Boring Autism Newsfeed Classification 101

Sometimes stories come through in the news feeds that inspire, incite, or otherwise grab my attention and demand that I write about them. But the longer I watch the feeds, the less often that happens, the more often the same old stories just repeat themselves with different names. Here's a sampling of some endlessly recycled stories that have especially irritated me in last few days, in no particular order:

Story #1: Amazing Supercrip Does Something that Goes Against Autism Stereotypes! OMGWOW! These are stories about "overcoming," "in spite of," and "against all odds." Often they genuinely are about something newsworthy and cool, only media-spun straight to the land of dehumanizing. These stories can't just say so-and-so did something cool, they have to somehow compare it to the person's autism. And the more dramatically the better. It's never "Jane Doe sang the national anthem at the ball game," or even "Jane Doe, who is autistic, sang the national anthem at the ball game." No, it's "When Jane Doe was 5, doctors said she'd never talk. Death bells tolled. It rained over her house every day for six years straight. But now! Against all odds! Jane Doe has conquered her autism to sing the national anthem at the ball game--in spite of what those doctors said!" Um... what part of singing the national anthem at the ball game wasn't incredibly cool enough? For anyone! Ah, the disablism of the media...

Story #2: I Sold My Body Parts for Autism. All about the money spent on autism. Or donated to autism. Or sacrificed for autism. I've sold my lungs, liver, and right index finger for autism. Never considering the social implications of putting a price tag on a person's life.

Story #3: Fundraiser for Awareness and Eradication! Ooo goodie! If it says "walk for autism," it's one of these stories. If it says "ball for autism," "dinner for autism," "golfing for autism," or (like over 50% of the stories in my google alerts this week) "racing cars for autism," it's also one of these stories. A bunch of people (who are not autistic) pat themselves on the back for obtaining money to do things that autistic people have not said they are actually interested in having done. Bonus points for heavy pity angles.

Story #4: Transporters Video. I kid you not, this really is a whole story classification unto itself. A non-small percentage of total stories that come through my feeds are this story over and over. And then over. I was complaining about how over and over this story was all the way back in February. But clearly, it's not over. The marketing people for this video are amazing. This story just won't leave my feeds. It comes in waves. It lasts for months on end. The most newsworthy thing about this video is how amazingly newsworthy it continues to be even though it's been circulating forever with no actual new information (or old information for that matter).

There are more of categories of autism news story, but I'll save them for another day when my feeds are relentlessly repetitive and redundantly redundant and therefor I've nothing to write about except how much the stories in the feeds suck. I don't think I'd mind so much if it wasn't for the fact that there's so much injustice--and also so much beauty--that never gets the coverage it deserves.

The same old boring stories get reported on while real atrocities are neglected. Is the Transporters video really more important than not having basic civil rights? Than dying because you have no basic civil rights? Really?