On Absurdly Poor Criticism And Advocate Misconduct, Part One

On September 14, 2013, exactly a month before I started writing this post, I was contacted by a colleague who expressed an interest in changes in behavioral practice since Lovaas's original methods and models of clinical treatment.

During the resulting exchange, I attempted to explain a variety of things related to behavior analysis, ranging from how ABA is not a treatment method to the relationship between ABA and PBS (the short version is that PBS is a brand-named philosophy regarding how to go about conducting and using ABA research). I also provided her with a number of assorted articles and writings on the subject, including a piece of my own work which acted as an overview.

I ended the exchange on something of a positive note, hoping that the information would help. The positive note, however, did not last.

This is what she wrote... or, at least, the currently-published version. There has been a rather spectacularly intellectually dishonest edit in the interim. It's, to put it mildly, an extraordinarily poor critique. The arguments are, by and large, spectacularly off-base, and her abuse of my writing is glaringly obvious (if not as much so as before the edits).

That said, I should probably discuss what this means and why it's a problem before I get into a detailed critique of the piece itself.

Contrary to what some people apparently believe, saying that a critique is poor does not mean that one disagrees with its conclusions or that the critique does not deal with real problems. It is saying that the critique misidentifies the issues involved and/or argues from a position of misunderstanding or prejudice.

In this case, the author is attempting to argue that all forms of applied behavior analysis are inherently unethical -- a very, very strong conclusion, one that simply does not follow from the evidence (such as it is) and arguments (such as they are) that she presents. Saying so isn't defending ABA, and certainly isn't excusing, justifying, or apologizing for the assorted abuses with which people have valid complaints.

This is important for several reasons -- not the least of which is that poor criticism serves to distract from real issues, detracts from good criticism, and confuses issues in ways that impair efforts to reform things.

To illustrate this, let's take a very different example, one that most of us can rapidly identify, easily understand, and generally make easy sense of: one of the more disgusting things which occurs whenever news story publishes a story about a black man raping a white woman.

Rape is obviously wrong: it's a gross violation of  a woman's bodily autonomy, a dehumanizing act which can easily (and often does) destroy her life. It is very difficult to think of a worse violation of someone's personhood... and the ethnicity and skin color of perpetrator and/or victim is utterly irrelevant to this.

Unfortunately, however, some people insist on making the moral issue here about race in a variety of ways. One of the simpler (and more vile) of these is to simply state that the act was wrong because a man like that (a black man, not a rapist) has no business sexually touching a White woman.

This is an absurdly poor (and racist) criticism of rape. It is one that needs -- urgently -- to be shouted down and combated whenever it pops up.

Referring to this sort of thing as poor discussion or off-base criticism is very much not excusing the heinous criminal act to which the alleged criticism was directed. It is simple truth.

The race thing serves to distract from the real problem. To the extent to which it gets attention, it's distracting people from paying that same attention to other, more relevant, criticisms.

But... let's say that some people actually took it seriously. Let's further say that they then tried to use it as the basis for political reform efforts.

These efforts would be useless at best and harmful at worst. In fact, that particular criticism can pretty much be considered a form of rape apology in and of itself: if the rape of a white woman by a black man is only heinous because of the race difference, what's wrong about a white man raping a white woman?

More, such "reform" efforts would likely target and harm completely innocent interracial couples. In fact, such prejudices and acts have historically caused very substantial harm in the form of blatantly racist legislation and various racial prejudices for just this reason.

Obviously, this has little directly to do with the ABA article which started this discussion, but does serve to illustrate a few very important points: 1) poor criticism is rarely helpful; 2) poor criticism is often harmful, even when its conclusions may be correct... and 3) stating that an argument is poor is not the same thing as stating that its conclusion is wrong.

In Part Two of this series, I will hopefully get to precisely why the specific critique that started this is poor and unlikely to be helpful. In Part Three, I will discuss just why I'm taking such pains to lay out these problems, why a simple blog post like that has lead to me starting an extended blog-rant, just what followed from the situation, and why it's taken me so long to post all of this.

An Open Letter to Buzz Aldrin

Today is Autistics Speaking Day. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the event, it's an autistic reaction to the highly-misguided "Communication Shutdown Day", a day in which we autistic people make as much online "noise" as possible... on the day in which hordes of people are voluntarily abstaining from our preferred means of communication.

I won't discuss why the whole idea is a bad one. Others have already done so -- far better than I ever could. Instead, I'm going to post an open letter to one of the major participants in this farce.

Dear Mr. Aldrin,

When I was a child, the Apollo missions were a great inspiration to me. They truly stand out among the achievements of mankind as a spectacular triumph of science and a shining example of what man is capable of if we truly try. You, along with the other Apollo astronauts, were my childhood heroes. Your triumphs fanned the flames of my love of science, helping raise it from the bare embers of a childhood interest into a lifelong passion. Your successes comforted me when things seemed hopeless, helping to reassure me that even the seemingly impossible was often within reach.

Today, I am a graduate student in Nova Southeastern University's M.S. Counseling program and working towards board certification as a behavior analyst. My dream is to go into psychological research and to help raise the standards of the discipline to the point where psychology and the other "soft" sciences can be legitimately compared to the "hard" sciences in terms of methodological rigor... and to come, bit by bit, closer to the countless truths I seek. This is not to say, however, that I do not face substantial challenges in reaching my goal.

The worst of these challenges are prejudice and fear. You see, I have a disability. One of my professors flat-out told me (in writing, no less) that having it was unprofessional... in a course where a third of the course grade was participation and professionalism. My clinical ethics textbook states that I am not human. Fear-driven efforts to create a world without people like me in it have already claimed countless lives throughout the world, including at least ten innocent babies in California... this year alone. There's even a clinic within easy driving distance of my house dedicated to chemically castrating people like me.

My disability is most commonly called "autism".

This is why it hurt me so incredibly much to hear that you, one of my childhood heroes, has been raising money for a fear-mongering antivaccine group dedicated to the goals I mention above. I can only hope that you did this out of ignorance; the thought of you having done so knowingly just hurts far too much.

As you may or may not know, the proceeds from Communication Shutout Day go to the program's "global partners". In America (outside Colorado), this means Giant Steps, the Hollyrod Foundation, and the National Autism Association. It's this last which is the most concerning.

The National Autism Association is an anti-vaccine group dedicated to promoting untested, unproven, and often dangerous "treatments" for autism. They praise intravenous chelation (which risks death and brain damage, and, more importantly, involves pumping an irritant into a child's veins for at least two hours at a time). Their 2009 conference, which was held within walking distance of my house, featured a keynote presentation by Andrew Wakefield (whose unethical conduct and Mengele-like "experiments" were largely responsible for major measles outbreaks throughout Europe), a presentation blaming my neurology on MSG in vaccines, and a presentation on why my neurology should be considered a disease (among countless other things). One of their past conferences even involved a keynote from an infamous quack who makes his living chemically castrating autistic children (and who is responsible for the clinic near my home). They recently were involved in a concentrated effort to effect legislation here in Florida which would have effectively banned the flu vaccine. I am perfectly willing to provide references and further information on any of these assertions on request.

Mr. Aldrin, you are old enough to remember many of the diseases which vaccines prevent. For instance, with polio alone... the iron lungs, the countless children who were crippled for life... to groups such as the NAA, bringing back these things is worth it if it means not having people like me or my friends around. You should also remember Jonas Salk and his heroic dedication to the welfare of the children of the world. To groups such as the NAA, Jonas Salk and countless others like him are villains. I find it difficult to express the sheer perversity of this.

I will admit that the NAA has also campaigned against the more "classic" abuse of children with disabilities in the forms of seclusion and restraint. This, however, mainly serves to help legitimatize them and to help them lend support to other, wackier anti-vaccine organizations such as Generation Rescue, SafeMinds, and the National Vaccine Information Center. In a recent conference presentation on the NAA, I referred to them as a "gateway organization" because of their function in such groups' recruitment tactics.

I won't pretend that this is the only thing wrong with Communication Shutout Day. I strongly encourage you to read what Ari Ne'eman of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network has written about the matter ( http://www.autisticadvocacy.org/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=122 ) and to peruse the various online writings relating to Autistics Speaking Day and the reasons for it.

In the meantime, however, I have to go to bed tonight knowing that one of my childhood heroes has chosen to raise funds for a group whose dedication to creating a world without people like me in it is so strong that they are perfectly willing to sacrifice the lives of countless innocents to create it.

Sincerely,

Alexander Cheezem

Restraint & Seclusion Legislation National Call-In Day

Today is Restraint & Seclusion Legislation National Call-In Day. Lacking the energy to do a proper write-up, I'm just going to copy ASAN's announcement on the topic.

I've made one minor alteration, by removing a text-based spelling out of a URL and replacing it with a link.

Dear Friends, Advocates and Community Members,

In one week, Congress will come back in session. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), in conjunction with the Alliance to Prevent Restraint, Aversive Interventions and Seclusion (APRAIS), is asking you to join us in a National Call-In Day on Thursday, January 21st to tell your members of Congress to support the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act (H.R. 4247/S.2860) introduced last month by Representatives George Miller (D-CA) and Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-WA) and Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT). This legislation would provide students with and without disabilities vital protections against abuse in schools. We are providing details on how to contact your members of Congress -- please distribute this announcement widely.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please call this coming Thursday and encourage your friends, family and coworkers to participate by dialing the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking for your Congressional representative to Co-Sponsor H.R. 4247, and your senators to Co-Sponsor S. 2860.

• To find out the names of your US Senators and Representative, click here
• Ask for the offices of your US Senators and Representative
• Ask to speak to the person working on education issues
• Identify yourself as a constituent and the organization that you represent (if any)

Message: " I am calling to urge (Senator y) to cosponsor S.2860, legislation preventing harmful use of restraint and seclusion in schools."

Message: "I am calling to urge (Representative z) to cosponsor HR 4247, legislation preventing harmful use of restraint and seclusion in schools."

Thanks for your advocacy. Increasing congressional support for these bills will help move them through the legislative process towards enactment. Please call on January 21, 2010 and tell your friends and family to join you. If you are interested in doing more, please e-mail us at info@autisticadvocacy.org for information about how you can arrange a meeting with your representatives to explain why this bill is essential or visit www.tash.org/aprais to learn more.

Regards,
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network and the APRAIS Coalition

Reasons Why The Autistic Community Should Fight The Anti-Vaccination Quacks -- A Working Document

This is the working document for a future entry. The items below are not in any particular order (I plan to do a countdown, listing them in ascending order of importance and descending number), and the below is not a complete list. I am more than open to suggestions and I will add links and references when I finally get around to posting the final document.


1. "Don't vaccinate your children because vaccines cause autism" demonizes autism, portrays autistics as "damaged goods", and contributes immensely to psychosocial stigma.

2. It's the right thing to do.

3. "Vaccines cause autism" is wrong -- in the sense of "incorrect". We have enough junk science in the field of autism even without the vaccine causation hypothesis.

4. The vaccine/mercury causation hypothesis is the nominal basis for a number of harmful quack treatments, such as chelation and the Lupron protocol.

5. Allies against the anti-vaccination quacks are generally highly motivated, skeptical, highly intelligent, and/or well-placed to help us fight other forms of quackery. The foot-in-the-door phenomenon applies, and the alliances formed accordingly can be used to our political advantage.
6. We can make a difference in the fight.

7. Sitting back and allowing one form of quackery to go unfought leaves the door open to others.

8. The anti-vaccination movement kills people. As the anti-vax movement targets the families of autistic children, this often means that it's us or our families who get sick and die.

9. Killing or recklessly endangering other people in the name of preventing people like us from existing is most certainly not acceptable.

10. Anti-vaxxers guilt-trip the families of autistic children over vaccinating their autistic child. This can have tragic consequences for autistic people.

11. The anti-vaccination crowd often acts as a concerted mob, bullying and acting to exclude people who disagree with them (and especially those on the spectrum who do so). This greatly adds to the difficulties in having reasoned discourse between autistic individuals and parents, and contributes to our exclusion from the discussion about autism. (Thanks to Kim Wombles)