Michael Savage on Autism
Last week shock jock Michael Savage lived up to his name and his occupation by saying that autism was a "fraud" and a "racket" and that 99% of autistic children were actually just brats.
Here's what he said
Now, you want me to tell you my opinion on autism, since I'm not talking about autism? A fraud, a racket. For a long while, we were hearing that every minority child had asthma. Why did they sudden — why was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], "When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], 'I don't know, the dust got me.' " See, everyone had asthma from the minority community. That was number one.
Now, the illness du jour is autism. You know what autism is? I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is.
What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, "Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot."
Autism — everybody has an illness. If I behaved like a fool, my father called me a fool. And he said to me, "Don't behave like a fool." The worst thing he said — "Don't behave like a fool. Don't be anybody's dummy. Don't sound like an idiot. Don't act like a girl. Don't cry." That's what I was raised with. That's what you should raise your children with. Stop with the sensitivity training. You're turning your son into a girl, and you're turning your nation into a nation of losers and beaten men. That's why we have the politicians we have.
Savage has since backtracked slightly and said that his 99% figure was “a little high” and "hyperbole.”
I wonder if by a "little high" he meant it was only 90% of autistic kids were just brats.
According to Savage he stands by his remarks
My comments about autism were meant to boldly awaken parents and children to the medical community's attempt to label too many children or adults as "autistic."
Yep, he wants to wake up those "autistic" children and make them realize they just need to "Straighten up. Act like a man." That'll fix 'em.
This whole thing starts as a rant against minority children and asthma. Obviously Savage doesn't know how asthma is diagnosed by a doctor. I can say from experience it's not diagnosed by just coughing a little bit. Nor is a child diagnosed with Autism because he eats his Skittles by color but otherwise does nothing else as one commentor at this site claimed.
Autism is not just the kid who sits in the corner rocking back and forth and flapping his hands. There's a range of severity and diagnosis that falls under Autism Spectrum Disorder. I've worked with children at all levels of the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It has been my experience that there are more non-minority children labeled ASD than minority children. Lower socioeconomic minority children tend to be severely Autistic even though I've worked with several lower socioeconomic children that I thought might be Autistic but had never been diagnosed.
In other words, among poor minority children the tendency is to under diagnose rather than over diagnose.
Also, most of the children that I've worked with that were ASD did have a father figure around. Yes, many lived with one parent but several of those students lived with their father not their mother. Most of the ASD children I have worked with had both parents, either biological or step.
Back in Martin Luther's time, autistic children were thought to be possessed by the devil and were killed. In the mid-1900s mothers of Autistic children were blamed for their condition for being frigid during pregnancy and the child's first few months of life and beyond.
Savage's remarks seem to indicate that the mother is to blame for their child's condition. This actually doesn't surprise me since Savage was born in 1942 and grew up during the time when "refrigerator mothers" were blamed for Autism.
Am I going to call for Savage to be fired? No. The man has the right of free speech even if it is mean, hateful and makes him sound like an idiot (something Savage's father told him not to do). Savage was hired to say mean, hateful and shocking things to gain ratings for the stations that air his show. He's just doing his job, as dispicable as it might be.
The stations and advertisers have to decide if they want Savage to represent them. So far 7 stations in Mississippi have decided to drop Savage's sydicated show from their programming. The Aflac insurace company (you know, the one with the irritating duck in its commercials) has also decided to pull its advertising.
I won't be surprised if more stations and advertisers follow their example.
