3 ms·

> but autism is not in any way objectively suboptimal in itself The entire community you are here representing with your comment is intellectually dishonest, a

> but autism is not in any way objectively suboptimal in itself The entire community you are here representing with your comment is intellectually dishonest, at the least, and at the most, actively harming our understanding of autism. I remind you, like others have in this thread, that there are non-verbal people who share the designation of autistic. There are people in jail, permanent homes, and who do not have power of attorney over themselves who share the designation of autistic. There are children who spend their days wanting to bash their head into the nearest wall, and who cry and cry due to sensory issues, that share the designation of autistic. I COULD GO ON. By sharing the thoughts you just did you are directly denying that those things exist. The community who promotes those opinions operates as if those things do not exist. It is bad.

hnbad 4y ago
Like the others, you apparently failed to read my full comment before deciding what I must have said. There are traits that can arguably be considered "suboptimal" that can be part of an ASD diagnosis. But they are neither necessary nor sufficient for someone to be autistic. That's why I said "autism is not [..] suboptimal in itself" (emphasis added). Also, can we please stop pointing at children when talking about autism? Somehow everybody who does so stops caring about them as soon as they're old enough to speak for themselves. Autism isn't defined by autistic trauma, we just don't care enough about autistic people to acknowledge them for anything other than their trauma responses.