This article is written from a personal viewpoint and all statements made are either correct at the time of publication or an expression of opinion.

Jonathan Mitchell is a high functioning Autistic who was diagnosed with classic Kanner’s Syndrome in the 1960’s. He is a great example of what happens when parents or the system get it wrong. And back then, the system never ever got it right.

Now under normal circumstances, that wouldn’t make someone an enemy of the Autistic community. But Mitchell is a threat because of how he came out of that period. Loaded with hate for the condition and for himself. And for anyone who opposes his position in favour of a cure. Hate that emanates from the way he was brought up. His mother tried to cure him after she was wrongly accused of being a bad parent, when she should have flipped the bird at those who were doing that. It wasn’t her fault that her son was Autistic!

Mitchell is a self confessed nuisance. He calls his blog “Autism’s Gadfly”. A gadfly is a nuisance. And Mitchell promotes a cure based on this old experience – old and irrelevant. He also relies on blaming Autism for his poor experiences in work, instead of blaming his own wilful ignorance, and the work place for not treating his condition with respect.

As far as he’s concerned, nothing has changed since the 1960’s – and that couldn’t be further from the truth. He’s completely out of touch with the 21st century, and fails to understand that his rants hold the Autistic community back. This is why he is an enemy of Autistics.

The best examples of the hold back are two fold. The first is a garbage article on his website, Jonathan’s Stories, trying to undiagnose Einstein in particular. I’ll do a reply article to that nonsense one of these days.

The second is more dangerous – an article that featured in the September 2010 edition of the LA Magazine (LA of course being Mitchell’s home town of Los Angeles).

In this article firstly he blames Autism for his inability to concentrate. Autistics can concentrate, as long as adjustments are made. Mitchell never made these adjustments. He was fired because of this and not because of his Autism. He admits to failing to engage in anything productive. There’s no excuse for that, even for someone on the higher end of the Spectrum. There’s nothing wrong with self stimulation rituals. Social judgment can be taught and learned the long way – which prevents the majority of social errors long term. There is also nothing unusual in having a phobia of birds. How many people who saw the Alfred Hitchcock’s “Birds” developed such a phobia? All these excuses just go to show that he has led a life restricted not by Autism but by attitude. It’s no wonder he’s never had a girlfriend.

He also claims that his life is as good as over and he can’t progress academically, socially or occupationally. This is rubbish. Anyone can progress in all three of these areas in their 50’s. With Mitchell it’s not a case of he can’t. It’s a case of he won’t. He has applied for Social Security Insurance, and this has been denied. This is the right decision, because Mitchell can do research and this opens up plenty of occupational options.

Pressing for a cure for future generations is genocide. Mitchell claims that such a threat doesn’t exist. It does. He refuses to blame society for Autism’s problems and that restricts the process towards something that Mitchell doesn’t believe in – civil rights. He commented once that Autistics should consider becoming homosexual to get a life partner (that’s why he has the Idiot of the Month award above).

Jonathan Mitchell is an enemy of all Autistics, and the sooner his blog is shut down as a hate blog the better.

PHIL GLUYAS

More details can be found about this person on my blog about him – Mitchell’s Gadfly.