Denis Leary: Autism Means Your Kid Is Stupid and Lazy

Sassy Smith — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:10:00 GMT

Comedian (I say that term loosely) Denis Leary has written a new book titled Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid. Sounds like a good read. I'm sure he's going to get some fan mail because of it, and by fan mail, I mean hate mail. Why? In his book, he says that children diagnosed with autism, are in fact not autistic - it actually means they're stupid and/or lazy. Oh boy.

This is what Leary wrote:

"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 wrote in response:

"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."

You know, it takes a lot to offend me. I can take harsh humor, black comedy, and sarcasm with the best of them, but I'm sorry, is that snippet from his book, supposed to be funny? Is that the best he can come up with? That's witty?

As a mother of a special needs child (who, without going into a ten page explanation of his diagnosis, does display characteristics associated with the autism spectrum), I find Denis Leary's comments offensive. I'm not an inattentive, bad mother who shoved her kid at a shrink because I thought he was too stupid to join in with the other children, or whatever the hell it is Leary's trying to say. It's narrow-minded individuals such as Leary who make it hard for us parents of children with special challenges to get the help we need sometimes, and to make others realize, that what we live is real and not something we caused by being "inattentive," or "competitve."

I'm sure Mr. Leary's book will be a big seller, seeing as the 51-year-old is about as relevant as his washed-up comedy is.

Bite me Denis Leary.

[Source]

FameCrawler : celebrity douchbag

Denis Leary: Autism Means Your Kid Is Stupid and Lazy