this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023
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Autism
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I think getting rid of the Aspergers label was a big mistake on that part. Yeah he was a nazi eugenicist, blah blah blah, but having a label that both differentiates "people who seem like weird fuckups but are otherwise kind of normal?" from "people who have significant disabilities preventing a normal life" and is widely known was a useful shorthand to have.
Plus "aspie" is a much cuter term than "autist" that hasn't to my knowledge been used as a slur.
A pretty big issue with this is that the environment has a pretty large capacity to throw you into one category or the other. I've been both at the "bright person who exceels in their field and anyone would expect them to have a great future" and "needs someone to look after them on a daily basis or will end up homeless" camps and the difference to get into one or the other was how much abuse and discrimination I was putting up with. It may very well be the case that a significant portion of the people who get labeled as "non-verbal, requires high support" early on in life just had a shit development because their environmental needs weren't being met.
That is a concern, but it's still true that you operating at your best will look very different to someone whose autism comes with intellectual delays/impairments and mobility impairments. And the diagnosis is still graded in "levels", all that has changed is now you have to explain "level one is what they used to call aspergers".
On the other hand, moving to 'levels' offers the regular opportunity for a dad joke: "I'm autism level 1, hoping to level up to 2 any day now"