Interesting statistics

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There are more autistic people than Hindu's and Muslims combined in America
In my country (the UK) there are more autistic people than Jewish people

But which groups get the most TV time, have the most political influence and have their needs listened to the most?

Its shocking how little influence the autistic community actually have when you think about how much these significantly smaller groups do have.

Not really. I see it as comparing pack animals to trying to herd cats.

I feel like the point of this thread went right over my head.

Jews, Muslims and Hindus are more interesting because they have more as*hole members. They blow things up, have arranged marriages, weird sects, genital mutilation, caste systems, holy wars and female oppression. I know I am generalizing like crazy here, but all these religions have one thing in common (as do all religions): they have quite a few sh***y followers, and those keep making the news. Autistic people make the news mostly as victims rather then perpetrators, and perpetrators are simply more interesting to the media it seems.

There's exceptions to this, but exceptions make the rule. It sucks but this is simply how things are.

My point is that smaller minorities than the autistic minority get a far bigger say in what happens in both countries and that this is unfair.
For example, in the UK, kids learn as part of the national curriculum about Hindu's, Islam, Judaism and other religions but there is not part of their education that teaches about different cognitive styles even though they are more likely to encounter autistic people that say Jewish people. Just pointing out that this imbalance should be addressed.

Don't all the groups have activist groups? Should we have one of those? Do we already have one of those?

Kind of. The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network is awesome, but Autism Speaks is the face of autism and has thoroughly taken over the conversation, and they don't exactly advocate for us.

Do you mean that Autism Speaks is more about mainstream autism instead of aspergers?

I think its more the fact that they see autism as an illness to be "cured" rather than as a different but equally valid cognitive style. Well that's my issue with them anyway.

Sigh. I wish I could be as accepting of myself as you are.

So do I mate. Self acceptance is a very important thing for any human. Many NT's struggle with this as well so lack of self acceptance is a phenommona far from unique to people on the spectrum. As an NT I can't really pretend to understand what it would be like to be different in world full of ignorance and intolerant people. I'm a white, male, ,hetrosexual so I can hardly claim to have much experience of being "different" or suffered from any kind or prejudice. I can imagine, I can try to empathise by thinking about the things about my own self that I struggled to accept. I guess the most experience I have is speaking to the many gay friends I have and in particular the ones that had the misfortune of growing up in religious families and countries. They face a different set of issues to autistic people but the effects of intolerance are similar I think. Isolation, self doubt and the nagging feeling that something is wrong with you.

I wish I had the words to heal but I don't have them, not yet but all I can say is that every human being at their core has the most complex and amazing object in the known universe. The human brain is by far the most complicated object we know of. It is incredible and the fact that yours is a bit different to most does not in anyway lessen the intrinsic beauty and wonder of that object. In fact it probably makes it all the more wonderful. You think differently, see differently, imagine differently to most humans and that is surely something to celebrate? And bollocks to anyone who can't appreciate that.

I want to learn more about all this because my son will undoubtably have to go through this later in life. He is only 4 1/2 now so is completely unaware that he is different to other kids. But he is a bright lad so that day will come and it breaks my heart to think that he will suffer due to the ignorance of others. I don't know if I will be able to fully protect him from this but I'll do my best. I guess thats all any father can do.

Thank you for the kinds words. Unsurprisingly I've experienced discrimination but sometimes I feel as though I suffer through more hatred from within than without. I understand what it's like to have aspergers (though it's different for all of us) but a lot of the time I really understand aspergers itself.

Having aspergers doesn't make me a neurologist anymore than having cancer would make me an an oncologist. If I could understand myself better I could better motivate myself and better come to terms with my condition. Your son will face burdens in life but with a father as caring as you he has a strong chance of overcoming them.