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While autism is very much real I am of the unpopular opinion that the vast majority of people diagnosed with autism are incorrectly diagnosed. What we see as Autistic a lot of times is just what it looks like being the only sane one in the room.
It just makes sense, many of the people diagnosed are the only ones being rational and respectful in a conversation while everyone else is going to fly off the handle and accusing them of being rude or insensitive.... Its not that the Autistic cant read emotions, its that the other people are so malajusted they fly off the handle at getting offended frivilously, often some sort of personality disorder at play. But instead of labeling 90% of people as having the personality disorder or whatever it is that causes them to be toxic, we blame the 10% of rational people who dont play into that game and call it autism.
Keep in mind im largely talking about people here who are fairly high functioning, If they have trouble with verbal skills or any of the other symptoms of autism that dont relate to human relations directly, those cases are likely very real, even the higher functioning ones.
@freemo I would say that pathologizing the way a minority of human brains work is the wrong way to go about it, so if that's what you mean by incorrectly diagnosed, then I agree.
I do think it can be useful to explore how an individual's brain works, and whether they for instance tend to pay a lot more attention to rationality than they do to social norms. Or something along those lines. I'm far from any kind of expert in this area, but I'm learning.
@freemo I totally agree that we shouldn't call it a disease. I'm hesitant to call for reversing the descriptors, but getting rid of the pathology language and stigma seems like the right direction to go.
@strawd I tend to agree the language around pathology should be addressed... but even if we do that the truth is we still will need to identify some mental patterns as unhealthy and leading to harm, and others that arnt... The point here is the non-autists have a mental pattern that results in harm to their community. Autists are the ones who generally are the rational non toxic ones whos mentality doesnt cause harm but is instead causing them to be victimized by the other group.
@strawd
> I would say that pathologizing the way a minority of human brains work is the wrong way to go about it, so if that's what you mean by incorrectly diagnosed, then I agree.
That wasnt the point I was making, but is a tangential point I agree with.
> I do think it can be useful to explore how an individual's brain works, and whether they for instance tend to pay a lot more attention to rationality than they do to social norms. Or something along those lines. I'm far from any kind of expert in this area, but I'm learning.
I agree, the issue arrises when you see these two groups and assign one as diseased and the other as healthy... if we want to use those descriptors at all it should be reversed as it is the non-autists who generally create toxic unhealthy social environments.