Many of us are caught up in this historical moment, akin to Semmelweis (handwashing) and Snow (feces in well water): WE get that Covid is airborne; nobody else listens.
Compare the bezzle spanning between, say, the moment a woman in a strategy meeting makes a sharp observation and is ignored ... and a man offers the same perspective minutes later and is roundly congratulated for his keen insight.
Re: Covid strategy, is autistic perspective the embezzled party here?
If so, as outcome-oriented consequentialists, is there a better response than making noise until we're heard?
Oughtn't we be quietly laying the groundwork for others to "discover" airborne transmission (etc.) as if it were their own idea—the sooner to rid the world of Covid?
Or is this the very sort of arrangement by which the autistic neurotype comes to be marginalized in the first place?
Framing the marginalization of autistics as an embezzlement won't make anyone famous. I'll keep talking about it, and have some tiny impact, or none.
That there's a great destiny stretching out before autistics however, should we manage, as a population, to recognize and put an end to our being culturally robbed, whether by embezzlement, pickpocketing, extortion, shakedown, fraud, etc. etc. ...
The world that would follow that, I think, is worth working toward.
@ebk I definitely think the COVID aware are overwhelmingly neurodivergent, but I don't think it's restricted to autism, specifically. Myself and many others on here have ADHD but not autism. I've also noticed there is a high proportion of other marginalized groups and I think that makes sense, since marginalized people are keenly aware that governments are dishonest and that nobody is coming to save them. Otherwise, I totally agree with you.
Agreed. It's tricky to write about what you don't know.
I know autistics best; have worked with autistic activists who changed the world; have direct knowledge of what can happen when you poke and provoke an autistic hive mind.
But, I also instinctively trust individuals who've been marginalized, because I know their perspective and allegiance will not be clouded or compromised in ways they tend to be in the non-marginalized.
So, yes, neurodivergent perspective wins, in general.
While we're repping our respective tribes, I should mention I'm almost certainly team ADHD as well; I've just always worked in fields where it didn't matter so much, and have never focused on ADHD as a subject matter interest. So I still don't feel comfortable speaking about it as I might.
Though of course there's a lot of known overlap, and a lot of people who only identify as one or the other may well belong to both tribes ... which in the end may be one tribe, or several. 🤷
@ebk One thing I've noticed from being on Mastodon is how much I have in common with people with autism. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you're right about all of the above.
Me: Behaviors X and Y indicate an autistic neurotype is in play.
You, dismissively: But lots of people act that way!
Me:
You:
Me: nods slowly
You: drops jaw
Me: Yep. Lots of people have a neurotype in common with diagnosed autistics. And it's time to take their behavior as loosely indicative of this neurotype's true prevalence, while we wait for JAMA Pedriatics and the like to catch up.
JAMA, by the way, now says diagnosed autistics are 1 in 30.
@ebk There are certain things in the current autism diagnostic criteria that definitely don't apply to me. Specifically routine is anathema for me and I don't have any issues with recognizing unspoken social cues (though I still really struggle to make and maintain friendships), but I think the similarities between the lived experience of people with autism and people with ADHD are probably not a coincidence... Neurotypicals probably shouldn't be in charge of diagnosing and treating us...
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