior, it is the height of sin! But when one of them does it, no big deal.
ReplyDeleteLike how, a few years ago, one of the Oraccolytes (as I like to call them) called CPS on my children because he or she thought they were unvaccinated. I'm sure it was one of them because of several comments left on one of the Newsgroups I posted on. I know it's not proof, but it fits this particular individual's behavior.
But, it's ok if they do it.
I wrote about the Gorski incident on my site. I don't condone, and indeed condemn, attacking a person through their work, school, or children. Such actions, to me, are apalling.
so typical of neurodiversity. They can dish it out but they can't take it.
ReplyDeleteNeurodiversity is a synonym for hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteExactly...hypocrisy.
ReplyDeletePrimary example here. Several weeks ago, Orac wrote a blog about the song from the Chicago Rally called "Vaccine Gestapo." Oh, how DARE they compare the vaccine defenders to Nazi's! Oh, these horrible people. But, Moron Supreme (aka ANB or Kenny-poo) had done this really shitty parody of the movie "Downfall" where he placed JB Handley as Hitler and Kim Stagliano, Mark Blaxil and several others as Hitler's generals. Their hypocrisy at times is so profound that I'm genuinely surprised why ANYONE takes anything they say seriously.
The thing that scares me is that people do take the ND folk seriously and do appoint "aspies" like Ari to government panels.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention autism speaks giving half a million dollars to laurent mottron and michelle dawson and the federal government funding morton gernsbacher.
ReplyDeleteCould someone show me an Autistic person with a significant degree of disability, that is a supporter of "Neurodiversity"?
ReplyDeleteI believe that there are a few adults who at least claim to be significantly impairmented by their autism and support the ND movements.
ReplyDeleteThe most famous/infamous person in this group would be Amanda Baggs, although I have some doubts that she actually has severe autism.
The other person who sticks in my mind is a young adult who appeared on one the Amada Bagg's CNN specials. I don't remember the young man's name but I do remember that he was severe enough that the only way he could "communicate" at all was through the use of facilitated communication.
But even still, he wanted everyone to know that he was quite happy the way that we was and just wanted to be accepted. Either that or it was the person doing the (cough) facilitation who was talking, it is always so to tell.