Sparrow Rose Jones: ‘Silenced’ by her own autism

At Unstrange Mind, Sparrow Rose Jones writes about being “silenced” with her own autism: a third-party went behind her back to offer “perspective” to a person with whom Jones had had a small argument.

“When I am open about being Autistic, I am handing people a weapon to punish me with. ... Anytime someone wants to dismiss my opinion or experience, they point out that I am Autistic, as if that trumps anything and everything. They remind everyone that I am not reliable, that my word means nothing, that I don’t understand anything.”

How many of us use excuses similar to the way this third-party used Jones’ autism, to dismiss someone’s viewpoint without going to the work of coming up with reasons to counter it? I think it’s worth thinking about.