this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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Autism
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TL,DR: I don't see this as glorifying, but as a nuanced point of view. Autism is neither a fantastical thing nor is it necessarily the end of the world. It all depends on a lot of external factors, and the people around you (autistic or not) are a huge part of that.
For me this has nothing to do with supremacy and is just an explanation. Granted, I may be missing context, since I never heard anything about the account posting it, but on its own with no explanation I don't see it.
Supremacy would be if they said "NTs are so dumb for just speaking one language".
What I see there is NTs having the privilege that everyone around them understands them - similar to people in a rural area before the internet or mass media. They dont need to worry about being understood or think about how people could have other languages without necessarily being dumb - this is the difference between being smart and being educated.
Being educated is book knowledge that you have to acquire or be taught, but even without that you can be smart. And in my eyes it's a fact that neurotypicals are not well educated about autism, because a lot of the current knowledge is quite recent.
Also, this statement is solely about the social aspect, not talking about sensory issues. There's studies showing that autistic people among themselves communicate just as well as neurotypical people among themselves and issues show up when the neurotypes are mixed. I'm trying to remember names associated with it, but my memory fails me - I think it was a british study.
This study matches my personal experience though. And it's the reason why I disclose at work (thankfully my country has good protections in place).
With other autistic/often also adhd people, communication is pretty smooth. With NTs, there's hiccups, but they understand why and are patient because of that.
All this does not mean autism is a superpower or anything. Since I'm privileged enough to work in my special interest field, my hyperfocus kicks in quite a bit, so I can take advantage of that.
The sensory issues, on the other hand, can be quite debilitating at times, and I need accommodation for that. It's not all rainbows and sunshine even if you take the social issues out (or manage to alleviate them as in my case). Autism is still a disability after all, but posts like this are still a good thing because it's also not always doom and gloom. If you get the right environment, it can be manageable enough to have a decent life.