r/autism mods banned me for speaking out

CONTEXT: in r/autism there is a rule that prohibits autismspeaks propaganda to be shared. That's because autismspeaks is a literal eugenics organization that only cares to eradicate autistic people and find a "cure" to autism (which is an anti-scientific take as you can't cure autism and it's been known for a long time to be just a different kind of brain structure)

ok now that we got that out of the way here's the story:

I had a little identity crisis about my diagnosis (lvl 1 autism) and vented about it expressing my anxiety on the topic, and then a user replied inferring that i was self-diagnosed and sent some articles showing the raads-r (the test i took with my specialized psychologist) not being accurate: one of these studies was funded by autismspeaks (which is not allowed by the rules of the same server) so I told the mods about it. These are the logs

So then seeing i was going nowhere I posted my account of the story, and got my post taken down by mods, posted the logs, and they took it down. I don't have logs of my further conversations with the mods, but in one message they said "if we let propaganda on, we're in the wrong, if we suppress discussion we are in the wrong" not even acknowledging the gravity of the situation. Then i made this post calling out the mods for not doing their job, it got taken down, posted a screenshot of it again, took that down and banned me.

they took down my post under the guise of "continuing arguments that has been resolved" which was not at all resolved bc the link to the autismspeaks funded paper was still there and they didn't take action towards the user who posted that. They only did that bc my posts made them look bad, as letting a eugenics organization against autistic people have their propaganda posted on a half a million users subreddit from all over the world is something reprehensible in an autism community which is supposed to be a welcoming space for autistic people. To reddit mods it's always about the powertrip and even in a community that should be welcoming to autistic people they are not willing to take a stance and make people abide by the rules.

9 comments

PTB.
Don't get me wrong- you definitely got tilted, you definitely went for the throat and lost your cool. You know all that.
But I went and looked at /r/autism and rule 3 is literally, "No pseudoscience or spreading misinformation, no Autism Speaks, no cure-related posts." Emphasis mine. That's cut and dry right there!
I get that they took the time to explain why they wanted to let that other person's comment stand, and it's obvious that other person cut-and-pastes their reply, but they should be told to alter it because it's flagrant rules violation.
Also... I gotta add. If you're going to moderate a space for autism, the one thing you have to make absolutely certain you do is abide by the rules. You can't just have a rule, and let people selectively disobey it, or you're asking for people to react... well, exactly like the OP here did.
For anybody reading this who doesn't understand, here's an article titled Autism and Rules: A Hand in Hand Pair. Here's an excerpt-
"The children with autism reported a higher level of frustration with the rule-breaking than social exclusion as compared with the control group. Their brains also showed an over-active insula during the rule-breaking. The insula is an area of the brain triggered by intense emotion."
Absolutely nuts. So I want to say, yes, obviously, the reaction to the mod not doing anything was waaaay overboard, but considering this is a person with a diagnosis of autism, and the subreddit is for autism, and it is an explicit rules violation, PTB.
ETA: I actually looked through, and refrained from replying to several other comments because they seem like they're coming from people who might not understand an autism diagnosis. I'd go so far as to say that some people diminishing the OP's outrage over the rule violation, a known thing with an autism diagnosis, seems very ableist.
The fact that some people are expected to follow rules to the letter while others can flout them with no consequences is not only confusing to someone whose brain doesn’t automatically conform to neurotypical social hierarchy norms, but it also feels morally wrong. In other words, many autistic people are highly justice-oriented, and not following a rule can actually make them feel physically uncomfortable and even sick.
I am by far and away not an expert on ASD, but I have a lot of experience with it as a caregiver for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, and for my family members. And best friend. And godson. My point is, the rule thing is very well known. Getting upset at someone (even someone who doubts their diagnosis) for having a classic symptom is bullshit. Especially in the one place where it should be respected- a forum dedicated to the diagnosis.
And unfortunately for me, the justice thing overlaps with my presentation of ADHD. So I'm giving myself a candy bar for not engaging the other people who seem super ableist, who probably just didn't know this, and I'm going to try real hard not to reply to anybody who tries to ruffle my feathers. I hope all ya'll have a great... uh, day? Or whatever.

ydi. you alerted them to a potential rule break, they acknowledged it and talked to you and explained why they allowed it to stay up. they understood your reasoning in their response.
all anyone is really guilty of is not removing a comment that you reported for breaking a rule. the rest was you throwing a tantrum because you didn't get the response you wanted to what you personally deemed to be such a heavy violation that you "lost sleep" over it.
I'm all for holding mods accountable for being unjust, but I think they were very civil on this one.

YDI - There is an obvious disconnect between your "identity crisis" and argument which leads me to believe this is about the drama and not some passionate protection for the autistic community.
Also, multiple mods calmly explained their reasoning and you started screaming at them. Yeah, that gets a hard 'nope' from me.
- their reasoning disregards their own rules, i admit that i did this out of anger and i may have come off as if i was making drama but it was not like that. The thing is I started making ruckus on the server bc i genuienly felt this needed to be called out. I'm very against things like autismspeaks for reasons listed on the post above. The disconnect from the identity crisis and the interaction is due to the fact that the argument was not about my identity crisis but the fact they didn't abide by their own rules and ignored many points I've made

YDI.
If you ever doubt your diagnosis again, look back on this event my friend: you totally hyperfixated and lost emotional regulation. This is a classic ASD moment right here :)
(Also asd)

Sorry, because I understand where you're coming from, but this is YDI
You were way over the line in your behavior towards them. You didn't get banned for speaking out, you got banned for being extremely aggressive and nasty in your communications.
I get it, it's a touchy subject and autism speaks is a shitty thing. But the mods were taking you seriously, communicating with you about their reasoning in a calm and direct manner. You weren't banned until after your behavior went too far.

PTB. If everything you say is accurate, the mods did not handle that in an appropriate manner.
If they have a blanket rule against AS, then they should enforce it. If they wanted to preserve open discussion, they should've asked the the other user to ammend their comment removing the offending links, and this all would've been avoided.
Yes, OP did get rather heated, but I think their reaction was understandable, if not justified.

Ydi. You couldn't stay civil, and the moderators were reasonable. You might disagree with their point, but that doesn't make them assholes. After which you explicitly did things they had told you not to do. Not sure what else they could have done.

PTB
Reddit has died

9 comments