A Peculiar Bumper Sticker

I had to do a double-take, making sure I'd actually read what I'd thought I'd read. Yup, it still said. "Autism is Preventable and Curable."

Uh, Dearie, what's in that pipe you've been smoking? Your sticker is way ahead of the science on this topic. Is it denial, perhaps because one near and dear has it? Or wistful and/or magical thinking? Perhaps just supreme optimism?

Preventable, eh? Is this more of that vaccination nonsense? It shows up about the same time babies are scheduled for shots, so it must be cause and effect, right? Let's lay a supreme guilt trip on all those parents who've done the best right thing for their kids: it's all your fault! You ruined your kid! And while you're at it, let's discourage a whole bunch of fearful parents who now will let their kids be exposed to whooping cough and other deadly diseases. Yes, deadly! We've kept them at bay so long that modern generations have no clue what they're letting their kids in for out of misplaced fears.

Curable? Not hardly. Or at least, not yet. One can train coping mechanisms, improve behaviors, make someone with autism more comfortable while they live their life. None of those things are cures. They are adaptations, and certainly not to be disparaged because that's all they are because adaptations are vital, both for the person with autism and for all the people around him/her. A cure would involve actually rewiring the brain. And if that were happening, it would be trumpeted from every rooftop on the planet.

So I'm left scratching my head and wondering what would possibly persuade someone to print out that bumper sticker, not to mention mount it on their car. It may be well-intentioned, but to me, it's simply cruel.