I wouldn’t worry much about John Best. He’s obviously fringe / crackpot—more effectively ignored than explicitly addressed.
Just my two cents as a peripheral participant in special needs advocacy. Since you are more involved in the advocacy movement, your perspective may be different.
I concur, he’s not worth taking seriously. However, when he and less-ranty people say the same things all the time and they’re aimed at you, it hurts less if you point out (not in any of his spaces, obviously) that he’s being irrational and ridiculous. You are correct that engaging with him directly would be a bad idea and writing a thoughtful critique of his ideas would probably be wasted effort. That’s why you don’t see me commenting on his blogs. I’m just needling here. It’s also there for anyone else who’s read his stuff and felt insulted, angry or heartsick to read and realize no one believes him. (My entire online not-allistic identity is designed to make autistic people feel better when they read it.) Best is also so easy to mock that I’m not fully convinced he’s not a troll, but that’s a lot of effort for a troll to go to over quite a long period of time.
In the spirit of constructive criticism:
I wouldn’t worry much about John Best. He’s obviously fringe / crackpot—more effectively ignored than explicitly addressed.
Just my two cents as a peripheral participant in special needs advocacy. Since you are more involved in the advocacy movement, your perspective may be different.
I concur, he’s not worth taking seriously. However, when he and less-ranty people say the same things all the time and they’re aimed at you, it hurts less if you point out (not in any of his spaces, obviously) that he’s being irrational and ridiculous. You are correct that engaging with him directly would be a bad idea and writing a thoughtful critique of his ideas would probably be wasted effort. That’s why you don’t see me commenting on his blogs. I’m just needling here. It’s also there for anyone else who’s read his stuff and felt insulted, angry or heartsick to read and realize no one believes him. (My entire online not-allistic identity is designed to make autistic people feel better when they read it.) Best is also so easy to mock that I’m not fully convinced he’s not a troll, but that’s a lot of effort for a troll to go to over quite a long period of time.
Thank you for your advice, however.