You can disagree, I am not bothered either way and I was and am not trying to win an argument, just attempting to illuminate why that post was such a problem and evinced such an intense reaction. I don't care either way because I don't post there, and don't even post here anymore but I thought I could help understand for people who don't know the reasons behind it. Not to Godwin, but, think of it in these terms. It would be similar to a nazi joining a Jewish forum. That's what ABA is to a lot of autistics, it's on par with Autism Speaks and a direct threat to our personhood, identity, and rights.
Personally, that is a part of why I avoid a lot of aspie communities online, because I am not interested in being a lab rat and if any therapists want to 'learn' from me, they can fairly recompense me. Many aspies have zero meaningful social contacts and internet forums are a substantial thing for us, but it bothers me when medical professionals take MY life, what I share, and turn it into something like that. I have been kicking around a lot of aspie/autie circles for awhile now, and it happens a lot. These people see the internet as this amazing place to glean us for info and ethically, that is wrong. Especially since they can use what we offer in good faith, against us, to work against our best interests as a collective. For me, I just wanted to find friends with people who understand me, and I them. I didn't sign on to give free representational clinical data or to have pseudoscientific therapies sold to me. I don't like aspies being taken advantage of, either. Aspies have every right to have a place of their own that isn't a fishbowl with people peering in.
That thread didn't look like a 'mob attack' either, I think that's a bit of an exaggeration, unless it blew up after I stopped reading. I don't think you realise the gravitas of what ABA stands for, but as I said, there's plenty of information out there on it that you can research if you're interested in understanding.
Aspies have to stick up for ourselves, and there is no onus on us to be these ideal paragons of human interaction. It took a lot of massive pressure and pointing fingers of naked emperors to draw attention to things that are destructive and abusive to us, such as bleach cures and the treatment of people at the JRC (Judge Rotenberg Centre). Call me crazy, but at my age, I am not going to bending over backwards to welcome someone who wants to cure me and sees me as having a disease. Others, including yourself, may have different opinions. That's perfectly fine. Again, I'm not trying to win an argument, I just thought I could shed some light on why ABA is so controversial and why it is a sensitive subject for a lot of aspies. Who she is as an 'individual' doesn't matter, she had identified herself as being a practicioner of ABA and so there are very reasonable things that can be concluded from that. Seemed obvious she was there for personal reasons and not with a pure or sincere agenda.
Sorry, I totally disagree with you. Whatever the issues people might have with ABA as a practise there is no justification for what was essentially a concerted mob attack on someone who'd only just joined the forum. There is nothing wrong with questioning someone about their job but that wasn't questioning that was a group of unpleasant and judgemental individuals who leapt to instant negative conclusions, based simply on her job title, and launched straight into attack dog mode. They knew nothing about her as an individual, they didn't even give her a chance to explain her personal beliefs, methods or practises, they just assumed she was guilty of something. That is no way to welcome anyone, whatever happened to the practise of assuming that people are innocent until they are proved to be guilty? It was simply wrong. No wonder people are leaving that site in their droves. People should be treated as individuals, with respect, and judged on their own merits or lack of them, not on their job title, religious beliefs, race, sexuality or any other single aspect of their life. Prejudging people is prejudice.