Autism

Adopting is great. Not everyone should do it.

Autism is difficult. Their lives are not ruined.

I can see some of the arguments of antinatalists but the online culture of it seems to have a nihilism/blackpill problem.

Why do they think autism is some sort of horror story where kids suffer in agony or something?

I'm not speaking for autistic people here, but I am speaking as parent to two children (now adults) on the spectrum.

Autistic children do not ruin your life and do not have ruined lives themselves. As with all parenting, sometimes things are very, very difficult and sometimes things are very, very easy. This isn't unique to raising a neurodiverse child, this is just parenting. The unique challenges that parenting a neurodiverse child brings are 99% of the time caused by how society thinks these children/adults are and assumptions about whats best for them without actually asking them rather than any sort of intrinsic issue caused by their autism or ADHD or any other neurological difference. For the remaining 1% of the time, you just do your best.

The narrative that neurological difference, in particular autism, ruins lives has, in its modern form, been with us since Andrew Wakefield first perpetuated his fraudulent claims of vaccine damage causing autism. It was spread by antivaxx/autism activist parent groups like Jenny McCarthy's Generation Rescue and the truly despicable people at Autism Speaks. These are the people who've ruined lives.

An autistic life isn't a ruined life.

just popping in to say I love being alive and I'm thankful for my parents keeping me! I made friends with a seagull today. couldn't have done that if I was never born. fuck yeah!

I went 36 years without even knowing. Corporate greed has done more to ruin my life than my mental illnesses have.

"Now you have ruined three lives forever"

bruh

As someone on the spectrum its ridiculous to say there life ruined first off its a spectrum so who knows how server there condition is and they can learn to live with help

I don't have ASD but I have ADHD, and based on my experience I think it's extremely fair to see knowingly inflicting upon another living being a disability that causes great pain and suffering throughout their entire life, as fucked up and immoral

It's like pugs and pitbulls, many people can agree in the thought "why are we intentionally creating more canines with terrible disabilities which badly hurt them for the rest of their life?", so why is it so bad when the same logic is applied to humans?

I think it's dumb to describe it as "eugenics", considering that's a term almost entirely associated in the modern day with Nazism, forced imprisonment/torture/forced sterilization of certain groups, and racist beliefs. Wheras this seems concerned with wanting people to not suffer nearly as much after they're born, so they're expressing how they're upset that people chose to create a new life with more suffering than average when there's tons of equally good alternatives, and I think that's pretty different than flat out promoting genocide...

What's wrong with adoption anyways? It's pretty selfish to bring a new life into this world for your own personal satisfaction when you could literally just take a child who's already out there suffering and make them not suffer for no extra loss.

I find it stupid that they describe it as "ruined lives" though. Especially for the parents, like wtf just be a good parent? It's not like most parents have a kid with no difficult challenges to face whatsoever. When you become a parent you sign up to being exposed to any and every possibility that could come from a kid. If you become a parent and then go "woe is me, I didn't expect autism so I can't deal with this, don't blame me for not parenting correctly" then you shouldn't have become a parent. The only way parents can "ruin" their own lives is if they're a shitty parent, which unfortunately a majority of people are...

Why is this subreddit full of idiots? They are misrepresenting antinatalism so fucking hard.

The people that want to restrict reproduction are acting like eugenicists? I'm shocked. This is my shocked face.

I don't know. I hate the fact that I was born autistic. Unlike a lot of autistic people, I refuse to think of it as some kind of 'superpower' or positive thing.

I was born defective. I'm literally a broken human who doesn't function correctly.

I know that I sure as hell wish I wasn't born, and whilst I'm sure those mothers are going to do a great job with their children, I also don't think that I should have children at the risk of passing it down and letting another person suffer the way I have.

The antinatalism subreddit (and similar groups elsewhere) is one of the most toxic places on the internet. It just reeks of hatred, and worse yet, treats that hatred as some sort of virtue.

Go live your life however you want, kids or no. But grouping up to talk shit about children or people who start families is just gross.

If I may take a moment to ask... what the fuck are you on about, OP? Absolutely nothing in the screenshot suggests anything even remotely related to eugenics. You took that leap all on your own.

I think antinatalism is a really interesting philosophy. But it falls apart as soon as you discriminate - It is fair to question the ethics of reproduction, but as soon as you discriminate you end up in eugenics territory. This subreddit is really hostile sadly. there is a lot of ableism under the disguise of antinatalism

I definitely understand some of the points made by antinatalism. I often struggle with the fact that life is imposed on me rather then chosen and i am definitely considering geopolitics and ecological/economic when i make choices of how many kids i should have, but i long rationalized most issues to be with human society and not with life itself.

I very much believe society can still evolve but to do so we will need to become better people first, the most straightforward way to get better people is to educate them well starting from birth.

The conclusion of antinatalism seems to be a pessimistic extreme, that life itself can only be suffering so we are better of self-extincting ourself by stopping to make new babies but if all progressives followed this rhetoric then the only people Reproducing are those that do not care at all.

In other words in order for their valid criticisms to have any positive effect on society they should still support progressives that are able to provide to have some amount of kids because or else they become a Selffulfilling prophecy of societal decline.

The bias against neurodivergents having children is sadly enough way more common than just those circles, but people like Greta Thunberg are proof that if anything the world needs more Autism and a not cure.

I really hate those guys, is ok you don't want kids, don't push it on everyone else.

We have to fix the world one way or another and thruth be told, I think that being so bleak helps nobody.

Now you have ruined three lives forever

Yeah this is the point where I'm really glad other people having kids is not his decision to make. I'm high-functioning enough to pass for neurotypical, but my sense of injustice at this is amped beyond deep-fat-fry, on to 'hot as the sun at its core'

What a mean thing... but I agree, I never wanted this...

I firmly believe most of our problems come from thick cunts like this.

I am on the autism spectrum. I'm well into middle age.

Being autistic is like being in a poker game where you keep getting dealt hands that are high-card, and everyone else is getting straights, flushes, or even just pairs, and you only get out when you're bankrupt. Yeah, I play the hand I'm dealt, and I'm going to lose every goddamn time.

EDIT: A better analogy is gonna be Pinnochio (or A. I. Artificial Intelligence). I'm never going to be a real boy (any no, it's not because I'm AFAB and also a gender essentialist). No matter how hard I work at being better, there's no good fae that's going to come along and use their fae magic to make me a real boy. I'm never going to have the experiences of the real children, because I'm simply not one of them. I can ape their external characteristics, but I can't be them. While this--being autistic--is a result of evolution (it's likely a non-beneficial genetic mutation), humans have largely evolved to survive as a social species, to have close relationships and tribal affiliations. I'm always going to be on the outside, rather than part of an in-group.

I can't believe the willfull ignorance of people. There are examples of thousands of people with autism becoming amazing people. I feel that reason is impossible for some

WTF are they talking about? I've known lots of autistic people who lead very normal lives... I suspect the person who wrote this "rant" is either an edgy teenager or a basement dwelling neckbeard who believed himself capable of "curing" one of his lesbian friends