From the
LA Times blog,
The Dish Rag. Media dis&dat asks: What's up with celebrities making ignorant statements about people with autism?
Some of “Rescue Me” star Denis Leary's rants in his new book, "Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid," are not going to endear the actor to parents of autistic children or the Autism Society of America.
Leary writes: "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 has responded with: "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."
In Vanity Fair, Leary mentions the autism chapter as his "favorite" and hopes that autism activist Jenny McCarthy will picket his book tour.
"That would be really good for me," Leary told VF interviewer George Wayne. "It will help sell more books."
From the LA Times blog, The Dish Rag. Media dis&dat asks: What's up with celebrities making ignorant statements about people with autism?