"hi i'm racist" - The Tragedy of Forest Van Slyke
Some Self Reflection Would Be Nice
Forest Van Slyke identifies as a thinker and a writer. Forest, who goes by “they/them” pronouns, states on their website’s “about me” section:
It took me until my 30s to understand that I was auDHD and what that really meant. I had been going to therapy for 10 years trying to figure out why life was so hard for me, and it wasn’t until I started working with an autistic coach that I felt understood. It was like someone else finally spoke my language.
“AuDHD,” an amalgamation of “autistic” and “ADHD” or “Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder,” is something that can make someone’s life fairly difficult depending on the level of disability that either of those conditions can inflict. Forest is fairly certain that autists who have been conditioned to consider their disability as disabling are…wrong. Maybe they’re right, after all the world at large could do better at making easier paths for those who are differently abled—coming up with unique positions and compensations for those who need them. It’s hard to argue against Philosopher Forest when they rightfully claim that there is “something wrong with society” since I think the general consensus is with discontent. Nevertheless, Van Slyke isn’t the type to be daunted by the specter of something too large or beyond them. No, no, Forest states that they will “help you learn to love yourself and improve your life.” Just. Like. That.
So…how? Even those who do not live with or struggle with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) would adore it if someone could simply come in and confidently state that they could help “improve” their lives and teach them to love themselves. For those living in the world we have been left by our ancestors, this is an incredibly tall ask and such a claim is enough to make plenty of folks roll their eyes. These are things that preachers promise. These are things that charismatic leaders claim. That’s an incredible ability to have—to simply be able to state that as though it is a given to be able to do that and to mean it so genuinely. One of the ways that this internet “guru” wants to help improve your life is by having you buy their book (does this sound familiar to anyone?) about finding joy while being autistic. Aptly titled, Finding Autistic Joy holds within its summary some interesting tidbits, suggesting that the key to joy is in “fighting for autistic liberation” and resisting a “society that oppresses you.”
From just the front page of Van Slyke’s website and the summary of a book, there’s a curious little tingle at the back of the skull. Something feels off. Is it the vague introduction to an “us versus them” mentality? Is it some combination of WordPress site informality of communication? Is it the brashness? Forest’s next work which came out this month, in March of 2024, is titled “Decoding Allistic” and focuses around trying to unravel the mysteries of communication with people who do not have autism. This sounds like something that could be extremely useful for people who struggle every day with finding ways to communicate effectively despite their inability to understand unspoken social cues or their inability to read facial expressions or discern hidden meanings behind words that are otherwise obvious to others—a type of mind-reading that they’ve never been able to grasp. But…is any of this advice actually useful? According to Forest, this is an important book and it has lots of useful information in it…so how are Forest’s communication skills with the wider world? After an examination of their social media, Forest probably shouldn’t be the example for how to decode allistic communication or even autistic communication since well, theirs sucks. Whoops—that’s what felt off-kilter before and it wasn’t just your allistic hindbrain reading into it…
Perhaps the shortest-lived Internet Cult Guru of 2023, Forest has had quite a few chances they managed to fumble here and there, even going so far as to defend their more overt slip-ups in regards to racial terminology that ought not be utilized as a product of…you guessed it: autism. Forest went on to explain that to expect an autistic person (who writes books on how to communicate effectively with allistic people) to not be racist was, in fact, ableist. Without a shred of self reflection to be seen, they then proceed to tweet later on that they have hardly ever cared much for identity politics despite hanging their hat on their disability to prop up a writing career. These slip-ups were common enough to cause some severe friction but it was Forest’s blithe support and promotion of Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray’s monograph, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, that truly landed them in hot water. Described by New York Times columnist Bob Herbert as “a scabrous piece of racial pornography masquerading as serious scholarship,” it took Twitter followers aback that one of their more respected autists would fall for such flagrant racism…but then again, how shocking could it have been? After all, several Black autists had already been raising the alarm. Forest, in long bouts of defense against those who insisted that promotion of this monograph was not the take, consistently betrayed themselves as being particularly naive, unable to parse through instances where a “scientific” study was being intellectually dishonest. In one tweet Forest even thanks someone for their explanations of the work’s “sleight of hand,” stating, “[…]thank you for taking the time to explain to me that people can have agendas and lie.” Because lying is not exactly something that autistic people are stereotypically good at…well, the conclusions draw themselves. But that interpretation is the one with the utmost grace for Forest—that their autism has disabled them to the point where it causes them to become gullible and subject to the manipulations of racists. Nevertheless, if this were the case, if we truly take Forest at their word that their racism is fully upon the shoulders of their autism…perhaps they should not be writing books other autists are supposed to read for advice.
The greatest tragedy of Forest isn’t that they were canceled or that their tweet views and interactions fell off due to the wider knowledge of their unstable ideologies and racial insensitivity. The true tragedy of Forest is in seeing in real time someone folding in upon themselves as a result of social rejection—the cancelation-to-bitter- disillusioned-rightwing-nutball pipeline is stark against the background of their inability to refocus, reprioritize, and reflect. Forest’s tweets devolve into lamentations about “woke culture” and “cancelation,” and their new “PTSD” they’ve developed from being called a white supremacist (join the club, weirdo) on the internet. Bitterness is expected. Anger is expected. Frustration is expected. But if you’re a real one—reflection is expected too, and with Forest: it’s just not happening yet. In fact, it’s going so poorly that Forest’s latest substack article (aptly titled “The Loneliness of the Intellectual”) is about 40% them patting themselves on the back for allegedly being smarter than everybody else. Though the article’s eventual point is a good one (regarding the chilling of free speech especially on campuses across the United States), it takes too much eye-rolling at Forest’s smarmy self-congratulations to get there. We get it, you think you’re smart. Perhaps one of the most basic elements of communication Forest might want to talk about in their next book, “Tame Your Neurotypical Dragon,” (made up title, maybe I should write it) would be “don’t crow about how smart you are, it makes you look stupid.”
Good luck out there Forest, I hope your journey takes you down a path of enlightenment rather than uhhhh whatever you’re doing right now. Book recommendations here.