Humans...Eww

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Many of the replies to that tweet were autistic people telling him that Autism Speaks is a hate group. He can't pretend he doesn't know.

So how do we know he still supports Autism Speaks?

I found out about Jack Black's support of Autism Speaks because of a livestream he participated in back in early 2021 called "Color the Spectrum" which was hosted by a charity called NEXT for Autism. At first glance NEXT for Autism seems like a normal charity, but upon further inspection you learn that they are not only alligned with Autism Speaks and their cure rhetoric, but they also still use ABA therapy. For those who are unaware, ABA therapy is an abusive therapy that focuses on punishing autistic people into "acting normal."

The backlash was swift and sharp, and was largely framed by the media as "autism activists attacking celebrities for supporting an autism charity."

But every autistic person speaking out against the event was very clear and concise about why it was a problem: the charity alligns itself with eugenics/abuse and there were no autistic people involved in the event.

The guy in charge of the event, Mark Rober, was quick to insist that NEXT for Autism didn't support eugenics and only used "safe ABA methods." Any autistic activist knows that's bullshit.

Autism activists did their best to inform all the celebrities involved that they shouldn't be participating in the livestream if they actually gave a shit about autistic people, and as far as I know Rhett and Link (currently of Good Mythical Morning) are the only ones who decided not to participate in the event.

This was probably around the time that people started digging up evidence of Jack Black's decade long support of Autism Speaks.

So basically, a lot of autistic people were begging and screaming to be listened to about this and it never gained any traction. There was a petition to cancel the livestream and everything.

Some links for anyone who wants to read up on the issue:

https://roguerocket.com/2021/04/20/mark-rober-faces-backlash/

https://crippledscholar.com/2021/04/20/boycott-color-the-spectrum-finance-the-spectrum-instead/

the first image is a screenshot of this livejournal post (source here) from March 12, 2013 with a headline that says, "Jack Black to Emcee All-Star Line-Up at Autism Speaks Benefit." below is a picture of Jack Black smiling down at the camera.

the second image is of this tweet (mirror post on instagram) from Jack Black's twitter account, @/jackblack, on April 22, 2018 that says, “where it’s at #LUTB #AutismSpeaks @/beck @/autismspeaks." attached to the tweet is a photo of him with Beck David Hansen, also known mononymously as Beck.

the third image is a screenshot of this article from April 28, 2021 headlined, "Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Sandler among celebs slammed for supporting autism fundraiser." below is the sentence, "some of Hollywood's biggest stars are in the sights of autism activists for taking part in an upcoming livestreamed show to raise money for an autism organisation."

the fourth image is from the same article and says, "on April 30, celebrities including Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Sandler and Jack Black will appear at a livestream to raise money for the autism charity Next For Autism which the critics allege is aligned with Autism Speaks."

the fifth image is of this article (the first link above) from April 20, 2021, with sentences written in bullet points. it says, "YouTuber Mark Rober is facing backlash for hosting a star-studded fundraiser with Jimmy Kimmel for the charity NEXT for Autism. Rober announced the fundraiser in a video on Friday where he shared that his son is on the autism spectrum. Many online, including several people in the autistic community, said NEXT supports finding treatments and cures for autism, something the community does not believe in. Some also were frustrated that the group supports the controversial practice of Applied Behavioral Analysis, a therapy that targets and changes certain social skills.. Following the criticism, NEXT released a statement saying it does not support finding a cure for autism and that while it does deal with ABA, the practice has changed over the years and it does not support dangerous variations."

When it hatches as a caterpillar, it lowers itself to the ground on a strand of silk, and then produces a chemical that smells like the larvae of ants. An ant eventually discovers it, lured by the scent, and brings it back to the anthill, where it is cared for by the colony until it pupates. After a few weeks, the adult butterfly crawls back up through the anthill, through the dirt and the winding tunnels, and out into the sunlight before it can finally open its wings.

Some say that the caterpillar “tricks” the ants into doing this. I don’t know if I agree – I think it’s too small a thing to accuse of guile, don’t you?

With this in mind: Once upon a time, there were seven dwarves.

They lived and worked in the mountains, mining for gold and jewels and precious things. And one night, after a long day’s labour, they heard a knocking at the great stone doors of their mountain.

Outside, shivering and small, they found a human child.

I’m sure you can guess most of what she told them. Stepmothers were involved – it’s not important. What’s important was that each of the dwarves felt a dire and pressing need to care for the child, and they took her into their home, fed her, clothed her, and gave her a warm bed to sleep in. And many seasons passed around that mountain, with the dwarves raising the child as one of their own, until one autumn’s day.

The girl laid, slender and still, in a coffin of spun glass. And some weeks later, one of the dwarves had the idea to call for a prince. This was of course the sensible thing to do, and the prince of a nearby kingdom who listened to the story thought an ensorcelled girl would be a grand thing to rescue.

Poor devils. It feels cruel to judge them. But there were so many questions they could’ve asked – what was this stepmother’s name? Was she real? Did she exist? Who had made the glass coffin? Surely one of them must’ve thought of the question. And why did it grow more opaque with every passing day?

Were they wrong to trust?

I guess it doesn’t matter now.

The moment the prince stepped into the subterranean chamber with the glass coffin, it shivered with a twinkling, plinking noise. Threads of glass exploded into glittering, razor-edged confetti.

A claw split the great glass cocoon.

The thing that spilled out of it, hulking and huge, knew in the fog of its mind, in a base animal sense that screamed, that it was in a room too small for it to fit. It wanted up. It wanted out.

In front of it was some twiggy little thing holding a sword.

It took its first breath.

The flames were the colour of cornflowers.

The dwarves fled. The thing followed close behind, up, up, up through the stone and the winding tunnels, not to chase, not to hunt, but to get up, to get out, out, out–

It struck the great stone doors at a run. They crumbled like gingerbread. And then there was sunlight, and the open sky…

And it could finally open its wings.

Convergent evolution is a hell of a thing.

The dragon, of course, lived happily ever after with its loot of gold and jewels from a hastily abandoned dwarf mine. Being much bigger than a caterpillar, we could accuse it of tricking the dwarves who were kind to it, had taken it in, had fed and clothed and warmed it.