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There is no genuine debate to be had. No one who has the ability to not be autistic, would choose to be. This is yet another example of how our toxic modern cu

There is no genuine debate to be had. No one who has the ability to not be autistic, would choose to be. This is yet another example of how our toxic modern culture turns everything into an "identity". Some people are less healthy than others. That's potentially sad, potentially not a big deal. Neither way is there any excuse for this faketroversy.

nicoburns 7y ago
This depends a lot on the severity of the condition... I have autistic traits, and although they do cause me some problems, they also give me advantages (an excellent career in software development due to unusually good logical thinking for example). I'm not convinced that I would choose to be otherwise.
- PaulHoule 7y ago
  I think that severely autistic people have an emotional life as real as anyone else, probably more empathy than they are able to express, but neurotypicals have a hard time having empathy for them. Thus i think the puppet is insulting to severe autists as well as less severe autists. It is typical neurological thinking to see somebody different as less than human.
  - watwut 7y ago
    One problem is that the lack of ability to express empathy oftentimes come across as cruelty. Not always, but quite often.
    - 0815test 7y ago
      Well, there are quite a few people who lack empathy to such an extreme extent as to be quite cruel to others. We all want to avoid these people, so we expect those we interact with to express strong empathy-signals, and distrust them if they won't. It's absolutely normal for autists to be inconvenienced by this, since - their empathy-ceilings being lower, as a rule - they have to pay a higher personal cost than most to send these reliable signals. But this is not in principle different from any other problem that may be experienced due to having autistic traits. It's surely better than the alternative of being distrusted, or else of enabling cruel abusers.
      - watwut 7y ago
        I meant that people on the spectrum can come across as cruel or abusive or hurt others without intention to and regardless of what they feel inside. That is not about signals only. I mean the impact on others is there. Unintentional, but real. Then it leads to retaliation which in misunderstood and whole thing may lead to escalations and at worst bullying. That is more then inconvenience.
        0815test 7y ago
        Retaliation is a strategic last resort that is intended to deter cruel people from hurting us, when appeals to empathy are expected to be ineffective. If someone hurts you accidentally, and you can tell (because he can reliably express empathy), you won't retaliate; you'll ask for an apology. If someone hurts you out of cruelty, expecting an apology is actually counterproductive; you'll either get the authorities involved, or if you're in an especially shitty situation where no authority will back you with force, retaliate swiftly and perhaps at disproportionate cost to yourself, so that whoever hurt you understands that it was a bad idea - and so that, ex-ante, even the cruel aren't tempted to hurt you in the first place.
        PaulHoule 7y ago
        That was a problem for me in childhood. The teachers just didn't get that I had a right to be free of harassment. They didn't punish the harassers, but they did punish me when I fought back. So they were implicit in the harassment and this was a deadly part of the curriculum.
        watwut 7y ago
        That is something I understood only after I became adult and had kids. It is not that they don't get it. It is that they prioritize lack of visible disorder over fair resolution and don't want things to escalate to even bigger disorder. Dealing with bullies is hard frustrating long term work. Forcing victim to be silent is easier and gets "result" faster. Moreover, they can convince themselves that they at least made victim act well behaved. It is just easier and more comfortable to blame the victim, really.
    - Nomentatus 7y ago
      Well, honestly, it often directly creates cruelty, I've witnessed consistent breathtaking cruelty from one adult on the spectrum; but in contrast to that, people on the spectrum have explained to me that emotional over-stimulation is just as painful to them as any other kind; and that those on the spectrum (but not too severe) therefore have the difficult choice to become empaths affected by everything others experience (or evince) or just shut it down and (functionally) lose empathy. As a general rule, most human beings choose to avoid pain, but not all.
  - nicoburns 7y ago
    I would agree with that.
  - Angostura 7y ago
    > It is typical neurological thinking to see somebody different as less than human. The puppet was used because it would be almost impossible for a child of the right age to act the part.
    - PaulHoule 7y ago
      It is still a clear message of dehumanization.
- cc81 7y ago
  A lot of people have excellent careers within software development without those traits though and it is possible that you would have an equally as good career without autistic traits.
  - dingaling 7y ago
    Daily stand-ups are a torture for just about everyone. Therr is this fallacious thinking amongst autistics that 'normals' just breeze through social events without stress or angst. That's completely wrong; most people find social engagement tiring and difficult ( hence the resort to alcohol or drugs as a 'social lubricant' ). We just don't have a diagnosed excuse for avoiding it or acting in a manner seen as rude.
- chungleong 7y ago
  There aren't many software companies that would let a programmer just code these day. Daily stand-ups must be torture for those with autistic traits.
DanBC 7y ago
> No one who has the ability to not be autistic, would choose to be That's simply not true.
gjm11 7y ago
It's completely untrue that "no one who has the ability to not be autistic, would choose to be"; plenty of autistic people are happy to be the way they are and would not want to change. (Pedantic note 1: If you're super-duper-literal about what you said, and take it to refer only to people who actually have the ability not to autistic, rather than speculating on what would happen if autistic people had the ability not to be, then it might be true. Though I'd guess it still isn't; I bet there are some not-autistic people who would like to be slightly autistic.) (Pedantic note 2: I suppose it's possible, for all I know, that autistic people who say they wouldn't want to be "neurotypical" are actually lying. But I don't see any reason to think they are.)
- mediocrejoker 7y ago
  I can think of one reason to lie; to lessen the emotional pain of "neurotypicals" looking down on them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_mechanisms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_mechanisms
  - myhf 7y ago
    Of course, there's just as much motivation to tell the opposite lie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_(sociology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_(sociology)
- umvi 7y ago
  > plenty of autistic people are happy to be the way they are and would not want to change. How can you objectively claim to prefer autism over non-autism if you've never experienced the latter? It's like me being completely content with my mechanical Ford Mustang and refusing to switch to a computerized car on the grounds that I'm happy with my Mustang and it's impossible for me to imagine what driving a computerized car could be like. I've never tried a computerized car that has lane assist and anti-lock brakes, mind you, but I'm just afraid I would like it less than my trusty old Mustang I've used my whole life.
  - fwip 7y ago
PhasmaFelis 7y ago
> There is no genuine debate to be had. No one who has the ability to not be autistic, would choose to be. That is definitely not true. I know people who consider their autism a strength, something that gives them different ways of focusing and understanding. For myself, autism gave me a lot of problems as a kid, but as an adult I've learned to cope with it very well. It doesn't really bother me anymore. Your comment is symptomatic of the ongoing problem with the autistic community: high-functioning autistic people and the parents/caretakers of low-functioning autistic people refuse to acknowledge that the other exists. You have neurotypical people telling perfectly functional, happy adults that they're broken and need to be cured, and then you have those some adults acting like a kid who can't speak or dress himself at 11 years old isn't really a problem. It's maddening.
dooglius 7y ago
I agree with your general point, but there are very clearly people who would choose to remain autistic, given the opportunity.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
Analemma_ 7y ago
That is... extremely untrue. I can point you in the direction of dozens, if not hundreds, of people who would not choose to not be autistic if the option was available, and would give you an angry dressing-down for even bringing it up.
msla 7y ago
Echoing nicoburns: We really, really need to do something the DSM seems dead-set against, which is distinguishing between fine gradations of autism, and realizing that not making those distinctions results in people talking past each other. For example, why are some people so afraid of autism? Is it bigotry against people like me who stim every so often and avoid eye contact? No, it's fear of a condition which leaves victims nonverbal and stimming to the point of self-harm. That is the fear which drives some nontrivial number of anti-vaxxers. Yes, their fears are utterly unfounded, but using the language to prevent people from even focusing on what they're afraid of is wrong.
- microtherion 7y ago
  > distinguishing between fine gradations of autism I'm not sure how useful that would be. It's hard enough to agree on a diagnosis of autism at all. Agreeing on finer gradations would be all but impossible. And I'm concerned that "gradations" would lead people to think of autism as a 1D scale, when, as I'm sure you'd agree, it is anything but! Each individual experiences autism related challenges (stimming, difficulty in social interactions, sensitivity to noises, intellectual disabilities, mutism) to different degrees (and, as the article point out, these also vary day to day), and they also receive autism related talents (superior memory and ability to focus) to different degrees. And all of these are not all that correlated with each other. You'd need a 20 dimensional vector to truly establish "gradations". Instead, it might make more sense to establish for each individual in what, if any, areas of life they need possible assistance.
  - red75prime 7y ago
    If you want 1D, project that vector onto social functioning axis.
    - microtherion 7y ago
      That's not 1D either. What is "social functioning"? Making eye contact while speaking? Refraining from stimming? Respecting social boundaries? Figuring out when it's time to move on from discussing the merits of various Yu-Gi-Oh! cards? Knowing how to take public transportation?
ausbah 7y ago
>No one who has the ability to not be autistic, would choose to be. How do you know that? You aren't an autistic person, what gives you the right to suddenly speak for autistic people? >This is yet another example of how our toxic modern culture turns everything into an "identity". Google literally defines identity as "the fact of being who or what a person or thing is". Ergo a person with autism can have autism as apart of their identity. You can't just act like something someone is born with isn't apart of their identity. Yeah, not everything someone is born with is worthy of making a fuss about, but I think things that do actively impact a person's wellbeing and interactions with society (developmental disorders, disabilities, race(?), etc.) are worthy of having a discussion about how to deal with them. I know almost any autistic people is capable of living just as fulfilling of a life as anyone else, the bigger issue for me is people like you looking down on those who have slight deviations from established ideas of "normal" - but who are none the less capable of living fulfilling lives, contribuing to society, and interacting with others.
- DiseasedBadger 7y ago
  You're perspective is flawed. You can't assume everyone is equally able to speak for themselves. One might not speak ill of a tyrant one has no prospects of escaping.
  - geofft 7y ago
    That's generally because one fears retribution from a tyrant. Autism is not a tyrant and has neither desire nor means of retribution, so your argument makes no sense. You're just grasping at explanations to dismiss arguments that make you unhappy.
    - Nomentatus 7y ago
      The poster thinks 'tis neurotypicals which one cannot escape, I believe.
  - ausbah 7y ago
    >You can't assume everyone is equally able to speak for themselves. Okay some people can't speak for themselves, what gives you in particular any authority to speak for those who can't? Even then, that doesn't deal with the matter of those who can speak for themselves.
i80and 7y ago
> No one who has the ability to not be autistic, would choose to be. This is DEMONSTRABLY untrue. I highly recommend actually hanging out with and chatting with autistic people.
DiseasedBadger 7y ago
I don't know if it's kosher to respond to one's own comment, but I didn't see an option to edit. So I'll just say this: I choose that phrasing for a reason. Because I know that some people choose beliefs based on how hurtful an idea might be, not on it's logical merits. There is no link between how a person irreparably in a given situation, describes that situation, and how anyone not in it, regards it. Almost every comment fails that most basic understanding. That is my point. There is no real debate. Only a lot of modern people without the fortitude to realistically consider unpleasant things. Feels before reals, indeed.
- geofft 7y ago
  You are refusing to consider "reals"—people telling you that no, you're factually wrong—because you cannot conceive of holding a certain opinion and therefore your "feels" have you convinced that nobody holds it either. Facts don't care about your feelings, and you'd be well advised to gather some facts. Your phrasing was quite confusing: it could mean either that no one who is autistic would choose to remain autistic if they had the option of choosing to not (which has been debunked) or that no one who is not autistic would choose to become autistic if they had that option. The second may or may not be true, but what does it prove? I'm not white. I don't think I'd choose to become white if I had the option, because I wouldn't be me any more, and that's valuable to me. Does that mean I think being white is inferior in any way? Certainly not! It just means that people generally wish to remain themselves, and that doesn't prove your point; in fact, it argues against it. As someone not autistic, I look at people with autism and I say, oh, you have autism. They look at me and say, oh, you have food allergies. That's it. Sure, both are medical conditions, but I don't find a need to pity them for their medical condition any more than they find a need to pity me for mine and talk about how they wouldn't want to have allergies and how surely I must wish to stop having allergies.
- boomlinde 7y ago
  Maybe there is no real debate because none of your input to the discussion so far constitutes a reasoned argument. You have presented no evidence to your support your conclusions, yet you've written paragraphs of vapid fluff as if that somehow validates your opinion as fact. Feels before reals, indeed.
chungleong 7y ago
That depends on where the person is on the spectrum. People who suffers from mild autism--those who can maintain normal social relations with some efforts--probably would choose to not have the condition. People at the extreme end would choose otherwise, I suspect. Caring about what others think or feel is a burden after all.
silversconfused 7y ago
You speak of toxic modern culture while telling people they should not appreciate being who they are...
rosser 7y ago
> No one who has the ability to not be autistic, would choose to be. Bullshit. Don't you dare presume to speak for people other than yourself, or people whose position on the subject has been explicitly disclosed to you. You do not get to extrapolate from that to speaking for anyone else, let alone everyone else. EDIT: Yes, I am taking the parent comment utterly literally. In context, I think that's appropriate.

nicoburns 7y ago

This depends a lot on the severity of the condition... I have autistic traits, and although they do cause me some problems, they also give me advantages (an excellent career in software development due to unusually good logical thinking for example). I'm not convinced that I would choose to be otherwise.

PaulHoule 7y ago
I think that severely autistic people have an emotional life as real as anyone else, probably more empathy than they are able to express, but neurotypicals have a hard time having empathy for them. Thus i think the puppet is insulting to severe autists as well as less severe autists. It is typical neurological thinking to see somebody different as less than human.
- watwut 7y ago
  One problem is that the lack of ability to express empathy oftentimes come across as cruelty. Not always, but quite often.
  - 0815test 7y ago
    Well, there are quite a few people who lack empathy to such an extreme extent as to be quite cruel to others. We all want to avoid these people, so we expect those we interact with to express strong empathy-signals, and distrust them if they won't. It's absolutely normal for autists to be inconvenienced by this, since - their empathy-ceilings being lower, as a rule - they have to pay a higher personal cost than most to send these reliable signals. But this is not in principle different from any other problem that may be experienced due to having autistic traits. It's surely better than the alternative of being distrusted, or else of enabling cruel abusers.
    - watwut 7y ago
      I meant that people on the spectrum can come across as cruel or abusive or hurt others without intention to and regardless of what they feel inside. That is not about signals only. I mean the impact on others is there. Unintentional, but real. Then it leads to retaliation which in misunderstood and whole thing may lead to escalations and at worst bullying. That is more then inconvenience.
      - 0815test 7y ago
        Retaliation is a strategic last resort that is intended to deter cruel people from hurting us, when appeals to empathy are expected to be ineffective. If someone hurts you accidentally, and you can tell (because he can reliably express empathy), you won't retaliate; you'll ask for an apology. If someone hurts you out of cruelty, expecting an apology is actually counterproductive; you'll either get the authorities involved, or if you're in an especially shitty situation where no authority will back you with force, retaliate swiftly and perhaps at disproportionate cost to yourself, so that whoever hurt you understands that it was a bad idea - and so that, ex-ante, even the cruel aren't tempted to hurt you in the first place.
        PaulHoule 7y ago
        That was a problem for me in childhood. The teachers just didn't get that I had a right to be free of harassment. They didn't punish the harassers, but they did punish me when I fought back. So they were implicit in the harassment and this was a deadly part of the curriculum.
        watwut 7y ago
        That is something I understood only after I became adult and had kids. It is not that they don't get it. It is that they prioritize lack of visible disorder over fair resolution and don't want things to escalate to even bigger disorder. Dealing with bullies is hard frustrating long term work. Forcing victim to be silent is easier and gets "result" faster. Moreover, they can convince themselves that they at least made victim act well behaved. It is just easier and more comfortable to blame the victim, really.
  - Nomentatus 7y ago
    Well, honestly, it often directly creates cruelty, I've witnessed consistent breathtaking cruelty from one adult on the spectrum; but in contrast to that, people on the spectrum have explained to me that emotional over-stimulation is just as painful to them as any other kind; and that those on the spectrum (but not too severe) therefore have the difficult choice to become empaths affected by everything others experience (or evince) or just shut it down and (functionally) lose empathy. As a general rule, most human beings choose to avoid pain, but not all.
- nicoburns 7y ago
  I would agree with that.
- Angostura 7y ago
  > It is typical neurological thinking to see somebody different as less than human. The puppet was used because it would be almost impossible for a child of the right age to act the part.
  - PaulHoule 7y ago
    It is still a clear message of dehumanization.
cc81 7y ago
A lot of people have excellent careers within software development without those traits though and it is possible that you would have an equally as good career without autistic traits.
- dingaling 7y ago
  Daily stand-ups are a torture for just about everyone. Therr is this fallacious thinking amongst autistics that 'normals' just breeze through social events without stress or angst. That's completely wrong; most people find social engagement tiring and difficult ( hence the resort to alcohol or drugs as a 'social lubricant' ). We just don't have a diagnosed excuse for avoiding it or acting in a manner seen as rude.
chungleong 7y ago
There aren't many software companies that would let a programmer just code these day. Daily stand-ups must be torture for those with autistic traits.

DanBC 7y ago

> No one who has the ability to not be autistic, would choose to be That's simply not true.

gjm11 7y ago

It's completely untrue that "no one who has the ability to not be autistic, would choose to be"; plenty of autistic people are happy to be the way they are and would not want to change. (Pedantic note 1: If you're super-duper-literal about what you said, and take it to refer only to people who actually have the ability not to autistic, rather than speculating on what would happen if autistic people had the ability not to be, then it might be true. Though I'd guess it still isn't; I bet there are some not-autistic people who would like to be slightly autistic.) (Pedantic note 2: I suppose it's possible, for all I know, that autistic people who say they wouldn't want to be "neurotypical" are actually lying. But I don't see any reason to think they are.)

mediocrejoker 7y ago
I can think of one reason to lie; to lessen the emotional pain of "neurotypicals" looking down on them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_mechanisms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_mechanisms
- myhf 7y ago
  Of course, there's just as much motivation to tell the opposite lie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_(sociology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_(sociology)
umvi 7y ago
> plenty of autistic people are happy to be the way they are and would not want to change. How can you objectively claim to prefer autism over non-autism if you've never experienced the latter? It's like me being completely content with my mechanical Ford Mustang and refusing to switch to a computerized car on the grounds that I'm happy with my Mustang and it's impossible for me to imagine what driving a computerized car could be like. I've never tried a computerized car that has lane assist and anti-lock brakes, mind you, but I'm just afraid I would like it less than my trusty old Mustang I've used my whole life.
- fwip 7y ago

PhasmaFelis 7y ago

> There is no genuine debate to be had. No one who has the ability to not be autistic, would choose to be. That is definitely not true. I know people who consider their autism a strength, something that gives them different ways of focusing and understanding. For myself, autism gave me a lot of problems as a kid, but as an adult I've learned to cope with it very well. It doesn't really bother me anymore. Your comment is symptomatic of the ongoing problem with the autistic community: high-functioning autistic people and the parents/caretakers of low-functioning autistic people refuse to acknowledge that the other exists. You have neurotypical people telling perfectly functional, happy adults that they're broken and need to be cured, and then you have those some adults acting like a kid who can't speak or dress himself at 11 years old isn't really a problem. It's maddening.

dooglius 7y ago

I agree with your general point, but there are very clearly people who would choose to remain autistic, given the opportunity.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

Analemma_ 7y ago

That is... extremely untrue. I can point you in the direction of dozens, if not hundreds, of people who would not choose to not be autistic if the option was available, and would give you an angry dressing-down for even bringing it up.

msla 7y ago

Echoing nicoburns: We really, really need to do something the DSM seems dead-set against, which is distinguishing between fine gradations of autism, and realizing that not making those distinctions results in people talking past each other. For example, why are some people so afraid of autism? Is it bigotry against people like me who stim every so often and avoid eye contact? No, it's fear of a condition which leaves victims nonverbal and stimming to the point of self-harm. That is the fear which drives some nontrivial number of anti-vaxxers. Yes, their fears are utterly unfounded, but using the language to prevent people from even focusing on what they're afraid of is wrong.

microtherion 7y ago
> distinguishing between fine gradations of autism I'm not sure how useful that would be. It's hard enough to agree on a diagnosis of autism at all. Agreeing on finer gradations would be all but impossible. And I'm concerned that "gradations" would lead people to think of autism as a 1D scale, when, as I'm sure you'd agree, it is anything but! Each individual experiences autism related challenges (stimming, difficulty in social interactions, sensitivity to noises, intellectual disabilities, mutism) to different degrees (and, as the article point out, these also vary day to day), and they also receive autism related talents (superior memory and ability to focus) to different degrees. And all of these are not all that correlated with each other. You'd need a 20 dimensional vector to truly establish "gradations". Instead, it might make more sense to establish for each individual in what, if any, areas of life they need possible assistance.
- red75prime 7y ago
  If you want 1D, project that vector onto social functioning axis.
  - microtherion 7y ago
    That's not 1D either. What is "social functioning"? Making eye contact while speaking? Refraining from stimming? Respecting social boundaries? Figuring out when it's time to move on from discussing the merits of various Yu-Gi-Oh! cards? Knowing how to take public transportation?

ausbah 7y ago

>No one who has the ability to not be autistic, would choose to be. How do you know that? You aren't an autistic person, what gives you the right to suddenly speak for autistic people? >This is yet another example of how our toxic modern culture turns everything into an "identity". Google literally defines identity as "the fact of being who or what a person or thing is". Ergo a person with autism can have autism as apart of their identity. You can't just act like something someone is born with isn't apart of their identity. Yeah, not everything someone is born with is worthy of making a fuss about, but I think things that do actively impact a person's wellbeing and interactions with society (developmental disorders, disabilities, race(?), etc.) are worthy of having a discussion about how to deal with them. I know almost any autistic people is capable of living just as fulfilling of a life as anyone else, the bigger issue for me is people like you looking down on those who have slight deviations from established ideas of "normal" - but who are none the less capable of living fulfilling lives, contribuing to society, and interacting with others.

DiseasedBadger 7y ago
You're perspective is flawed. You can't assume everyone is equally able to speak for themselves. One might not speak ill of a tyrant one has no prospects of escaping.
- geofft 7y ago
  That's generally because one fears retribution from a tyrant. Autism is not a tyrant and has neither desire nor means of retribution, so your argument makes no sense. You're just grasping at explanations to dismiss arguments that make you unhappy.
  - Nomentatus 7y ago
    The poster thinks 'tis neurotypicals which one cannot escape, I believe.
- ausbah 7y ago
  >You can't assume everyone is equally able to speak for themselves. Okay some people can't speak for themselves, what gives you in particular any authority to speak for those who can't? Even then, that doesn't deal with the matter of those who can speak for themselves.

i80and 7y ago

> No one who has the ability to not be autistic, would choose to be. This is DEMONSTRABLY untrue. I highly recommend actually hanging out with and chatting with autistic people.

DiseasedBadger 7y ago

I don't know if it's kosher to respond to one's own comment, but I didn't see an option to edit. So I'll just say this: I choose that phrasing for a reason. Because I know that some people choose beliefs based on how hurtful an idea might be, not on it's logical merits. There is no link between how a person irreparably in a given situation, describes that situation, and how anyone not in it, regards it. Almost every comment fails that most basic understanding. That is my point. There is no real debate. Only a lot of modern people without the fortitude to realistically consider unpleasant things. Feels before reals, indeed.

geofft 7y ago
You are refusing to consider "reals"—people telling you that no, you're factually wrong—because you cannot conceive of holding a certain opinion and therefore your "feels" have you convinced that nobody holds it either. Facts don't care about your feelings, and you'd be well advised to gather some facts. Your phrasing was quite confusing: it could mean either that no one who is autistic would choose to remain autistic if they had the option of choosing to not (which has been debunked) or that no one who is not autistic would choose to become autistic if they had that option. The second may or may not be true, but what does it prove? I'm not white. I don't think I'd choose to become white if I had the option, because I wouldn't be me any more, and that's valuable to me. Does that mean I think being white is inferior in any way? Certainly not! It just means that people generally wish to remain themselves, and that doesn't prove your point; in fact, it argues against it. As someone not autistic, I look at people with autism and I say, oh, you have autism. They look at me and say, oh, you have food allergies. That's it. Sure, both are medical conditions, but I don't find a need to pity them for their medical condition any more than they find a need to pity me for mine and talk about how they wouldn't want to have allergies and how surely I must wish to stop having allergies.
boomlinde 7y ago
Maybe there is no real debate because none of your input to the discussion so far constitutes a reasoned argument. You have presented no evidence to your support your conclusions, yet you've written paragraphs of vapid fluff as if that somehow validates your opinion as fact. Feels before reals, indeed.

chungleong 7y ago

That depends on where the person is on the spectrum. People who suffers from mild autism--those who can maintain normal social relations with some efforts--probably would choose to not have the condition. People at the extreme end would choose otherwise, I suspect. Caring about what others think or feel is a burden after all.

silversconfused 7y ago

You speak of toxic modern culture while telling people they should not appreciate being who they are...

rosser 7y ago

> No one who has the ability to not be autistic, would choose to be. Bullshit. Don't you dare presume to speak for people other than yourself, or people whose position on the subject has been explicitly disclosed to you. You do not get to extrapolate from that to speaking for anyone else, let alone everyone else. EDIT: Yes, I am taking the parent comment utterly literally. In context, I think that's appropriate.