What would you think about an Autistic Political Party?

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I think it would be an awesome thing.

Last edited by Dylanperr on 09 Mar 2018, 7:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Not sure what Tequila is on about.

But an "autistic political party" seems like a stupid and inane idea to me.

But feel free to elaborate. Why do you imagine the idea to be "awesome"?

Don't fight for a faction alone - it is "boo-hoo-hoo, poor me" pity seeking. Autism is not the only thing about your existence. It gives you certain characteristics but it does not define you.

Got it. And pretty agree. Its an immature (and dare I say it: a rather "autistic ") way of viewing politics, and anything else in life. Nothing wrong with campaigning for autistic interests. But You have to think in terms of "how can we autistics make common cause with other groups?" not "what can everyone else do for us alone?".

And autistics are only one point something percent of the population and wouldn't make much of a voting bloc (even if you could herd cats and get us all to agree to join a party) anyway.

I contend that integration is the true objective.

In my opinion you may not be best served of thinking of groups like that.

I think it would be more conducive to fight for the rights of disabled people more generally, and to do so within an already existing, catch-all party.

The problem with this is that we all have different political views.

Exactly. For the autistic party to get electoral success, it would need to have policies other than autism rights - and who amongst us would determine if, and to what extent, this new party would be authoritarian or libertarian, capitalist or socialist? Who would determine its educational, environmental, transport, health and foreign policies? And what effect would the other policies have on the party's success? Or would this be a single-issue party, more like a pressure group?

I think it would be a very bad idea. We all have different political, religious and social beliefs. It wouldn't work out because we're all so different from each other and we all have very different opinions on a variety of things. If we were all in caucus or parliament things would never get done, because we would all be at each others throats.

I think there are political issues involving autism and neurodiversity, but I can't imagine a political party dedicated to autism or autistic people for the following reasons:
1. Autistic people are diverse when it comes to politics. Autistic people even have diverse opinions on issues specific to the autistic community. I feel that there is enough split to ensure the failure of any such political party.
2. Autism isn't a choice, a belief, an opinion, a movement, etc. There are movements within the autistic community, there are beliefs held by autistic individuals, etc. but autism itself isn't a movement or a belief or anything political in nature. Its just a kind of person, and it doesn't dictate one's beliefs or political views. This relates to number one in the way that it would be difficult to form a coherent platform if you're basing a political party on something that a person is born with.
3. If autism related issues was at the forefront of the political platform, it would be way too specific to gain any traction.
4. If more issues were added to the platform to make it appeal to a larger audience, I think it would stop being an 'autistic political party' and more of a party that happens to be very autistic-friendly or even led by autistic individuals. If the added issues were all related to autism in a way (for example, large focuses on other neurodivergent people, tackling ableism, etc.) then I don't think it would be the best to call it an autistic political party, because it might come off as giving one type of neuroatypical group more attention than the rest, instead of being inclusive towards all neurotypes, especially allistic neuroatypical individuals.

I do think it would be nice to see more autistic representation in politics, as well as existing or future political parties doing more for equality and acceptance.

An autistic political party does not make sense, for the same reason an LGBT political party does not make sense, nor a political party devoted to any other specific demographic.

At least here in the U.S.A., the two main political parties are broad coalitions representing a wide variety of demographic groups, industries, etc., while the smaller parties (Green, Libertarian, etc.) represent political ideologies.

What does make sense is an autistic rights movement, as part of a larger disability rights movement. That we already have, although it's not as big or well-organized as it could be. See the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.

Not enough members to run- and autistic people are known to be stubborn and free thinking, it would be hard to get autistic people to cooperate in something like that.

Pointless. Likely would be less organized than even the Libertarian Party, and likely would be taken even less seriously.

I want an actual Banana Republic. A country ruled by Banana People.

If we did, we'd have to be prepared to lose every election, as we are a distinct minority with no hope of appealing to the majority.

In a Parliamentary system, we might be able to form a coalition with other parties.