Advocacy and Caution

I'm impatient, too.

I want change to happen. I want to see a more equitable world for autistic people, and everyone. It's annoying that that's seen as as naive idea.

the oppression/power/-ism/blame/reclaiming/reparation narrative, epistemic injustice; I see merit but it leads people to draw broad conclusions. advocacy and social issues that are also personal draw in passionate people - a good thing I guess, but they all kinda seem to be saying similar things

The disconnect between autism advocates (in many cases recently, also autistic) and the wider autistic population

caveats up the wazoo

Broad generalizations - I'm cautious with them because they leave people out. populations are not monumental. labels like 'autistic' are not permanent and all-encompassing

For example, social cues. (in the DSM-V it's called social communication deficit.) some people categorically say we don't recognize social cues. some people say we recognize everything all at once

Related - empathy. different types, hypo-/hypersensitivity, what constitutes a skill and deficit, very hard to quantify. Empathy - detecting the situation that calls for it, and feeling shared emotion - not the same thing. Allistic empathy is also probably quite nuanced and individual.

People get excited about the fight against injustice, and they think that means completely denying negative stereotypes, instead of understanding how and why they come about, the nuances of how an individual experiences, conforms, or disproves the stereotype, and how a stereotype can be re-framed as a nuance in human expression

Even people who live with an autistic brain can struggle to articulate what we're experiencing, just because everyone lacks the language. we probably know best, but our understanding can also be flawed

memes

also, an ironic undersensitivity to/lack of consideration of cultural differences. autism isn't universally e.g. preferring one set of routines. autism tends to prefer what we consider to be routine

possible to solve the "autism phenotype?" personally I doubt it. there is not one answer. case in point: people getting bent about autism representation "not doing its job" - I've seen people complain, "it's just a list of autism traits with legs". and also, "they missed that autistic people are like x".

Maybe this is my interpretation of what people are saying - there's an implied "not everyone does this..." but I still think it's both academics' and advocates' responsibility to explain for whom they are speaking and what limitations they may have

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