Denis Leary Needs To STFU About Autism

Sigh. Well that's one more person off my ever dwindling "like" list. Denis Leary has some choice words for autistic parents in his new book, Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid, Denis makes the statement that: "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." Source

Denis Leary has obviously never met an autistic person or he couldn't possibly make these comments in good conscious. In fact, the biggest problem diagnosing autism early enough is that the first signs, when they are merely a few months old, are so subtle that its hard to tell something is wrong: an inability to make bonding eye contact,  a tendency towards symmetry and mathematical proportions that's unusual for their age, an inability to be affectionate. That doesn't sound like the type of symptoms that make a parent ask why his kid is such a "moron". It's neither inattentiveness or competitiveness. His remarks are better directed towards (although still a little inappropriate) those with Attention Deficit Disorder, not autism. That's like attacking someone with cerebral palsy.

But then this is someone who thinks you take a kid with autism to a shrink instead of a qualified medical specialist. A mere read through the Wiki or a medical dictionary on this disorder is enough to know that its no one's fault, and is not just some mental disorder from lousy parenting (or trust me, people like me would be vegetables). I knew the guy was a dick, his stand up comedy proved that...but there are some places you just don't go. Let me remind you of something Denis. You're just another moron who's destroyed his brain with drugs and alcohol, who's book was only published, because of the coke-driven antics of your earlier career that made you so famous. You're not qualified to have a damn opinion on anything, much less a medical condition. Keep your profane lousy opinions to your stand up comedy, bitching about slow drivers or stupid bank tellers, whatever it is that you do when you're not on that unwatched cable show of yours, and leave the science to the real doctors, mkay?