Jim Carrey Exploits Boy with Autism During Twitter Rant

In another edition of “Famous People Being Dumb on Twitter,” actor and vaccine skeptic Jim Carrey had to publicly apologize to an angry mother after he posted a photograph of her autistic son during his weird Twitter rant on Tuesday.

You can dive into his Twitter feed if you want to read the whole thing, but basically Carrey (who used to date anti-vaccine crackpot Jenny McCarthy) went on a long tirade in which he called California governor Jerry Brown a “corporate fascist” because the governor signed a bill making vaccinations mandatory for all children attending public or private school.

He wrapped up by tweeting a picture of a distressed-looking boy with autism, saying, “A trillion dollars buys a lot of expert opinions. Will it buy you? TOXIN FREE VACCINES, A REASONABLE REQUEST!”

The problem is, he didn’t have permission to use the photograph of teenager Alex Echols – and the boy’s mother Karen Echols was furious when she found out.

The boy’s aunt Elizabeth Welch wrote on Instagram:

“Jim Carrey (yes that one) tweeted out an image of my nephew who suffers from autism and tuberous sclerosis as an example of anti-vaccinations. Alex had these conditions before he was ever vaccinated.

“I’m very disgusted and sickened that a celebrity would use a photo like this that was used in the first place to spread awareness of Tuberous Sclerosis to mock him and and my sister for vaccinations.

“Even if that was not his intended outcome, it is what happened. Please spread this, and let’s try to get this tweet removed.”

Carrey removed the tweet and apologized, at the very least, but it kind of undermines his concern for children with autism when he uses them as props instead of respecting their boundaries as human beings.