My take on these online petitions is that they’re just for industry shills. So you wanna start a covertly industry-backed autism awareness campaign? You make a petition that says “Autism is bad mmmmkay.” And then you get your lobbyist a meeting with an advisor to the director of health and human services and an assistant advisor the President and your lobbyist says to them, “Look guys, here’s a ‘grass roots’ campaign that agrees with everything I just said.”

Then “magically” the President cites a “grass roots” “citizen’s campaign” when he signs off on some major industry payout. The gravy train is too long to believe in conspiracy theories when basic principles of corruption will do.