Doing a talk on + and - impact of internet communities

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For autistic people like myself. It’s based on an article I did recently where I discuss how via my experiences at least I feel the internet has both connected me to people but also stopped me facing the nt world and the challenges of interacting with nt folk. It and the talk go into how this made me unable to read certain behaviour right but made me feel sure the online friends I’d made meant I did get socialising. It discusses how much or little an impact the neurodiverse movement and autistic online communities are having on the wider world and whether we need to adapt our activism to change society as a whole and make our lives better. Does any else have conflicted views like me on online autistic communities, internet culture and the neurodiverse movement they’d feel ok having mentioned in my talk? Would love to have other folk’s opinions not just mine.

On Zoom, the eye contact never gets uncomfortable. It also is never useful, for things like sharing opinions with a quick glance at another listener. Body language is muted, and a new visual language of hand signs, exaggerated nodding, etc. becomes useful.

Not sure how you are going to give a talk on other people's opinions, but here you go:

some autistic people trying to speak for other autistic people (like late-diagnosed trying to speak for all late-diagnosed autistic people, women who feel they fit the "female autism phenotype" trying to speak for all female autistic people, etc.)

the toxicity of self-hating autistic people and people who want an autism diagnosis as an excuse for their perceived failures

white-privileged people dominating the English-speaking autistic community and thereby replicating the negative racial dynamics that exist outside the community

the rise of people who are attracted to or promote autism primarily as a social identity (rather than as a neurological condition), their pseudoscientific "self-diagnoses" and skype diagnoses, and autistic people enabling them

Thankyou! Yeah it’s mainly my perspective it’s coming from but I wondered if there were similar concerns or contrasting opinions on whether it’s been good or bad for us and what we need to fix and work on.