Nothing About Us Without Us; Greta Thuneberg.
Recently, Fox News had to issue an apology after a guest called autistic climate activist Greta Thunberg "a mentally ill child who is being exploited by her parents and by the international left." Conservative pundit Michael Knowles doubled down on his remark, saying "there is nothing shameful about living with mental disorders. What is shameful is exploiting a child with mental disorders to advance your political agenda." Once the network's apology was issued and Knowles was banned from appearing on the network again, the media moved on from the incident quickly, but for many of us on the spectrum, the dismissiveness of his remarks felt very familiar. To understand why, it's worth examining Knowles' remarks a bit more closely. Setting aside the more blatant ableism of referring to someone on the autism spectrum as "mentally ill" as a means of dismissing their concerns, there's a slightly more insidious element to the rest of the ...