The future of Autisim!

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yeah being treated like a second class citizen your entire life because you think differently than everyone else makes comparing it to the plight of blacks a cop out. You might as well put on a white hood and robe and go burn a cross in my yard.


I actually bet if we looked at psychological problems of African Americans in the deep South during and after the civil rights movement we would find similar rates of depression and mental disorders at are presently seen in aspergers populations.

Gideon, do you understand the fact that there is "disability" in NT's doesn't mean that there is no correlation between "disability" and Asperger's?

For example, there are people who aren't autistic who do have "face blindness". Does this mean that there's absolutely no correlation between "face blindness" and autism? Of course not.

In other words, there are people who don't live in NY that are Yankees fans. Does this mean that there's absolutely no correlation between "being a Yankees fan" and living in NY? Of course not.

"The {lady} doth protest too much, methinks"

I do not think that the fact that ASDs are disabilities means they are diseases and need to be wiped out. I have already explained why I am against a cure in other posts. I do not think that people with disabilities are broken and have tried to argue against that in other contexts.

The fact that many NTs are disabled too is not really relevant. Many people diagnosed with AS have those disabilities as well. I'm not sure what the label is for this kind of fallacy, but the problem here is assuming that there is some kind of necessary division between people who have AS and people who have other kinds of disabilities, even though they're all disabilities and there is a lot of overlap.

As Poke pointed out, AS actually causes disability. One person's experience of being autistic is not definitive. If you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person. People on the spectrum (whatever they're diagnosed with) are all over the place in terms of ability and disability, and it's impossible to judge what others are like based on one person's experiences.

And there's this:

http://cometscorner-clay.blogspot.com/2 ... -jobs.html

I don't think Chelsea was working from a position of believing she is "too broken" to work. I think she was quite the opposite, but ran into significant resistance just trying to find a job. That part of her story is extremely familiar to me, given how many years I spent applying for jobs, getting interviews, and never getting called back.

And I mean, yes, I am paid by the state for having AS. I'll admit that right here and now - $197/month that I can spend on my needs - but that's state assistance, and Federal will be somewhat better. I've pushed myself to the point of burnout trying to succeed in the neurotypical working world - even managing some limited success via freelance work - and the only thing that happens is I crash and burn and lose the work in the end. So after having spent years trying and failing to make any progress I'm going with SSI. SSI, btw, sucks. You can't have more than $2000 in assets. If you get a job, you can easily make too much money and lose your benefits. It's not a gravy train, it's mandatory poverty. You'll get around $650/month at most, which is pretty minimal for anything (I have lived on $500 and $600 a month, and it's barely enough to survive on, even with cheap rent).

As doesn't cause disability the interaction with an NT world causes all those things currently seen as disabilities.

Even assuming (incorrectly) that AS is only disabling because of the social model of disability:

We can't live in a world that functions otherwise. We're in a world that is primarily suited to NT needs. So... it's a disability.

Actually, I would be very interested to hear of an evolutionary advantage to clumsiness.