Most recently the person in charge of the HHS (nutjob RFK Jr) declared that autism “…is an epidemic. Epidemics are not caused by genes–you need an environmental toxin”.
Of course. Because he’s now an expert on autism. Not.
Autism is not an epidemic. It has been around for decades, if not longer. Research of it began in the 1920’s. It only seems more prevalent now because we know so much more about it than we did even forty years ago. Therefore, many who may have once gone undiagnosed due to lack of knowledge or plain ignorance, are now being diagnosed.
Why do you think there are so many adults being diagnosed? Because they have always thought they were different but were never tested as a child. Instead they were just labeled as “shy” and passed through school.
As the mother of a child on the spectrum and a sister of an almost 41-year-old on the spectrum, I can attest to the fact that autism is most definitely caused by genes.
Also, nutjob probably doesn’t realize just how many different kinds of autism there are. And many people with autism have more than one comorbidity, such as ADHD, ADD, OCD, anxiety, sleep issues and social issues, just to name a few. Up until several years ago they were known as different forms (such as Asperger’s) but then everything got lumped under one umbrella. Which was stupid because no two autistics are the same.
But just you wait. Because by September nutjob and his “crew” are going to have all the answers as to why people like my sister have been autistic all her life. Newsflash: she died three times at birth due to a lack of oxygen which was the fault of the medical team that delivered her, causing her to have brain damage and a hydrocephalus shunt for the rest of her life. That’s what attributed to her autism. No toxins were involved. And double newsflash: she hadn’t even been vaccinated yet.
Gee, I wonder if these nuts are going to “discover” a “cure” as well.
Below is an open letter that attorney Marc Elias wrote to DIPSHIT in response to something DIPSHIT posted on his DIPSHIT social media site.
I did try to simply post the link to Marc’s site but for whatever reason, it wouldn’t let me. But you can read it at democracydocket.com in addition to viewing it right here
Elon Musk recently posted on his site that another lawyer and I are “undermining civilization.” He goes on to ask if we suffered childhood trauma and concludes by suggesting we are suffering from “generational trauma.” This is my response.
Mr. Musk,
You recently criticized me and another prominent lawyer fighting for the rule of law and democracy in the United States. I am used to being attacked for my work, particularly on the platform you own and dominate.
I used to be a regular on Twitter, where I amassed over 900,000 followers — all organic except for the right-wing bots who seemed to grow in number. Like many others, I stopped regularly posting on the site because, under your stewardship, it became a hellscape of hate and misinformation.
I also used to buy your cars — first a Model X and then a Model S — back when you spoke optimistically about solving the climate crisis. My family no longer owns any of your cars and never will.
But this is not the reason I am writing. You don’t know me. You have no idea whether I have suffered trauma and if I have, how it has manifested. And it’s none of your business.
However, I will address your last point about generational trauma. I am Jewish, though many on your site simply call me “a jew.” Honestly, it’s often worse than that, but I’m sure you get the point. There was a time when Twitter would remove antisemitic posts, but under your leadership, tolerating the world’s oldest hatred now seems to be a permissible part of your “free speech” agenda.
Like many Jewish families, mine came to America because of trauma. They were fleeing persecution in the Pale of Settlement — the only area in the Russian Empire where Jews were legally allowed to reside. Even there, life was difficult — often traumatic. My family, like others, lived in a shtetl and was poor. Worse, pogroms were common — violent riots in which Jews were beaten, killed and expelled from their villages.
By the time my family fled, life in the Pale had become all but impossible for Jews. Tsar Nicholas II’s government spread anti-Jewish propaganda that encouraged Russians to attack and steal from Jews in their communities. My great-grandfather was fortunate to leave when he did. Those who stayed faced even worse circumstances when Hitler’s army later invaded.
That is the generational trauma I carry. The trauma of being treated as “other” by countrymen you once thought were your friends. The trauma of being scapegoated by authoritarian leaders. The trauma of fleeing while millions of others were systematically murdered. The trauma of watching powerful men treat it all as a joke — or worse.
As an immigrant yourself, you can no doubt sympathize with what it means to leave behind your country, extended family, friends and neighbors to come to the United States. Of course, you probably had more than 86 rubles in your pocket. You probably didn’t ride for nine days in the bottom of a ship or have your surname changed by immigration officials. Here is the ship manifest showing that my family did. Aron, age three, was my grandfather.
As new immigrants, life wasn’t easy. My family lived in cramped housing without hot water. They worked menial jobs — the kind immigrants still perform today.
Some may look down on those immigrants — the ones without fancy degrees — but my family was proud to work and grateful that the United States took them in. They found support within their Jewish community and a political home in the Democratic Party.
I became a lawyer to give back to the country that gave my family a chance. I specialize in representing Democratic campaigns because I believe in the party. I litigate voting rights cases because the right to vote is the bedrock of our democracy. I speak out about free and fair elections because they are under threat.
Now let me address the real crux of your post.
You are very rich and very powerful. You have thrown in with Donald Trump. Whether it is because you think you can control him or because you share his authoritarian vision, I do not know. I do not care.
Together, you and he are dismantling our government, undermining the rule of law and harming the most vulnerable in our society. I am just a lawyer. I do not have your wealth or your platform. I do not control the vast power of the federal government, nor do I have millions of adherents at my disposal to harass and intimidate my opponents. I may even carry generational trauma.
But you need to know this about me. I am the great-grandson of a man who led his family out of the shtetl to a strange land in search of a better life. I am the grandson of the three-year-old boy on that journey. As you know, my English name is Marc, but my Hebrew name is Elhanan (אֶלְחָנָן) — after the great warrior in David’s army who slew a powerful giant.
I will use every tool at my disposal to protect this country from Trump. I will litigate to defend voting rights until there are no cases left to bring. I will speak out against authoritarianism until my last breath.
I will not back down. I will not bow or scrape. I will never obey.
As we all know (unless you’ve been hiding under a rock), this week SHITHOLE planted his pending “administration” with a myriad of who’s-who of SHIT: Congressional sex offenders so afraid to face the music, they resign, probably to never work in Washington DC again (SHITHOLE actually wants this one to be AG), druggies, a “governor” who’s banned from 20% of the state she “governs” and kills dogs, billionaires who don’t know an iota about “governing” and my favorite, a conspiracy theorist/addict/creep from one of the most politically prominent families in America.
Yes, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (such a disgrace to the Kennedy name and his own father), was picked to be in charge of the health of America as “Secretary of Health and Human Services”. He is not a doctor and never was. He was barely a lawyer, and an “environmental” lawyer at that. Among his conspiracy theories is that vaccines cause autism.
Newsflash: they don’t.
But unlike Kennedy who cannot prove that vaccines cause autism, through my personal experience I can assure you, they don’t.
First of all, let’s discuss logic. For someone who is so against vaccines, Kennedy is a hypocrite right from the start. Why? Because he himself is vaccinated. I can fucking guarantee it. You know how I know? He was born in 1954 and he’s a Kennedy. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if he gets a flu vaccine every year and has been vaccinated for Covid. Oh, and as far as we know, although he may be mentally incompetent in some manner, he’s not autistic.
Secondly, consider ALL the people in America who have been vaccinated. From many different generations: Boomers, Gen X, Millenials, etc. Especially Boomers and Gen X. Because vaccines were HUGE in our day. Shit, once Elvis got his Polio vaccine, people lined up in droves to get theirs. And that was in the 50’s. Don’t you think if vaccines caused autism that EVERYONE would have autism? Because of the number of people who have been vaccinated. Now you can argue that there was a certain chemical in vaccines (which was removed in 2001) which many felt allegedly caused autism. But that has been disproven. And that wouldn’t explain why so many children are still being diagnosed with autism.
I get it. Parents who have autistic kids want to know why. They want to blame it on something. Because nobody has an explanation as to what causes autism. And they certainly don’t want to blame it on themselves.
But I have my own theories. And I do believe that autism is caused by genetics. And here’s why I believe that.
First, I will use the story of a family I know from a town I used to live in. They had one son who was autistic. Then they had another son who was also autistic but on a more severe level. They were warned by their physician that if they had another baby and it was a boy, he would be autistic on an even more severe level than one and two. So of course they had a third child. And it was a boy. And he was autistic to the point he was non-verbal, whereas his siblings could at least speak. Now the parents were not autistic but in doing some family research, they discovered an uncle on the father’s side who had been institutionalized his entire life for “mental incapacities”. Because that’s what they did with kids back in the 30’s who were autistic. For the record, I don’t know if any of these people were vaccinated. But I’m assuming, given the era, they were. And that would include the parents. Who were not autistic.
Next I’ll share my own personal story. I am one of six children. One of us was born in the late sixties, two of us were born in the early seventies and my three younger siblings were born in the early 80’s. In 1984 the youngest two (twins) were born. Both were premature. They both survived but one suffered brain damage and lives with a hydrocephalus shunt. And autism. Yet her twin does not have autism. And neither do the other four siblings. And we were all vaccinated. So why don’t we ALL have autism? In this case I not only feel autism was caused by genetics (and I do feel it is genetic-tell you why in a minute), but also by the brain damage caused by a medical tech’s mistake (which was discovered through a lawsuit…long story for another time).
So in my personal case, why I feel autism is genetic? Because my own daughter is autistic. I’m grateful her level of autism is not as great as her aunt’s, but we’ve certainly had our struggles over the years. And yes, we’ve all been vaccinated. Yet amazingly we ALL AREN’T AUTISTIC! Isn’t that something? And my daughter embraces her autism.
Lastly, I’d like to share the story of a woman I work with who has an autistic son, born in 2000. I have worked with her since 1999 and even went to her baby shower. She was one of those anti-vaxers for a long time. In fact, she refused to get her son vaccinated because of all the hype at the time about vaccines causing autism. Guess what? Although her son was never vaccinated, HE HAS FUCKING AUTISM! In fact, in 2010 she was forced to get her son vaccinated because she had to place him in a residential school, as her public school system could not integrate him. She’s been a believer in vaccines ever since.
I could go on about many of the other “theories” that brain-worm man has but they are just that: theories. They are not truth and just because he believes them, doesn’t mean we have to.
In fact, if he is going to be “in charge” of our health, we’d better all take measures to care for ourselves the way we want to, whether SHITHOLE, this asshole and the whole “administration” wants us to or not. Our lives depend upon it.
michellemchatton.com 