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I am not disputing the fact that there is a ton of misinformation about Autism on TikTok (and the internet as a whole), because there absolutely is and it’s dangerous. But it gives me pause that the researcher behind this study developed and promotes a treatment method that is essentially a cousin of ABA. That makes me incredibly skeptical of what his rubric might be for filtering the claims as factual or not.
ABA, for those that don’t know, is based on Skinner’s operant conditioning and was created by the man who developed “gay conversion therapy.” He once said this:
“You see, you start pretty much from scratch when you work with an autistic child. You have a person in the physical sense – they have hair, a nose and a mouth – but they are not people in the psychological sense. One way to look at the job of helping autistic kids is to see it as a matter of constructing a person. You have the raw materials, but you have to build the person.”
If “operant conditioning” makes you think of dog training, you’re right. ABA is dog training for Autistic people. It is conversion therapy. It does not “intervene” in their Autism so much as it forces them to appear more neurotypical, and a study from 2018 suggests that it actually creates PTSD symptoms in the patients–that it is traumatic–which is in-line with many firsthand accounts of people that have been through ABA.
So the guy behind this analysis developed his own practice which is rooted in ABA and centers around operant conditioning. I’m sure a lot of what he finds to be false is probably false and not scientifically-supported, but I would def be skeptical of what he considers to be misinformation in some instances since ABA is technically scientifically-supported for autism intervention, due to it’s effectiveness in making Autistic people appear more neurotypical (without regard for their psychological wellbeing in many cases).
But with that said, I’m just some schmuck on the internet. I highly recommend reading Autistic people’s perspectives on it and seeing what verified smart people have to say.
Here are some pieces I find enlightening:
- https://fortune.com/2022/05/13/autistic-community-reckoning-aba-therapy-rights-autism-insurance-private-equity-ariana-cernius/
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/nurturing-self-esteem-in-autistic-children/202209/does-applied-behavior-analysis-aba-cause
- https://whyy.org/segments/how-a-therapy-once-seen-as-a-victory-for-autistic-kids-has-come-under-fire-as-abuse/
If “operant conditioning” makes you think of dog training, you’re right.
This isn’t the bad part. Operant conditioning is how all behaviours are formed, if something gives a positive feeling or takes away a bad one the behaviour increases, if it adds negative feeling or takes away a positive one the behaviour decreases.
The issue with ABA is firstly trying to take a persons personhood away, teaching someone that who they are is bad, and secondly the mad schedules they impose. It might be that a person doesn’t feel comfortable with eye contact, the ideal situation is we go “cool, don’t do that” and everyone is just cool with it, a middle ground that is a good idea is to help the person get used to using intermittent eye contact or using little tricks like looking at someones nose or forehead. The ABA solution is we force the person to make eye contact for an hour a day, regardless of comfort, and witholding a comfort item, like a tablet, until they have completed that hour. It’s treating a child (or sometimes an adult) as a non-entity, just an issue that needs to be fixed, needs to be ‘normal’.
I hate this fucking world. Seeing your own disability being used by neurotypical fucktardwankers for generating money by basically doing misinformation that completely ruins, what I try to do all the time because fuck me that’s why. May god forgive them. I won’t. And I don’t believe in that motherfucker either.
Oh so you mean people on the internet tell lies?
Pretty sure you could substitute “autism” with any topic at all and the point would be accurate.
Who looks for facts on social media?
Many people do unfortunately.
It’s not even about looking for facts. If you hear something enough it’ll start to sound normal, so it’s bad even if people don’t look for information on social media.
Plus, we know that people get a lot of their information from social media. Being smug about that isn’t exactly helpful.
What would be helpful?
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Don’t use Tiktok (and other low quality social media like Twitter) and encourage people you know to do the same. Suggest alternatives like federated sites, and help people navigate it if you can.
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Firmly correct disinformation when you see it. If you have a topic of interest you find yourself repeatedly addressing, keep a short copy/paste response with easily digestible sources to make the process quick and painless.
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Engage as little as possible with disinformation, since any kind of engagement is exactly what they’re looking for. When you stumble upon it, state a brief sourced correction and quickly leave. If someone beat you to it, simply leave and avoid in the future.
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Teach your friends and family about the dangers of misinformation, and the importance of vetting sources. Peer reviewed journal = great. Random youtuber/tiktoker = needs sources to confirm validity.
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Try to be as polite as possible when addressing disinformation because aggression can cause people to dig their heels in and push them further into the false narrative.
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Learn terms to describe the spread of disinformation that are easy for people to grasp. Learning and teaching others about things like “good/bad faith arguments” so you can spot and effectively counter trolls, recognizing “irony poisoning” that is a driving force behind the normalization of extremist views, and understanding how “woke” actually means “tolerant and respectful of the differences between human beings” can all help people to see what’s happening and protect against disinformation.
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If you’re motivated enough, start your own publication that provides accurate, well sourced information on your topics of interest, or join an already established publication as a freelance contributor.
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Don’t give up. Don’t let anyone convince you that the fight is already over and that we’re doomed to live out 1984. The real fight hasn’t even begun, because so many people are too caught up in their own stressful lives to realize there’s a full blown culture war going on here. Once more people open their eyes to it, sanity will prevail. These points here are exactly how you can begin opening people’s eyes.
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I’d say the most important thing is teaching young people to be critical about the information they consume, which is only possible if this is talked about in a serious and comprehensive manner in school. Studies like this most likely enable that.
Also, having actual, decent information on those platforms also helps, most likely.
But if you’re asking me to solve this mess, idk. Misinformation has always been a thing.
Only 73% I expected it to be higher.