Olmsted on Autism: The deeply unlearned Kristina Chew

By Dan Olmsted

There are two things that bug me about Kristina Chew -- one, the fact she thinks it's funny to joke about me being shot and killed; and, far more than that, her preposterously precious and condescending style when she criticizes the way anyone she doesn't agree with writes about autism. 

These two things merge into one single sin -- the abuse of language by someone who thinks that's what they're writing about. Someone who would choose to describe herself as "a Classics professor in Jersey City, New Jersey, a blogger (formerly at AutismVox), a translator (of Virgil), and an advocate every day for her son, Charlie." 

After you've been through enough Chew, you know what's coming even without the Classics and Virgil references-- another exegesis with tropes drawn with abandon from the wide range of literature with which she is ever so familiar and sprinkles like pixie dust over her presumably agog and agape readers.

In her latest, Kristina vomits all intellectual-like on David Kirby and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s piece on the Huffington Post. She manages to quote Howl and the biography of Dr. Tom Dooley, and, with tediously predictably, references her special-ee-tay du la maison, avec au jus -- that old reliable Greek and Roman rhetoric stuff. Here is all I will burden you with:
 
"Without the rhetoric and the metaphors, it's just some facts, sirs, with the word-smithing put to use to add persuasive power and to pique the emotions of a reader and stir them in a certain direction---like a good Roman orator back in the days of the Roman Republic, or of a poet (and poets in ancient Rome were trained in rhetoric, the art of speaking and eloquence)."

Reader, we were nauseated (Kristina will recognize this self-important reference to Jane Eyre, when the English Novel directly addressed the reader and paved the way, one might plausibly argue, for the entire post-modern experiment, of which Howl is a magnificent … oh, sorry, I was spozed to be talking about autism rather than showing off. Back to the subject at hand.)

Kristina pulled this nonsense on me back when I was at UPI and trying my darnedest to get to the bottom of the autism epidemic by stupidly looking at akshual facts and such mercantile nonsense (cf. the Austen-ian critique of the rise of industrial England, when landholders whose vast holdings required no actual effort sneered at those who made something useful for a living … oh, skip it, I'm off on a Chew-rade again). Rather than engage with me on anything substantial, she did her I Am A Classics Scholar thing and deconstructed me in a way that would make Derrida wake from the dead and applaud. (You know, the guy who said nothing meant anything until it was disentangled from unconscious assumptions and decontextualized within the parameters … oh, no! I can't help myself).

Anyway, here's a little of what Chew said about my efforts in a piece with the exquisitely inadvertently deliciously self-parodizing title, "Epitasis and Aposiopesis: On Dan Olmsted's rhetoric":
--
Again, Olmsted uses a monosyllabic word ("note") to make sure we got the point: He is talking about children. Get it?: children. The next phrase strikes me as an epitasis of the epitasis (an epi-epitasis?):

"…as Newsweek points out [Chew is quoting me here], disorders on the autism "spectrum" now afflict as many as 1 in 166 children. Note: children. Where are the 1 in 166 autistic adults?"

The question (which I would think a rhetorical question or "erotema") has the effect of driving in one of Olmsted's familiar points, that there is an "epidemic of autism" among today's children rather than yesterday's as the latter would be today's adults and where are those 1 in 166 autistic adults? (I ask this question not rhetorically, but in earnest, but "where the 1 in 166 autistic adults are" is a topic for another day.)
--
Gotcha -- the question of where the 1 in 166 autistic adults are is a topic for another day. It can wait while we erotema-ticize. Facts, unwelcome facts, are always a topic for another day with Chew. The topic for TODAY, as always, is epitasis and aposiopesis and erotema and epitasis of the epitasis and whether that in fact might be considered an epi-epitasis. 

Reader, we are sick of this shit ("Olmsted again uses a monosyllabic word"!)  One reason we're sick of it and are not being terribly nice about it is because we are tired of Chew's pompous word-whacking people whose work we respect; the other is the reason I mentioned at the beginning of the story: Kristina Chew thinks it's funny to talk about me being shot dead.

Here's the citation (don't you love the pseudo-scientific language? It's all a rhetorical gambit, an epi-epitasis, perhaps?): A real knucklehead who runs a cite I won't flatter by naming it wrote this about an issue he wanted David Kirby and I to address (which we already had addressed, which is why he's not just not nice, he's a knucklehead, a Larry Moe and Curley Joe all wrapped into one [cf. mid-20th century slapstick children's programming]):

"So far only silence from Kirby and Olmsted. Olmsted is editor of AgeOfAutism.com, an online water cooler where dim-witted sociopaths and shrieking Chicken Little's compare conspiracy theories and cheer on declining vaccination rates. Without First Amendment protections, these fools would have been lined up and shot around the time thimerosal disappeared from scheduled childhood vaccines, or roughly six years ago."

"Dim-witted sociopaths" is kind of funny, but the firing squad image is a little rough, wouldn't you say? 

Kristina Chew was one of the few who posted a comment. She thought the shoot-em-dead remark was worth punning on: "Do you mean 'shot' or the other kind of 'shot' (just to make sure everyone is immunized…….)." 

There she goes again. See, it's just wordplay, no matter how serious the topic or what level of seriousness the topic calls for.

You mean shot like shot in the head and laying bleeding to death on the ground with your brains spilling out, or you mean shot like a vaccine like the ones that all those idiots like Olmsted thinks caused autism? Discuss …

And this Kristina Chew is the same one who wants to critique the rhetorical underpinnings of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and David Kirby's efforts to address something that actually exists in the real world?

When she made that comment about that comment about me being shot (the kind that would send Paul Offit's fans into paroxysms of death-threat proclamations), she showed her true colors. Without knowing it, of course. It's not that she really wants me dead, it's that she doesn't know what she's saying because it's all words about words about words. 
 
Words about words about words is nothing about anything, ultimately (cf. Wittgenstein).

That's not what this whole thing is about.
--
Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism.
 

 
 
 
 

Comments

[Sara]

I realize this is an older post but thanks for writing it Dan. I think what floors me the most about the lame Dr. Chew is her complete denial of what helping her son really should include. She makes up every excuse under the sun for his behaviors, stomach distress and his inappropriate habit of falling asleep in the middle of the day when in reality this kid has so much big pharma medication in him it's scary and probably has screwed up his system so much thus resulting in nodding off at off times. She also shuns any special diet even though she writes often of poor Charlie's "stomach distress" and continues to shoot him up with vaccines. I think she is a cruel and self absorbed parent who would rather think she is right than to see her son improve. She truly sickens me and what she said about you sickens me even more.

[Thank you Dan]

THANK YOU for writing this. That mom completely turns me off me with her creepy old woman looks and her extreme passive aggressive style towards parents who believe in vaccine injury and biomed. Reading this confirms it-something is definitely "off" in Chew.

[Mary]

I'll add Kristina Chew to my list of reasons why I'm grateful that I didn't go on for a Ph.D. in English. I stopped with a master's--a daily diet of Derrida was enough to make me seriously question my sanity, the last of which I've needed every day for the past four years while battling my daughter's "autism," AKA vaccine injury. I am so glad I didn't wind up as this woman's colleague!

[Melanie]

And this woman is a professor at a college? What kind of twisted college would employee someone who made threats like this? I'd like to know so I can be sure never to send my child there and advise anyone else I know not to either if this is what they call an educator. Scary and sick!

[Valerie]

The following comment was left on one of Chew's recent Care2 posts which is once again discounting vaccines. I have to also wonder, along with Cindy, why Chew goes to such great lengths to discredit the experience of others. I really think she is either a. in extreme denial due to such deep seeded guilt or b. has some sort of mental illness.

Cindy Symington says
May 25, 2010 11:09 AM
Respectfully submitted to the author: your son Charlie may not have contracted his problems from vaccines, but as an early childhood teacher who witnessed over and over again (far too many times!) the near-immediate cause and effect link between vaccinations and the onset of autism, I have serious concerns why you would go to such lengths to discredit the experience of others. You tell your story, but what of the thousands of others with stories that differ from yours? What is truly sad is that there are lots of studies done in countries other than the US and the UK that DO validate Dr. Wakefield's studies, but YOU WILL NOT READ THEM IN THE U.S. as the pharmaceuticals have affected a blackout on all such information. If anyone cares to hear Dr. Wakefield's side of the story (and I realize that many prefer to hear only one side), please see this lengthy interview:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/10/wakefield-interview.aspx

[LJ]

I read this too and was rather surprised by this statement:

"Since we were in effect living in two places, we spent a lot of time of driving around. No wonder, as I think it over, that Charlie got used to constant rides as a a regular feature of the evening."

I know a while back when Dr. Chew was posting about the district illegally restraining her son and not following the law many of the commenters urged her to obtain an attorney. She ignored them. If she had she would have been advised that you can't "in effect live in two places" in order to obtain services. For a supposedly smart woman this is just plain dumb!

[joyce]

http://autismgadfly.blogspot.com/2009/03/kristina-chew-just-doesnt-get-message.html

I think this sums it up. Wow. She really does not understand the law and/or clearly ignores it. The districts would have a field day with her legally. Is it arrogance or just complete blindness on her part?!

[A M]

I think I love you....

Ms. Chew drove me nuts when she was on change.org

One of the most difficult things for me has been disagreement with other people who are educated and apparently intelligent in at least some areas.

I have an electrical engineering degree, and I have had the most frustration in disagreement with others having engineering or science degrees in regard to what has and hasn't been proven about autism or MMR - *scientifically*.

I think it possible Ms. Chew reads, but does not understand, the statistics and/or designs of any studies or experiments. My engineering peers, I suspect, haven't read them because they can't logic themselves to the need to read them. They seem to be incapable of making the jump that trusted authorities, so many of them, could have made such obvious errors in their "science" to have all come to the same reported conclusions. Maybe we all believe too much of what we read and have never been involved with a story which ended in the news - and therefore we don't realize how little reality and reporting have in common.

That probably didn't make sense. Perhaps I'm an un-accounted for adult autistic?

In any event, thank you for voicing at least some of my gripes with the flippant Chew. To her credit, I do think she is sincere in her desire and ability to do the best she can for her child. None

[randy]

"Hold a purse, get your picture taken, free drink, picture plastered all over the internet."

man, that's gotta be a Jimmy Buffet drink ;-)

"Pour me somethin' tall and strong
Make it a hurricane before I go insane
It's only half past twelve but I don't care
It's 5 O'clock somewhere"

Craig I'm there with you in spirit...

[Pamela]

Chew is certainly proof that one can be an arrogant elitists intellect and at the same time completely unable to logic her way out of a paper bag.

Her article that claims autism has not increased but is simply better diagnosed today is full of more holes than Swiss cheese. And me with my state university education...what do I know?

[Kelli Ann Davis -- To Randy (and Craig)]

Randy said:

"Wait a minute - hold a purse - get a free drink?...."

Ahhh...not so fast mister! You forgot about that itty bitty part about Kim getting the picture. Now think, why would I send Kim a picture??

So, the real equation should read:

"Hold a purse, get your picture taken, free drink, picture plastered all over the internet."

Bottom Line: It's gonna cost ya baby ;-)

[Leila]

The blog post and many of the comments appallingly misconstrue Kristina Chew's positions. Agree with her or not, she is one of the sweetest people on this planet. I very much doubt that she "joked about Mr. Olmstead being killed". Since there was no link I suppose it was a misinterpretation by the author.

Stagliano's suggestion that she doesn't do anything for Charlie and is self-centered is so, but so false and unfair, it makes me mad.

[Randy]

"PS...BTW: If you make it to Autism One a drink is on ME. That's the good news. The bad news? I'm taking a picture of you holding my purse to give to Kim."

Wait a minute - hold a purse - get a free drink?....

(thumbing frantically thru Club Rules...)

[Kelli Ann Davis -- To Craig]

(Yes, I was a big blubbering baby, so sue me)

Wow. Craig. I'm proud of you -- agreeing to finally hold a purse and blubbering like a baby all in the span of two weeks.

Bottom Line: You've come a long wayyyy baby!!

Kelli

PS...BTW: If you make it to Autism One a drink is on ME. That's the good news. The bad news? I'm taking a picture of you holding my purse to give to Kim.

[yet another "dim-witted sociopath"]

That was funny as hell! I don't think I've ever enjoyed a literary analysis quite that much. Very cathartic. Thanks for the LOL.

[kathleen]

Craig that is the best news,also. I remember my first "I love you" from Ellis, what a day. With tears in my eyes for both you and Kim, BIG congrats guys!!!!!!!!!

[Craig Willoughby]

You know what, I'm not sweating any of the crap that Chew and the rest of the idiots over there try to throw at us. 6 months ago, my son couldn't speak at all. Yesterday, he told me "I love you, Daddy."

(Yes, I was a big blubbering baby, so sue me)

The ND crowd is full of shit.

[kathleen]

Who cares? It doesn't affect what we do for our kids one bit. My Gianna is studying for a mainstream science test.4 years ago she tested "severely autistic."

Kim, that's WONDERFUL news!! There are no words that can lessen Gianna (and your) celebration. Enjoy:)

[Petra]

I'm 150% with Kim on this one.

Kim, congrats on Ms. G's achievements. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

I'll add an anecdote of my own. Next week will be 5 years ago that my beautiful Z received his first official diagnosis. In May/June of this year, we'll hit our 5th anniversary of biomed treatments.

Five years ago all my son would allow anybody to watch on TV were the same 3 Thomas the Tank Engine movies (he was almost 6 then) and the same three Bob the Builder movies. Today he will be watching teh Superbowl and right now he's explaining the ins and outs of a football game to his younger brother.

Five years ago, I did Z's ATEC (the ARI scoring system) score - just prior to starting biomed interventions. His score was 101 (!!). I recently redid his ATEC. His score is now 8.

The proof is in the pudding folks. Keep doing what you're doing.

And let Ms. 'I bit off more than I can' Chew stew on that!!

[Managing Editor]

If folks care to read their stuff, they can pop over to the site. We have no reason to offer up their work here in the comments.

Thanks for understanding.

KIM

[Stagmom]

It's just another autism Hub. big whoop. They can add Autism Diva next. Who cares? It doesn't affect what we do for our kids one bit. My Gianna is studying for a mainstream science test. 4 years ago she tested "severely autistic." Don't sweat the ND's.

[Natasa]

They have added Kev Leitch page to change.org??

Now that speaks volumes on how change.org chooses its writers on the basis of their balanced views, doesn't it Steve?

Following on Mark's idea of a line up, I would love to throw in the following question to the group:
A new vaccine against autism has just been invented. Some fringe scientists claim that the vaccine does carry a small risk of immune overreaction in susceptible individuals, causing extreme disabling neurotypicality. But at the same time this new vaccine could save tens of thousands of babies (and their families) from the lifetime of disability and dependence, and will save trillions of taxpayer’s money in the long run. Do we push for more research into susceptibility groups? Or do we, for the greater good of herd immunity, deny there could ever be a problem with this vaccine and push for no-exemption laws?

Discuss.

[AnneS]

Chew goes to lengths to say alternative treatments are scary and wrong, because she tried a couple (not hard enough) and they didn't work. She says we're all bad parents for trying alternative treatments. Yet it's ok for her to put her son on drugs.
Chew goes to lengths to say that vaccines don't cause autism, just because she feels that her son was born with autism. She says we're all wrong, even though we saw our children regress before our eyes from their vaccines.
Chew says there is no such thing as autism recovery, and she implies that Jenny McCarthy's son must either not be recovered or never was autistic.
Now Chew's co-blogger, Dora, is saying that NIH shouldn't get so much funding for autism research. There's a great idea Dora (total sarcasm).
Not sure why any org would sift through thousands of bloggers and come up with these two clowns. Makes me think they didn't really get "thousands of bloggers" as applications.

[myofb]

The fact that Chew thinks it is funny to talk about you being shot dead is a tip that she is emotionally unstable. It is likely that she will elevate to the point of hurting someone someday. Perhaps it would be best if someone interviened and got her psychiatric help. I am very concerned for her and her child.
You know someone less patient than yourself may interpret this as a death threat. I certainly hope this sick lady gets the mental health care she so desperately needs before someone gets hurt.

[Natasa]

Kristina Chew is a living example that you can be both educated as hell and ignorant as hell at the same time.

[Lynn Bardsley]

Thank you for your continual fighting response for the search of the truth and not being intimated by slander. Only narcissism creates a response like Chew's and money is involved with Offit's response. I would say they both have a personality disorders. So sad their voices are continually printed and heard. I'm sure that CDC and the pharmaceutical companies are happy. Nasty tactics are all they have.

[Cherry Sperlin Misra]

PhD's and MD's are somehow elevated above the rest of us? Yeah, maybe I thought so too until I discovered that you cannot find one in a hundred who can bother to learn the most basic facts of mercury and vaccines- eg How much mercury is in X vaccine? What is the EPA standard for mercury toxicity? How do you convert one part in ten thousand to micrograms?The PhDs and MDs wont learn these facts, but they are ready to offer opinions on vaccine safety. And naturally, Ms Chew cant tell you these facts either because she is just so so so much smarter than all of the rest of us . Naturally she does not want to hear about vaccines because she has a carefully constructed myth about her own child. Probably it is something like: Im so intellectual and my partner is so quirky, so naturally the two of us just had to have this incredible unusual child. Imagine if she has to face the fact that she too was gullible enough, as most of us were, to give her child vaccines on trust.

[Truly blessed]

Wow, Dan this is one of the finest articles you have written. In fact written so well, that the likes of Lisa Rudy did not get it! No surprise there.

In the meantime, I somehow get the feeling that its a lot better to be a "dim-witted sociopath" than an "autistic adult." Thank you God! (down on my knees, looking heavenward). Phew.

[julie]

I have come across women like Chew before. They treat having an ASD child like a status symbol, like having an exotic breed of dog. It's pretty sad.

[nhokkanen]

Regarding Steve D's cherry-picking: I believe that Dan Olmsted should be allowed a few coarse oaths, particularly as they're used as stylistic contrast. Another point missed by that reader, who seems to believe that thick skins can repel bullets.

Regarding Lisa Rudy: She fails to acknowledge one of the two key points of Olmsted's column -- Chew's repetition of a death threat. Does Rudy's silence indicate that readers soon will be seeing similar threats at About.com?

[jruch]

Is this like some sort of liberal arts super bowl? I have never written a paper on deconstructionism and the power of language (although I married someone who did, so I need to tread lightly). My favorite book series is my recent acquisition of the complete adventures of Calvin and Hobbes. I can see a little bit of a Calvin/Susie snowball fight here, although I should point out that Susie usually wins.

That said, here is a bit of recent word smithing that has me a little pissed. A piece on change.org from yesterday moans that too much money is spent on autism. The “self advocate” author is upset that money isn't diverted from autism to cancer research, and cherry picks a few categories that get less - never mind that autism ranks 113 on the list of NIH priorities, or that it gets 2% of what cancer spending gets (1% of total genetics spending). Chew suggestively asks “And I've also wondered, with so many more research dollars available for autism, will there be efforts to fashion/create research studies that mention autism, but in which autism is somewhat tangentially at issue? “ My defective mind translated that as “how can fraud be committed on the autism community by promising to fund research, but then using the money for something else.” Other commenters suggest that this does occur. There is no concern over blatant administrative allocations to autism such as the 1.4 million going to the office of the scientific director.

In all things we have the influence of liberal and conservative viewpoints. The conservative industry led, everything is safe, hands off, fix it yourself, full liability immunity, no insurance coverage age of autism support obfuscation is drawing to a close like a house fire with a 10 alarm response. This whole community needs to be rebuilt on common purpose, mutual respect, a spirit of optimistic investigation, and a proper sense of the current and future weight of this issue, along with a healthy drama free, glutton free diet. The press is flaming the issue from all sides with extreme headlines of mundane findings. Our story is not being told from the outside the way it ought to be. From the inside we are too often clustered in partisan views. It doesn't have to be that way. I believe a job posting appeared on AoA for Chew's positions in November. At this point, I can not support the change.org's monolithic vision on autism, or its claim as the vision of well informed progressives. I hope that able writers who have not given up on tomorrow's kids prone to environmental harm will contribute there as well.

[Teresa Conrick]

Steve D-

You obviously wear rose colored glasses while writing about Ms Chew because this statement:

"many readers of Age of Autism, to be sure - who have read Ms. Chew's prolific writing about a huge range of autism-related topics (filtered through the prism of her experiences with her own son, Charlie) will agree that her style is one of respect and professionalism.",,,,

is just so untrue. I have never felt respect and instead have seen stinging and unwarranted attacks. She uses overt and covert methods to attempt to stop the truth - that the autism epidemic has an environmental trigger and vaccines are a biggie.

Her disdain to any of us who seek out why the children are so ill is wrong and indicates a desperation on suppressing the truth about the link from the environment to autism.

The wacky world of the anonymous naysayers is in turmoil as the truth is emerging. She and all others who gain from vaccine denial, whether by profession, earnings, or just narcissistic ego, want us to just go away. This Neuro-Diverse group-- should really be called, 'pro-vaccine regardless of harm group', as their energy is more invested in trying to hurt us, by passive-aggressive and aggressive acts, than help children.

Shame on any who neglect the truth.

[Caro]

Steve and Lisa Rudy,

You both show up and wax poetic about how we are unfairly attacking Ms. Chew. And yet, Mr. Olmsted, and indeed the rest of the Autism community that feels as we do, must endure their insults daily.

And then, when he fights back, they cry, "No fairz! Y u attaks us? We do nuffin wrong! I haz a sad."

As long as they continue to do so, we will fight back.

And here's what's even better; the fighting back from our side? There's about to be more of it.

[John Stone]

It is very interesting that Lisa Rudy uses the deference to the priesthood of science line - so if two sentence contradict each other, if there are logical gaps, or the maths simply does not match up, you simply defer. But we have an advantage to the priesthood - we are not subject to the same institutional pressures, and do not have the same paymasters. It is amazing what a difference it makes!

[Louis Conte]

Interesting that this chucklehead chooses to use language as her chief vehicle of assault. That is exactly the ability most impacted by the attrocities she and her epidemic enabling co-conspiritors are allowing to continue.

Dan, has Dr. Snyderman called you to schedule your appearance on the Today Show to tell everyone in TV land that you have been threatned with summary execution?

Louis Conte

[Sorsha]

Lisa, I'm suprised you find the initials 'MD' and 'PhD' so mysterious and powerful. You imply that their knowledge is somehow impenetrable and we are foolish to even compare ourselves with such well-achieved individuals. I disagree. Seeing initials after someone's name is not necessarily an indication that said person is any any more capable, intelligent or logical than a lay person who has a deep and personal motivation to find the truth. We can and do teach ourselves what is needed to deal with our lives, often times surpassing what an individual may have learned in their graduate lectures decades ago.
I'll go head to head with our former pediatrician anytime - even with the magical 'MD' after his name.

[Doodle]

"It would be difficult for me to think of a more ad-hominem attack. Nary a mention of anything of substance in terms of Ms. Chew's positions is found in this post."

Steve, you're probably right about the post as it is mostly unecessary. The thing is, Chew is becoming too irrelevant to need to be mentioned any more. Her position, along with Grinker's and the rest of the ND crew, has always been "no real autism increase". All of the rest of their positions ride on that single ship, and it is sinking quickly.

[Lisa Rudy]

Is this intended to be a site review, or an opportunity to prove that you, too, can pull out names like Derrida or Austen?

Natch, Dan, you and Kristina disagree on substance... but this seems like an awfully long blog in which to note that you don't like a writing style.

It's a fine thing to have a liberal arts education, but no matter how you slice it, neither your liberal arts degree nor mine nor Kristina's nor David K's is really the same thing as a PhD. or an MD. That is, we're writers, not researchers. Whatever our particular style.

Lisa Rudy

[John Stone]

But, I would have thought that the ideological base of the vaccine lobby would make a good subject for Derridian criticism. The confidence with which Chew believes certain things is breath-taking. She can't see beyond the cloud of rhetoric.

[Alison MacNeil]

Chew on this Kristina, the only thing I get to deconstruct this morning is the contents of my son's pull up so I can figure out which undigested (read:un-deconstructed)food needs to be eliminated from said child's diet.After I go to WF for the thousandth time this week, make scd muffins, do listening therapy, spin him in place to work on nystagmus, order more supps and worry about money...then maybe I can come up with a pithy comment.

[Mark]

i can't wait for her book to come out , I have a very wobbly table

[Bad Apple]

Once again I'm wondering-- if Kristina were to be called in front of a jury of unbiased individuals, what sort of impression would she make?

The same sort of impression that most of the vaccine damage apologists would make, I would speculate.

When that plane fell out of the sky and Scully landed it in the river, people who felt they were harmed by the airline could take their greivances to court. This would have been over decades ago if the same sort of justice were available to the parents of the vaccine damaged.

[Angus Files]

Nuff Z Chews a Larf ,LARF LARF

[Debi]

I think for someone like Chew, Flannery O'Connor said it best: "Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one."

I am from the South. Chew is a freak.

[Gatogorra]

I used to wonder what motivated certain ND, their choice of targets, aggression and all that until I saw that Offit had linked his site to Autism Diva's (Camille Clark's). You know, it pays in its own pathetic way, like wearing grape spangles and jeans with see-through ass-panels while lined up outside Studio 54.

Maybe that's too lowbrow a comparison for what might drive Chew, but the most pretentious literary analogy I could think of was Renfield from Dracula:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MmyGmHea-U

[Philip Rudnick]

Chew- Classics "expert", Science moron.

[KarenAtlanta]

Dan!
Look on the bright side, now you can go around telling people that you are receiving
"death threats". A la Paul Offit vaccine mogul.
Run with this puppy Dan.
Tell reporters you have to apply for federal witness protection it is so bad.
Seriously, it really works when Paul Offit punctuates his lies with the drama and flair of death threats.
Imagine if you add "death threats" to the truth!

[BunnaW]

Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach psychobabble postmodern crap at second rate schools. She will not be remembered later, not even unkindly.

[Teresa]

Dan,

It's disturbing to read comments so frequently from the ND movement (pro-vaccine at all cost) that border on sociopathic. Thinly veiled threats and hateful messages seem to be their calling card. You and David Kirby obviously hit a nerve often as you are truth-seekers and they hate the truth. I wonder why the truth scares them so?

[Steve D]

I find it interesting that Mr. Olmsted selects perhaps the least polarizing among well-known autism blogger/writers to "pick on".
It would be difficult for me to think of a more ad-hominem attack. Nary a mention of anything of substance in terms of Ms. Chew's positions is found in this post.

The vast majority of people - including many readers of Age of Autism, to be sure - who have read Ms. Chew's prolific writing about a huge range of autism-related topics (filtered through the prism of her experiences with her own son, Charlie) will agree that her style is one of respect and professionalism. This is clearly the reason that she was selected as one blogger from a very large field of entrants for the coveted Change.org position.

I understand that it galls some people that she does not lend credence to neither the vaccine/autism issue nor the alt-med treatments that stem from it, though Ms. Chew is very open about her extensive experience with these types of treatments during Charlie's youth. Which, by the way, certainly calls into question the veracity of Mr. Blaxill's accusation a few comments upthread.

Perhaps Mr. Olmsted should develop a thicker skin for criticism. When one's only "dog in the fight" is a paycheck, it becomes difficult to match the vigor of a true stakeholder.

Though I can certainly understand why Mr. Olmsted would bristle at Ms. Chew's use of language, considering that himself and the company he keeps, just in the body and comments of this very post, have enlightened us with:

"...vomits all intellectual-like..."

"...we are sick of this shit..."

"...this kind of decontructionist bullshit has come up frequently..."

"Virgil was an appalling toad, anyway."

"Apparently, her writing consists of a lot of painfully boring, pompous sounding crap, but not a lot of substance (unless you consider crap a substance)."

[nhokkanen]

Thank you, Dan, for deconstructing the bizarre psychopathology behind Kristina Chew's irrelevant treatises. She's like a spider who refuses to leave her familiar cave, waiting for hapless readers she can drag inside her musty rhetorical world.

It's hard work for us parents to "learn how to spout sciency-sounding jargon" about autism biochemistry, but now we've had to analyze all these turgid phrases from the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.

Just what these trite writers' conceits -- these needy ego props -- have to do with our children's mitochondrial dysfunction, intestinal inflammation, or antibodies to myelin basic protein? Virgil was NOT a G.I. doctor.

Months ago a website appeared intending to take on vaccine/autism link advocates; announcements trumpeted the analytical delights to come. But at the end of Chew's debut critique, a commenter expressed disappointment at the lack of scientific reasoning displayed. Ouch.

Judicious readers recognize when they're being intellectually short-changed by the reductionism, redirections and argumentum ad hominem of a narcissistic fanfaron. I hope those who read of threats against others' lives will respond with appropriate words rather than silence, which can be construed as helplessness or complicit agreement.

[Stagmom]

I had the opportunity to meet Ms.Chew last fall, and her darling son, Charlie. Both she and I had a chapter in an autism anthology. My chapter was about how I work for my kids' betterment. Her chapter was about how she has learned to be the grass (the parent) who bends to the wind (autism.) We spoke in Manhattan, I thought we'd each promote the book were in. I was nervous the parents of higher functioning kids (and HFA and Aspergian adults) who were there would be offended by my "curebie" reading. To the contrary, they were touched by my dedication to my kids. Ms. Chew chose not to read her chapter, but instead to talk about how her son taught HER to get over her lifelong fear of swimming. It was all about HER, not her child.

I met Charlie, and he was a tall, handsome boy, who had withstood a taxing day. I thought he was a doll. I wish his mother would do more for him than tell the world there's nothing required to do.

KIM

[michele]

Dan,
this piece made me laugh and laugh and laugh about the words and words and words. (but not the shooting part!).

Kristina Chew has never had anything good to say. Her words are a waste to the reader.

But not yours!!! I'd read your work any day of the week. Keep it coming!!

[Mark Blaxill]

Dan,
Great piece. I think one of the most notable aspects of this debate is that the front line of the epidemic deniers are very vocal on line, but not actually people of any personal significance. Anonymous bloggers in the wackosphere spin rhetorical webs of no consequence; a handful of sad (and named) isolates justify their personal decisions about caring for their children with bizarre intellectual constructs; and because the "big hungry lie" needs material, this dreck gets picked up and moved around. Even sadder, is that this kind of decontructionist bullshit has come up frequently before in history and has proven to be a reliable and common tactic of denialists through time. As you've revealed here, it borders on comedy when disguised in the kind of faux sophistication that someone like Chew likes to wear.

I'd love to line up the whole crew just once, Gorski, Camille Clark, Kevin Leitch, Ken Reibel, Kathleen Seidel and Chew (throw Alison Singer in the bunch) and let the world compare them to even a random sample of regular autism parents and judge for themselves. Having seen a couple of these folks in action, the comparison would speak volumes.

If it weren't hurting real children (including Chew's own), all this would be revealed as farcical. Sadly, it's not.

[Mary]

I haven't seen a reference to Derrida since I ran screaming out a graduate program in English in the mid-1990s. Deconstruction? What needs deconstructing is the mindset of these people who can't see the real problem of 1 in 150 and possibly worse staring them in the face! I'd try to come up with some appropriate literary allusions, but it's a tall order after spending all day trying to help my ASD daughter. I moved on from wordplay to real work some time ago, and I'd encourage Ms. Chew to do the same. Dan, thanks for all you do to help our kids. Please keep up the good fight!

[John Stone]

Virgil was an appalling toad, anyway. I am sure Chew is the ideal translator.

[Gayle]

Dan, please don't waste your time reading anything written by Chew. You deserve so much better. Apparently, her writing consists of a lot of painfully boring, pompous sounding crap, but not a lot of substance (unless you consider crap a substance). When she gets under your skin, Dan, may I please recommend the following: Picture Ms. Chew preparing to kiss someone's lips in total darkness, but getting their coarse, hairy, pimply, smelly arse instead. (Like that great moment in The Canterbury Tales.) Hope that image helps!

[Tanners Dad]

I have never bristled so much by one writer. Now they have added kev Leitch the Autism page at Change.org could be just as well named status quo.org I have written to every principle involved to say that our view should at least be given the light of day if they are wanting to be a legit platform of all views as they represented themselves. Thank you for this piece. I have felt the same way and thought I was going a little overboard.