Actor Denis Leary is the author of the new book ‘
Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid’, which mostly writes about autism and how parents mishandle them.
One of the quotes from the book is the following:
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.
I am sure many parents with autistic children will be offended with such ignorant and insensitive comments. To quote such things without proper scientific evidence or evidences will only create more controversies.
The Autism Society of America is appalled with these quotes from Leary. They released the following press statement to
New York Post:
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.
Leary also quoted
similarly in his interview with
Vanity Fair. He was asked what his favorite chapter in the book, and he replied “Autism Shamautism” as his favorite. And when he was told that autism volunteer actress Jenny McCarthy will picket his book tour, he replied that it will help sell more books.
