Denis Leary has a new book coming out called “Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid”. In the book, he calls Autism a JOKE. What a freaking publicity grab, and a shameful one as well. US Magazine is quoting Leary as saying:
“There is a huge boom in autism right now because inattentive mothers and competitive dads want an explanation for why their dumb-ass kids can’t compete academically, so they throw money into the happy laps of shrinks . . . to get back diagnoses that help explain away the deficiencies of their junior morons. I don’t give a [bleep] what these crackerjack whack jobs tell you – yer kid is NOT autistic. He’s just stupid. Or lazy. Or both.”
The Autism Society of America has fired back: “For Mr. Leary to suggest that families or doctors conspire to falsely diagnose autism is ridiculous . . . [His] remarks reflect the same misconceptions of autism being caused by bad or unemotional parenting that were held over 50 years ago.”
Snarkista and Snarkista Jr. have worked with autistic kids for many, many years…and have watched the explosion of the disorder up close and personal. Their parents are FAR from inattentive, they are trying everything they can to help their kids, and as a result are usually exhausted. Many times these kids have perfectly normal, well adjusted siblings…which is pretty amazing considering the incredible stress the parents have. So your “bad parenting” theory, Denis, is insane.
Ever try to find a babysitter for an autistic kid? GOOD LUCK. The reason many of these kids can’t compete in school is because they are DISABLED. They may not speak. They may be frightened by normal objects or situations. They may take off and run for hours if they are upset. They may sit in a corner with their hands over their ears because of extreme sound sensitivity. They may have extreme food allergies and not be able to digest like normal kids. These kids cannot process the stimuli around them…it all comes at them at one time. They can’t compartmentalize it like we can, and it results in complete sensory overload.
Obviously Denis has never been around an autistic child. He and Michael Savage need to STFU and walk a mile in the shoes of family dealing with autism. What a crappy way to try to sell a book. Boycott it. Maybe it will teach this clown a lesson.