As an autistic neurodivergent individual, I am determined to be clear on the importance of early acceptance and communal support for anyone on the spectrum.
I had measles as a kid, as well as all other childhood ailments common to my generation. So did my little sisters.
I received no vaccines except for the polio shot and neither did they. Only I am on the spectrum; we received identical parenting—or as much as could be expected, under the circumstances—and all of us are ridiculously healthy people.
I, however, am my parents’ only kid on the spectrum. Given our astonishing similarities in affect, temperament, abilities and deficits, my dad is as well, just undiagnosed.
Autism can be a life sentence of persecution and pain or it can open doors unimaginable to the neurotypical ones among us.
Be kind to everyone and for the love of all that’s holy, vaccinate your children.
As the father of a teenage son on the spectrum I applaud you for writing this. (He's doing amazing btw. The resources and medication have been a godsend)
Oh, Joe. You just don't get it. Mother-blaming for autism will get us to the next phase of Project 2025, in which the government will force women with children out of the workplace and into a Trad Wife role - or is it 'Stepford Wives' - or maybe Handmaid's Tale. Margaret Atwood was prescient.
And no offense but I hear the whole "I stand with Canada" thing and the like hundreds of times a day. What are you DOING about it is the question you must answer. Not to me, to yourself.
I'm actually an autistic person (diagnosed in 2023) and a Bulwark+ subscriber. I also got my PhD about a year and a half ago and currently work as a postdoc at an Ivy League institution, where I do biochemistry research. I'm 30, live independently, and am financially in good shape.
Do they seriously think that outcomes like ours are worth preventing? Do they think that risking their children dying of measles is preferable to having their children end up like us? Did they seriously think that there were no autistic people before? Or could they not even fathom the possibility that we're just better at detecting and testing for it nowadays?
If anything, it's quite possible that we're still underestimating the true proportion of people who are autistic. In 2000, the CDC estimated that 0.67% of 8-year-olds are autistic (https://www.cdc.gov/autism/data-research/index.html). As of 2022, the rate was 3.22% (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/74/ss/ss7402a1.htm). We still don't know what the true rate is, as the upward trend hasn't flattened out yet and there still isn't a whole lot of awareness. In any case, it's the same argument used about homosexuality, about being transgender, about left-handedness (anyone know the left-handedness graph meme?), and about various mental illnesses, that it's somehow an "epidemic" or "social contagion" because of how all of the sudden the rates of that phenomenon started "rising" very quickly.
Personally, as an autistic woman, I often wonder—okay, I don’t wonder, I believe—neurodivergence is genetic. Whether drift or a step on the evolutionary ladder remains to be seen
It is genetic (https://medschool.ucla.edu/news-article/is-autism-genetic). Autism (and ADHD, for that matter) tends to run in families. I ran my own 23andMe data through Promethease and it found genes related to increased likelihood of autism. We don't know the evolutionary purpose of autism, but it had to have some, or otherwise it wouldn't have been passed down.
Could you write RFK, Jr., and save us all some money and have him focus on something "curable"? Not that I have anything against autism...many of my brightest students were on the spectrum, as well as my trans niece. Is there any research linking trans kids and autism? I've read some studies claiming a correlation, but it sounds as if you are a reliable advocate.
I recognize viscerally the pain and fury I read in your words. We are pretty awesome. Why can they never listen to us when we tell them about ourselves?
Hey did you know they considered diagnosing dogs like 6 decades before they really started diagnosing women and girls?
Except in the UK - those of us that have Neuro-divergent children do want that "label"
It unlocks one to one school assistance, it enables state funding to the school for sensory materials, for classroom assistance, for monitoring and support - for the education and assistance of children and parents/carers alike.
Perhaps this was an American responding....school children are very mean to some kids with IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) and derisively label them "special ed." I am pretty sure that's what she meant, not the funding/special services part. I was a teacher for decades and the bullying of neurodivergent kids is common..well, until 10th grade.
No one with competent scientific training, or even a lick of common sense, would suppose that there is one, single cause for a wide spectrum of cognitive and behavioral issues such as autism. Never mind identifying that one magical bullet in a matter of months. it's risible.
"So we know that it is an environmental toxin that is causing this cataclysm," says the guy running our government's health system. In fact, "we" know no such thing.
The one factor I am aware of that has been solidly shown to raise the risk for autism is paternal age, similar to the risk for Down syndrome and maternal age. Not all cases are connected to the age of the father at conception but it raises the chances. But age is not an environmental toxin. It's an indication that an older man may produce sperm that has a higher chance of being compromised. But I believe none of this has been definitively proven.
Kennedy is wildly out of his league, even factoring in the large does of demagoguing.
As much as I like the bulwark, as an autistic person I was incredibly concerned when I started this article. Neurotypicals who write about us give 0 care to make sure that their writing and characterization of us isn't problematic, offensive and harmful... Oh around about 99.5% of the time. Neurotypicals don't seem to realize or care how much they harm us, every day of our lives.
I was also worried because the bulwark has spoken in problematic and harmful ways in the past, including recently.
But this article was... Not bad honestly. That's a relief. It's not perfect but for neurotypicals it might as well be. Well done!
I can't even begin to word what is has been like living through this last year as an autistic young person but needless to say that it's incredibly concerning. I don't want to lose the discustingly little freedoms, integration, respect and fair treatment that we fought so hard to inch towards, and we already have too far to go.
I want to become a mother one day, to have a family. I don't want this to be the world that they must face. But a world where we are disliked and marginalized even more? To make THEM face that? To imagine myself having to face that, for the rest of my life?
I can't. I just want to be me as me. I am pretty awesome. I just want to be given as fair a shake at life as anyone. But this is not my past. It is not my present. And it's probably not my future.
Can you please write more and do more videos around the topic that contain autistic voices and speak around this issue? Only if they are respectfully well researched and presented. I recommend to use the terms "neuroaffirmational" and "actually autistic", to use autistic voices, self advocates, this kind of thing. I like the autistic you spoke to in this article, maybe you can get them?
Watching my daughter suffer, and she still suffers, is enough for me to hope my grandchildren are neurotypical. Or not gay, or not blind, or not deaf, or not diabetic. That’s not me reflecting the prejudice of society as a whole. It’s simply me wanting my child or my grandchildren to not have a more challenging life. Yes, life is challenging for everyone, but it can be more challenging than I would like for the people that I care about. I’m sorry, but that is not inherently wrong.
Can you point to specific examples of the Bulwark speaking about autism in such a way? I haven't really seen them talk about autism at all in my entire time as a subscriber (since November 2021), except to reference RFK's anti-vax views.
The recent example I'm thinking about was one of the bulwark people (not the mains tho) basically implying that neurodiverse people and autistic people are inherently unelectable and not viable as candidates. He seems nice in his videos most the time and I know it was just a messy slip of language due to ignorance and not meant to be offensive but... Still problematic. 😞
I am also Canadian so between that and autism, the many many incidents of offensive coverage between the American media I listen to over the last year is kind of all running together in my head so I can't think of other specific examples but I know I've been frustrated at the bulwark regarding autism specifically before.
But the bulwark tends to be way waaay better than most American coverage. So I am grateful for that.
If that's what he said, then I actually don't see that as problematic and harmful per se, especially if the context is a competitive election where the margins are close and every vote matters. In fact, for very competitive elections, it may well be true. Vibes matter and vibes are what wins close, competitive elections with a median voter that responds more to that than to substance. It would be an extremely uphill climb for an autistic person to mask to the extent that is needed for a presidential campaign or a statewide campaign in a purple state. I certainly wouldn't recommend trying to run an autistic person as the Democratic nominee anytime soon for any competitive race.
There are actually a few examples of elected officials who are autistic, but they're all members of state legislatures and none of them are in competitive districts. They are: Jessica Benham (D-PA), a member of the Pennsylvania House representing a district in Pittsburgh, Yuh-Line Niou (D-NY), a member of the NY State Assembly representing a district in the Lower East Side, and Briscoe Cain (R-TX), a member of the Texas House representing a district in suburban Houston. They all have very safe seats and each of them represent a rather strident form of their respective party's ideologies (Benham and Niou are both on the more progressive side of the Democratic coalition, while Cain is quite MAGA). I actually haven't seen any autistic political candidates who are more politically moderate/center-left like myself - I wonder if that's because autistic people tend to have more of a shot in safe seats or because more strident ideological preferences are overrepresented among autistics due to a strong sense of justice and risk of black-and-white thinking.
Going back to my original point though, I don't think it was too bad if this is what he said. The Bulwark staff is all-in on wanting Democrats to win, and I don't think it's a good idea for autistic people to be the nominees in very competitive races where vibes could determine the outcome of the election when the stakes are so high and the Republicans are fascist.
Why would anyone want their child to be autistic? It is so challenging in so many ways. My brother and daughter have suffered so much in their lives, and I have witnessed all of it. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. Quite honestly, that is like saying “Why wouldn’t you want your child to be gay?” The sane response is, “Because I don’t want them to suffer in this insane world.” And before you condemn me for saying that, I have 3 gay siblings. I have watched them suffer.
Autistic special interests can be a very positive thing for both themselves and for society as a whole. In fact, I'd say current events/politics is one of my special interests. Another benefit is that the autistic way of doing things (being more literal, needing things spelled out, wanting more predictability, routine, and forethought etc.) can be positive influences on neurotypical norms as well. A lot of what you said is societal prejudice and not inherent handicaps of being autistic (which can and do exist, depending on the autistic person involved).
You must agree that autism is on a spectrum? Meaning that the range goes from non-verbal to verbal; from being able to live independently to needing to live with a caregiver; from being able to to drive, or not; from holding down a job or not. I think it is a disservice to pretend that all people with ASD are the same. And I agree with Ginny, it is HARDER to live in this world as an autistic person - ask my son. Ask ME what I have witnessed and seen. You are clearly gifted and eloquent - not so for many children on the spectrum - life can be very hard.
Where did I claim that all autistic people are the same? And yes, it is harder to live in the world as an autistic person, but do you not agree that the world has benefited from our presence overall? It’s true that autism brings with it objective disability in some ways, but in some cases it also brings with it advantages (including ones which have benefited society as a whole depending on the vocation of the particular individual), and the particular mixture depends on the person. My point is that it wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing for society if autism didn’t exist. It’s not an intellectual disability nor is it an actual disease. It’s mainly a mixture of disabilities and some advantages in some individuals, and the goal should be to mitigate the disabilities as much as possible while harnessing the advantages.
Not that I in any way agree with RFK Jr's idiotic and insane policies, but a lot of these articles rebutting his 'ideas' rubbed me the wrong way.
Personal disclosure time: I have an autistic half-brother, much younger than I am. It's... bad. Most people, when they think of someone autistic, they seem to think of someone who is good at math and bad at social cues. Maybe they think a bit worse, someone with food sensitivities or absolutely requiring a particular routine.
"L", is not like that. He's almost 18 now, and cannot talk. Keep eye contact. Dress himself. Use a toilet. He is very violent when provoked, and just about anything can provoke him. He's knocked out teeth of both of his parents. He also has scarring around his wrists and hands because sometimes he tries to bite them off.
People who say it's not a disease, that it's just another way to live, look at the world. Maybe that's true for some people on the spectrum. I dare any of them to spend ten minutes with my half brother and say that he isn't deeply, deeply sick, or that a cure for his condition wouldn't be mercy if it was possible.
This sounds awful - I'm so sorry for all of your family.
I have an adult son at the Asperger's end of the spectrum who still finds life astonishingly difficult considering he's bright and articulate. Clearly there's a lot more to discover about ASD as the spectrum does vary so astonishingly from people like Hanfei and her partner to people like your half-brother. And for people like your half-brother, some sort of treatment would clearly be a godsend. I hope that soon some help will come for them and for you.
I'm starting to wonder if it was a mistake to combine Asperger's, classic autism, and PDD-NOS into ASD back in 2013. There's a lot of confusion over all of this. That said, the current ASD diagnosis has "supports needs" levels - 1, 2, and 3, with 1 being the lowest and the one that I'm at along with most people who would have previously been diagnosed with Asperger's. It may be the case that level 1s may need something totally different from level 2s and 3s - I would be careful to make sure that any cure is directed more towards those for whom the disadvantages very clearly outweigh the advantages. For many autistic individuals especially at level 1, their autism has actually helped them in terms of their focus on certain subjects, their strong sense of justice, their literalness, their honesty, and their questioning of social norms.
I can speak to this because I have an autistic child who is 32. I also have an autistic brother who is 63 years old and was never diagnosed. It’s not that autism has become more prevalent. It’s that autism has become more diagnosable. I knew there was something wrong with my daughter because she was incapable of breast-feeding and lost a pound in her first two weeks of life. There were many other milestones that she never achieved before that, supposedly crucial milestone, of 18 months, which everyone blamed on vaccines. Genetics is a thing. And RFK Jr is a crackpot.
As a mother of a child with autism I ask this: do you not think parents want to know why their child has autism? Of course we do!!! We have been studying this as soon as we received a diagnosis for our child. As if we have been waiting around for Jenny McCarthy (blame the vaccines!) or now the Trump regime (idiots like RFK, Jr.) to tell us....as if we do not know it is a complicated and complex analysis that cannot and SHOULD NOT be answered by the government (Trump regime) by "September." This is all such a huge pile or horseshit and gives false hope to parents who want the "easy answer" which is exactly why people want to blame the vaccines which has been proven to be complete garbage by REAL DOCTORS AND REAL SCIENTISTS. Damn you, Trump regime, for your idiocy extending to our kids on the spectrum. They need protection FROM you, not the other way around.
So if the cause is environmental toxins, why is this regime hell bent on doing away with anything that helps keep our air, water, food, drugs etc clean and safe.
RFK, Jr. -- like almost all of Trump's cabinet -- is a DEI hire. Never forget that. I would not have hired him to wash test tubes in my lab, just as I would not have hired Hegseth to clean my toilets.
No false hope. They are all crackpots, liars, cheating scam artists. They know exactly what they are doing. They know thry are causing harm to others for their self- enrichment.
Linking cause and effect, incorrectly, is a common error. Years back a whimsical speculation linked the rate of importation of rare earths with the divorce rate, noting how they corresponded, yet were clearly irrelevant to each other. If 'this,' therefore 'that,' cited without deep study, is a mug's game.
The subtlety of genetic influences, brain function, and a myriad other factors that determine individual, personal evolution from birth to, say, adulthood, is hard to overstate.
As an autistic neurodivergent individual, I am determined to be clear on the importance of early acceptance and communal support for anyone on the spectrum.
I had measles as a kid, as well as all other childhood ailments common to my generation. So did my little sisters.
I received no vaccines except for the polio shot and neither did they. Only I am on the spectrum; we received identical parenting—or as much as could be expected, under the circumstances—and all of us are ridiculously healthy people.
I, however, am my parents’ only kid on the spectrum. Given our astonishing similarities in affect, temperament, abilities and deficits, my dad is as well, just undiagnosed.
Autism can be a life sentence of persecution and pain or it can open doors unimaginable to the neurotypical ones among us.
Be kind to everyone and for the love of all that’s holy, vaccinate your children.
Love this! Thank you! HUGS
As the father of a teenage son on the spectrum I applaud you for writing this. (He's doing amazing btw. The resources and medication have been a godsend)
Oh, Joe. You just don't get it. Mother-blaming for autism will get us to the next phase of Project 2025, in which the government will force women with children out of the workplace and into a Trad Wife role - or is it 'Stepford Wives' - or maybe Handmaid's Tale. Margaret Atwood was prescient.
Of course—it’s always the “nasty” women! Probably his “cure” will be corsets and hoop skirts.
I suspect there is a part of RFK Jr. that imagines he is David Koresh and Maga-hats are his Branch Davidians.
Cults aplenty! And MAGAnificant.
Remember when he was trying to make a deal to be part of Harris' Administration? The dude is mercenary...Nicole Shanahan as his VP candidate? Smh.
Sons of famous people—always a disappointment … just ask Don Junior.
I would use infamous.
Uh bud... You realize she's Canadian, yeah?
No. Just a Canada-sympathizer! I'm a Michigander who went to grad school in Saskatoon.
I meant Atwood lol.
And no offense but I hear the whole "I stand with Canada" thing and the like hundreds of times a day. What are you DOING about it is the question you must answer. Not to me, to yourself.
I'm actually an autistic person (diagnosed in 2023) and a Bulwark+ subscriber. I also got my PhD about a year and a half ago and currently work as a postdoc at an Ivy League institution, where I do biochemistry research. I'm 30, live independently, and am financially in good shape.
Do they seriously think that outcomes like ours are worth preventing? Do they think that risking their children dying of measles is preferable to having their children end up like us? Did they seriously think that there were no autistic people before? Or could they not even fathom the possibility that we're just better at detecting and testing for it nowadays?
If anything, it's quite possible that we're still underestimating the true proportion of people who are autistic. In 2000, the CDC estimated that 0.67% of 8-year-olds are autistic (https://www.cdc.gov/autism/data-research/index.html). As of 2022, the rate was 3.22% (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/74/ss/ss7402a1.htm). We still don't know what the true rate is, as the upward trend hasn't flattened out yet and there still isn't a whole lot of awareness. In any case, it's the same argument used about homosexuality, about being transgender, about left-handedness (anyone know the left-handedness graph meme?), and about various mental illnesses, that it's somehow an "epidemic" or "social contagion" because of how all of the sudden the rates of that phenomenon started "rising" very quickly.
Personally, as an autistic woman, I often wonder—okay, I don’t wonder, I believe—neurodivergence is genetic. Whether drift or a step on the evolutionary ladder remains to be seen
It is genetic (https://medschool.ucla.edu/news-article/is-autism-genetic). Autism (and ADHD, for that matter) tends to run in families. I ran my own 23andMe data through Promethease and it found genes related to increased likelihood of autism. We don't know the evolutionary purpose of autism, but it had to have some, or otherwise it wouldn't have been passed down.
Could you write RFK, Jr., and save us all some money and have him focus on something "curable"? Not that I have anything against autism...many of my brightest students were on the spectrum, as well as my trans niece. Is there any research linking trans kids and autism? I've read some studies claiming a correlation, but it sounds as if you are a reliable advocate.
https://www.thetransmitter.org/spectrum/largest-study-to-date-confirms-overlap-between-autism-and-gender-diversity/
Thanks for the reference!
Beautifully written. Thank you!
I think it is awareness that is going up.
I recognize viscerally the pain and fury I read in your words. We are pretty awesome. Why can they never listen to us when we tell them about ourselves?
Hey did you know they considered diagnosing dogs like 6 decades before they really started diagnosing women and girls?
It's fine, I know my place. Ish...
I haven't seen that they had been considering diagnosing dogs before women. Could you show me where you saw that?
"Do they seriously think that outcomes like ours are worth preventing?"
Outcomes like yours? Probably not. Outcomes like my half-brother? I would think so.
Increased testing and evaluation for Autism is why there is an increase. Just like ADHD etc.. no one wanted the “label” on their kid.
Except in the UK - those of us that have Neuro-divergent children do want that "label"
It unlocks one to one school assistance, it enables state funding to the school for sensory materials, for classroom assistance, for monitoring and support - for the education and assistance of children and parents/carers alike.
Perhaps this was an American responding....school children are very mean to some kids with IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) and derisively label them "special ed." I am pretty sure that's what she meant, not the funding/special services part. I was a teacher for decades and the bullying of neurodivergent kids is common..well, until 10th grade.
Plus they finally realized women existed.
Did you know they started diagnosing dogs with autism before they started wondering about autistic women?
Its fine, I know my place... Ish.
It does here as well. It wasn’t that way in the past.
No one with competent scientific training, or even a lick of common sense, would suppose that there is one, single cause for a wide spectrum of cognitive and behavioral issues such as autism. Never mind identifying that one magical bullet in a matter of months. it's risible.
"So we know that it is an environmental toxin that is causing this cataclysm," says the guy running our government's health system. In fact, "we" know no such thing.
The one factor I am aware of that has been solidly shown to raise the risk for autism is paternal age, similar to the risk for Down syndrome and maternal age. Not all cases are connected to the age of the father at conception but it raises the chances. But age is not an environmental toxin. It's an indication that an older man may produce sperm that has a higher chance of being compromised. But I believe none of this has been definitively proven.
Kennedy is wildly out of his league, even factoring in the large does of demagoguing.
As much as I like the bulwark, as an autistic person I was incredibly concerned when I started this article. Neurotypicals who write about us give 0 care to make sure that their writing and characterization of us isn't problematic, offensive and harmful... Oh around about 99.5% of the time. Neurotypicals don't seem to realize or care how much they harm us, every day of our lives.
I was also worried because the bulwark has spoken in problematic and harmful ways in the past, including recently.
But this article was... Not bad honestly. That's a relief. It's not perfect but for neurotypicals it might as well be. Well done!
I can't even begin to word what is has been like living through this last year as an autistic young person but needless to say that it's incredibly concerning. I don't want to lose the discustingly little freedoms, integration, respect and fair treatment that we fought so hard to inch towards, and we already have too far to go.
I want to become a mother one day, to have a family. I don't want this to be the world that they must face. But a world where we are disliked and marginalized even more? To make THEM face that? To imagine myself having to face that, for the rest of my life?
I can't. I just want to be me as me. I am pretty awesome. I just want to be given as fair a shake at life as anyone. But this is not my past. It is not my present. And it's probably not my future.
Can you please write more and do more videos around the topic that contain autistic voices and speak around this issue? Only if they are respectfully well researched and presented. I recommend to use the terms "neuroaffirmational" and "actually autistic", to use autistic voices, self advocates, this kind of thing. I like the autistic you spoke to in this article, maybe you can get them?
We desperately need all the allies we can get.
Please help us.
I am scared.
Watching my daughter suffer, and she still suffers, is enough for me to hope my grandchildren are neurotypical. Or not gay, or not blind, or not deaf, or not diabetic. That’s not me reflecting the prejudice of society as a whole. It’s simply me wanting my child or my grandchildren to not have a more challenging life. Yes, life is challenging for everyone, but it can be more challenging than I would like for the people that I care about. I’m sorry, but that is not inherently wrong.
Can you point to specific examples of the Bulwark speaking about autism in such a way? I haven't really seen them talk about autism at all in my entire time as a subscriber (since November 2021), except to reference RFK's anti-vax views.
The recent example I'm thinking about was one of the bulwark people (not the mains tho) basically implying that neurodiverse people and autistic people are inherently unelectable and not viable as candidates. He seems nice in his videos most the time and I know it was just a messy slip of language due to ignorance and not meant to be offensive but... Still problematic. 😞
I am also Canadian so between that and autism, the many many incidents of offensive coverage between the American media I listen to over the last year is kind of all running together in my head so I can't think of other specific examples but I know I've been frustrated at the bulwark regarding autism specifically before.
But the bulwark tends to be way waaay better than most American coverage. So I am grateful for that.
If that's what he said, then I actually don't see that as problematic and harmful per se, especially if the context is a competitive election where the margins are close and every vote matters. In fact, for very competitive elections, it may well be true. Vibes matter and vibes are what wins close, competitive elections with a median voter that responds more to that than to substance. It would be an extremely uphill climb for an autistic person to mask to the extent that is needed for a presidential campaign or a statewide campaign in a purple state. I certainly wouldn't recommend trying to run an autistic person as the Democratic nominee anytime soon for any competitive race.
There are actually a few examples of elected officials who are autistic, but they're all members of state legislatures and none of them are in competitive districts. They are: Jessica Benham (D-PA), a member of the Pennsylvania House representing a district in Pittsburgh, Yuh-Line Niou (D-NY), a member of the NY State Assembly representing a district in the Lower East Side, and Briscoe Cain (R-TX), a member of the Texas House representing a district in suburban Houston. They all have very safe seats and each of them represent a rather strident form of their respective party's ideologies (Benham and Niou are both on the more progressive side of the Democratic coalition, while Cain is quite MAGA). I actually haven't seen any autistic political candidates who are more politically moderate/center-left like myself - I wonder if that's because autistic people tend to have more of a shot in safe seats or because more strident ideological preferences are overrepresented among autistics due to a strong sense of justice and risk of black-and-white thinking.
Going back to my original point though, I don't think it was too bad if this is what he said. The Bulwark staff is all-in on wanting Democrats to win, and I don't think it's a good idea for autistic people to be the nominees in very competitive races where vibes could determine the outcome of the election when the stakes are so high and the Republicans are fascist.
LOVE THIS!!! Thank you for posting.
Why don't you want your child to be autistic?
Why would anyone want their child to be autistic? It is so challenging in so many ways. My brother and daughter have suffered so much in their lives, and I have witnessed all of it. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. Quite honestly, that is like saying “Why wouldn’t you want your child to be gay?” The sane response is, “Because I don’t want them to suffer in this insane world.” And before you condemn me for saying that, I have 3 gay siblings. I have watched them suffer.
Autistic special interests can be a very positive thing for both themselves and for society as a whole. In fact, I'd say current events/politics is one of my special interests. Another benefit is that the autistic way of doing things (being more literal, needing things spelled out, wanting more predictability, routine, and forethought etc.) can be positive influences on neurotypical norms as well. A lot of what you said is societal prejudice and not inherent handicaps of being autistic (which can and do exist, depending on the autistic person involved).
You must agree that autism is on a spectrum? Meaning that the range goes from non-verbal to verbal; from being able to live independently to needing to live with a caregiver; from being able to to drive, or not; from holding down a job or not. I think it is a disservice to pretend that all people with ASD are the same. And I agree with Ginny, it is HARDER to live in this world as an autistic person - ask my son. Ask ME what I have witnessed and seen. You are clearly gifted and eloquent - not so for many children on the spectrum - life can be very hard.
Thank you Jessica. It is not prejudiced to wish your child had an easier life. JEEZ!!!
Where did I claim that all autistic people are the same? And yes, it is harder to live in the world as an autistic person, but do you not agree that the world has benefited from our presence overall? It’s true that autism brings with it objective disability in some ways, but in some cases it also brings with it advantages (including ones which have benefited society as a whole depending on the vocation of the particular individual), and the particular mixture depends on the person. My point is that it wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing for society if autism didn’t exist. It’s not an intellectual disability nor is it an actual disease. It’s mainly a mixture of disabilities and some advantages in some individuals, and the goal should be to mitigate the disabilities as much as possible while harnessing the advantages.
What do you mean?
Failing up? This is Trump’s “Best and Brightest”—a careful selection of incompetence and injury, blessed bigotry and racism redefined.
"trump has also appointed other political losers to administration jobs,"
loser appoints losers.
It isn't just unacceptable it is ableist. Neurodivergent individuals don't need to be fix.
Only MAGA needs to be fixed … in the cats/dogs sense.
Have you ever met anyone with level three autism?
Former teacher and principal here. We’ve had students who were non-verbal and hurt themselves through repetitive behaviors.
Yes my niece.
Not that I in any way agree with RFK Jr's idiotic and insane policies, but a lot of these articles rebutting his 'ideas' rubbed me the wrong way.
Personal disclosure time: I have an autistic half-brother, much younger than I am. It's... bad. Most people, when they think of someone autistic, they seem to think of someone who is good at math and bad at social cues. Maybe they think a bit worse, someone with food sensitivities or absolutely requiring a particular routine.
"L", is not like that. He's almost 18 now, and cannot talk. Keep eye contact. Dress himself. Use a toilet. He is very violent when provoked, and just about anything can provoke him. He's knocked out teeth of both of his parents. He also has scarring around his wrists and hands because sometimes he tries to bite them off.
People who say it's not a disease, that it's just another way to live, look at the world. Maybe that's true for some people on the spectrum. I dare any of them to spend ten minutes with my half brother and say that he isn't deeply, deeply sick, or that a cure for his condition wouldn't be mercy if it was possible.
This sounds awful - I'm so sorry for all of your family.
I have an adult son at the Asperger's end of the spectrum who still finds life astonishingly difficult considering he's bright and articulate. Clearly there's a lot more to discover about ASD as the spectrum does vary so astonishingly from people like Hanfei and her partner to people like your half-brother. And for people like your half-brother, some sort of treatment would clearly be a godsend. I hope that soon some help will come for them and for you.
I'm starting to wonder if it was a mistake to combine Asperger's, classic autism, and PDD-NOS into ASD back in 2013. There's a lot of confusion over all of this. That said, the current ASD diagnosis has "supports needs" levels - 1, 2, and 3, with 1 being the lowest and the one that I'm at along with most people who would have previously been diagnosed with Asperger's. It may be the case that level 1s may need something totally different from level 2s and 3s - I would be careful to make sure that any cure is directed more towards those for whom the disadvantages very clearly outweigh the advantages. For many autistic individuals especially at level 1, their autism has actually helped them in terms of their focus on certain subjects, their strong sense of justice, their literalness, their honesty, and their questioning of social norms.
Apologies for the name mistake, my bad!
I’m so sorry.
I can speak to this because I have an autistic child who is 32. I also have an autistic brother who is 63 years old and was never diagnosed. It’s not that autism has become more prevalent. It’s that autism has become more diagnosable. I knew there was something wrong with my daughter because she was incapable of breast-feeding and lost a pound in her first two weeks of life. There were many other milestones that she never achieved before that, supposedly crucial milestone, of 18 months, which everyone blamed on vaccines. Genetics is a thing. And RFK Jr is a crackpot.
As a mother of a child with autism I ask this: do you not think parents want to know why their child has autism? Of course we do!!! We have been studying this as soon as we received a diagnosis for our child. As if we have been waiting around for Jenny McCarthy (blame the vaccines!) or now the Trump regime (idiots like RFK, Jr.) to tell us....as if we do not know it is a complicated and complex analysis that cannot and SHOULD NOT be answered by the government (Trump regime) by "September." This is all such a huge pile or horseshit and gives false hope to parents who want the "easy answer" which is exactly why people want to blame the vaccines which has been proven to be complete garbage by REAL DOCTORS AND REAL SCIENTISTS. Damn you, Trump regime, for your idiocy extending to our kids on the spectrum. They need protection FROM you, not the other way around.
So if the cause is environmental toxins, why is this regime hell bent on doing away with anything that helps keep our air, water, food, drugs etc clean and safe.
RFK, Jr. -- like almost all of Trump's cabinet -- is a DEI hire. Never forget that. I would not have hired him to wash test tubes in my lab, just as I would not have hired Hegseth to clean my toilets.
I am sure that a good percentage of those people and including trump have at least a tiny attention span.
No false hope. They are all crackpots, liars, cheating scam artists. They know exactly what they are doing. They know thry are causing harm to others for their self- enrichment.
Linking cause and effect, incorrectly, is a common error. Years back a whimsical speculation linked the rate of importation of rare earths with the divorce rate, noting how they corresponded, yet were clearly irrelevant to each other. If 'this,' therefore 'that,' cited without deep study, is a mug's game.
The subtlety of genetic influences, brain function, and a myriad other factors that determine individual, personal evolution from birth to, say, adulthood, is hard to overstate.