It’s not tragic that autistic people experience exponentially more stress than neurotypicals. What’s tragic is that autistic sensibilities only partially overlap, if at all, with the dominant majority neurotype. Autistic people are able to master skills and knowledge which is valued by the culture, but we think about it differently. The experiences that define us are different for every person, but for autistic people these experiences can be like death experiences. If we make it through school and can keep a job we might find ourselves isolated in a world that only makes sense to us through very specific forms of concentration. “Coming out” as autistic might include analyzing the psychological content of one or more meltdowns or stimming patterns.
The reason people are talking about “autism supremacy” on the forums is complicated. Most autistic people believe in a world where all different types of people can live and grow together, but the forms of oppression that autistic people face are unique. I think what they are trying to get at is that no matter how much time you spend with an autistic person and no matter how much you think you might understand us, if your neurology is different there will always be a chasm between us.
I am reminded of certain characters’ disgust with the changeling character Odo’s natural viscous liquid state in the television show Star Trek Deep Space Nine when people show aversion to my own stimming behaviors, which only appear during certain forms of stress. Some experiences such as stimming and meltdowns can force a person to admit and confront the extent of their neurological difference from the mainstream. Just because someone can function passably in a neurotypical way does not mean that that is their natural way of being or that that is where they might be most useful to society. Often times it is only self-imposed traumas that force autistic people to realize that the neurotypical values we were taught to want may not be what we actually want.
We are at a critical point in history where the rights of autistic people are being shaped gradually by organizations like Autism Speaks and people like Temple Grandin. With regard to autistic civil rights, anything is possible.
24 Jan 2018, 10:02 pm
