Downvoted for “developed wrong” when it’s becoming increasingly clear Autism isn’t so clearly a disorder or wrong as it is different.
There seems to be a point of contention amongst the terminology for anybody with autism. Someone with autism might not see themselves as having a disorder. But there are certainly very high needs autistic individuals. Apply a whole spectrum of people as being "developed wrong" and you can start to see ableist language.
I appreciated your metaphor about cars on a highway -- and that there's something wrong with the highway, not the car. I thought it was really simple and clear and I think I got the point you were trying to make. And even if it the highway isn't wrong (it was made for cars after all), we should at least extend it to support many types of transportation.
The ones who weren't so lucky, and got the short straw? They would die without a caretaker to take care of them.
Even among the less severely afflicted: I'm sure there are people who don't mind being autistic, and I'm also sure that there are people who "don't mind being autistic". The difference between the two being: if there somehow was an easy cure, the former wouldn't go for it, but the latter would jump at the possibility. Because their "don't mind" was never anything more than cope. Same as what happened to body positivity in the face of Ozempic.
After digging into it, the hypothesis holds. Most autistic people win this lottery you speak of.
Roughly 25–35% of diagnosed autistic people require substantial, ongoing support (e.g., daily assistance, supervised living, or full-time caregiving).
About 30–40% have co-occurring intellectual disability, which strongly correlates with higher support needs.
Roughly 60–75% do not have intellectual disability. Many in this group: Live independently or semi-independently. Work (often underemployed). Mask heavily and are diagnosed late—or never diagnosed.
Probably not. Because self-selection is doing its work. Out of 10 autistic people you know, ~0 are going to be in the "supervised living" category. They exist - you just don't see them.
Anyway, the core assertion holds. The framing and thinking of autism as a disorder of a brain that developed wrong is out-dated and incorrect. We could also frame the neurotypical brain as wrong for modern society because it evolved to ensure the survival of humans. For example, the typical brain evolved sophisticated fight or flight responses, and efficient pattern matching to quickly respond to physical threats. Both are "wrong" for modern society and civilization because they're rarely necessary for survival and they confound reason and thoughtful analysis.
It's also a fact human intelligence has evolved significantly faster than human physiology. Those people who win the autism lottery, are successful in life, and ultimately have children will contribute to an increase of the proportion of lottery winners in subsequent generations.
Given this new information, better to examine neurological differences rather than focusing on winners and losers, right and wrong.
It's not very helpful to say if someone has been run down by a car that they just have different highway experiences than people who were not run down by cars. Their difference is a significant problem, because they have been run down by a car and it hurts.
More that their brain developed differently and our current highway system is incompatible with that difference.
The highway system can and should change just as we individuals can and should try to change our minds in areas where it makes sense to do so.
My preferred analogy is that all neurodivergent people are playing the game of life at least on hard mode. Some are playing on ultra hard mode. Some are playing on impossible mode.
As it relates to treatment, the goal is to help a person live as close to typical difficulty as possible. Same goal for accommodations extended to the person by society.
So if people discuss the getting run down by car problem level the people who have an "I'm different" problem level feel as if they are being insulted, and if people discuss the "I'm different" problem level the people who care for the people who have been run down by cars feel like... well, insulted would probably be the least of it.
Edit: In retrospect I suppose the “developed wrong” language is insulting to me and the boundary is just beyond the idea of “different”
I suppose then the request is for those people caring for autistic people who are so different life is impossible to live without care to view the concept of “different” as a spectrum too. Not wrong.
I have definite feelings about this exchange on autism, which are being hashed out reasonably without my input. But the Ozempic reference is super interesting. I hope some smart person looks into that particular "correction" vs. "coping" dichotomy at some point in the future.