Libertarianism and autism

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Libertarianism seems to me a very compatible political stance for people with autistic traits. As an autistic person I know for sure I don't want anything to do with groups or a community oriented lifestyle. I would just like to be left alone, have my personal space, persue my activities alone, and above all I would like the freedom to think and say whatever I want without having to conform to established norms and values. Do you think autistic people have a tendency to be libertarian?

Yes, libertarianism did and does appeal to me.

As autistics we constitute a serial collective - it's easy enough, and reasonable, to predict the experience of many of our compatriots - we find ourselves unreasonably subjected to invalid judgements and unreasonable limits imposed by others, and we wish our right to be free of such impositions were better recognized.

Over time, though, I noticed an important caveat, we need to be on guard against lazy libertarianism and morally bankrupt libertarianism.

Lazy libertarianism is a libertarianism that draws only on one's own experience and worldview to select "valid" liberties that should be enforced for everyone.

Morally bankrupt libertarianism is something consciously invoked when it suits one's own purposes, and discarded or denied to others when it does not suit one's own benefit.

A person displaying a mature and justifiable libertarianism must be one who has done the hard work of considering the experience, and the best interest, of many kinds of people, even those whose life experience may be quite different.

You would think so as a libertarian myself, however sadly that's not the way things are going in the Autism space.

There's an increasing drive for more political correctness in the use of language and policing on how people think.

This was highlighted just a few days ago in fact (see link).

Its not beyond possibility that with some mild invisible autisms there is as a symptom of the condition itself the need for micro managing & control, which may be an explanation too, pushed along with the increased SJ movement in general.

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I am very conservative libertarian but more of the minarchist type.I really value freedom and the Bill of Rights and civil liberties and stuff like that.I also am a libertarian because of certain things I watched growing up in the 90's.I would be part of the Libertarian Party instead of the Republican Party if the Libertarian Party was a viable party.I think there needs to be a government but I want the government to be as small and weak as possible but thats just my perspective.I even have a Libertarian Party hoodie.I am also sensitive to my rights being violated by government because I feel that we autistic people are a vulnerable group.I think we should have all the civil rights and civil liberties that we had in the days of the Founding Fathers.I think that most of the autistics I have interacted with have been liberals/progressives not libertarians.

I agree with all this, apart from

I don't think they care about autistic people we`re invisible to them, not seen as a threat they just throw us a bone every now and then in the form of neurodiversity sanitizing sweet talk and hope that will shut us up. For many autistics with milder symptoms who are liberals/progressives this works.

The problem with Libertarianism is: what do we do with those less fortunate than ourselves? Can we really turn our backs on those with greater need? I know I can't.

Okay fair enough.I can just see the possibility of them wanting to take away our gun rights because of mental illness or mental defect or whatever related to our autism but I could be wrong.Just a thought.

I've got a feeling too that social justice must have a strong presence in autistic circles and certainly in the social sevices. I just don't like the idea of neurodiversity, at least not all of the time. You know, autism is what it is after all, a disability, despite the fact that it can have it's strenghths. I also can guess that a need for controls can lead to some socialist thinking. Sometimes I find myself thinking like that too.
But I have the gut feeling that people on the spectrum might have a natural inclination towards libertarianism. After all we are people who have the tendency to place logic and facts over emotions. And libertarianism (classical liberalism) is the primary political ideology of Illuminism, the age of reason.

I agree with everything you say. You are so lucky you are from Texas. It is said that often autistic people form an idealised version of a foreign society and daydream of living there. You know, like people who get fascinated with Japan. My dream place is Texas. I know it's just an idealisation but at least I know it's a place with a higher percentage of libertarians.

Libertarians do not desagree with the notion that we should help others, we just don't think that the best way to do that is through the state.

Okay thanks very much.Texas is a great place or at least its been great for me.I have always felt lucky to be a Texan.I am just glad that Texas is still a relatively free place in terms of liberty.

Socio-cultural libertarianism, yes! Economic liberarianism, NO!

First off, a great many of us are on SSI, SSDI, or whatever the equivalent is in other countries outside the U.S.A. Among those of us who are capable of working for a living and don't need to be on SSI or SSDI, a significant number of us (myself included) can't drive a car safely, and therefore need to live in a place with good public transportation.

Most of us also are less likely than the average person to be able to afford to buy a house. We therefore need to live in a place that has decent basic legal protections for renters.

In short, many of us depend on governments, and on government regulation, more than most people do.

We also need to live in socially tolerant places. And the most socially tolerant places tend to be cosmopolitan cities. In more culturally homogeneous places, we tend to get treated like trash. (Or treated like toddlers, if we aren't being treated like trash.)

In cosmopolitan cities, which are the only places where many of us can have happy lives, everyone depends on government agencies to do things like put out fires, carry away our garbage, provide public transportation, and remove snow from our streets. And, on the whole, the government does a decent job of providing these services. Every now and then, someone gets the bright idea of privatizing one or more of these services, and occasionally this gets tried, but it never works out well.

Last edited by Mona Pereth on 29 Dec 2022, 2:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I suspect you misunderstand the term "neurodiversity." The neurodiversity movement does not deny that autism is a disability -- or, at least, that it entails disability.

The neurodiversity movement is, itself, a part of the disability rights movement. The neurodiversity movement has essentially the same tenets as the disability rights movement in general, applied to neurological conditions specifically.

Speaking of disability, it's good to have government-mandated accommodations for physically disabled people, such as ramps and curb cuts. Yet another good reason to reject libertarianism.

Last edited by Mona Pereth on 29 Dec 2022, 1:39 pm, edited 3 times in total.

The best way is a combination of government services and private charity. Private charity is way too unreliable to be the mainstay, but it's good for helping people who fall through the cracks of the government bureaucracy.

It should be noted that I speak as a city-dweller. What works best in large cities and what works best in rural areas may be different. I've heard that rural areas tend to have less government services but more private charity than large cities do. I guess it's understandable that people who live in wide open spaces would tend to be libertarian-leaning.

But, as I said in a previous post in this thread, it is best, for many of us, to live in cosmopolitan cities.

I understand that in many countries with relatively functioning social services a lot of us may end up depending on the government.
But that's because that is what is provided by the environment. I honestly think that if there wasn't any government, ASD people could still live independently. There could still be employment for us.

In the country where I live there are no effective social services, yet here I am standing strong and independent. It's still a challenging life but It's not like it's impossible to live. And the economy is not that strong either but still I have a higher than average wage because I'm good with arts. I come from a poor working class family with both parents having disabilities. Yet I can still function and even hope for a better future.

In the case of low functioning autism though, financial help is necessary. But even in this occasion private charities and religious organisations fill the gap, rather effectively. This is what happens in my country at least. Personally I prefer it this way rather than having the government extorting people for their money so it can give it to me and have me worship it like a saviour.

I think the key here with libertarianism is deciding what you want the government to do and not to do.

Too much of either is going to be a bad thing

So basic services including health and transport yes

Interfering and micro managing no