Totally agree here. It’s not just a Lemmy thing though, it’s an internet culture thing at this point and it bothers me. People who happen to be really into some niche thing doesn’t automatically make you neurodivergent or autistic at all.

I'm not neurodivergent but I think its a great way to signal inclusivity despite much of it coming off as cringe "autism is a super power". Bit of cringe is a small price to pay to protect more vulnerable.

I recently had a conversation like this with an autistic person, and their perspective was interesting.

I have a lot of strange niche interests that other people seem to think I know a lot about. An autistic person and her autistic friends thought I might be autistic too, which I took as a compliment because I interpreted it as them saying they think I’m like them.

I don’t think I’m autistic, but I’m not bothered by the possibility, so I suggested we both take an online autism test. As we took it, the differences were apparent before we even finished.

I had no issues answering the questions and found them very easy. She struggled to know what they meant and what the “correct” answer was. I finished in about a third of the time that it took her. When the results came in, I barely scored on the autism possibility scale while she scored very high as likely autistic. Her mind was kind of blown because it reframed what she thought a neurotypical experience was like.

After more discussions with her, I realized she had a bit of a prejudice against what she interpreted as neurotypical qualities, but in my opinion, those were just the qualities that make up someone who is either kind of a jerk or just callous. As we’ve known each other longer, she has been amazed at my ability to let arguments go, do gross tasks without a problem, not fixate on things that bother me, and a host of other abilities that she struggles with, even though she also notices that I am passionate about certain subjects and tuned in to how I act most of the time.

The thing I think some people on the spectrum don’t realize is that it is possible for a neurotypical person to learn and display positive qualities that are associated with autism. The reason why autism is considered a disability, in my opinion, is that it is harder for an autistic person to learn and display neurotypical qualities (though not impossible).

So, if I were a fern guy, I think it would be totally possible for me to write an eight volume series about them single-handedly. The trick is that I would have to want to, and it would not be something that I was fixated on, but rather something that I chose and endured to the end for.

This is a good point, but the point still stands that not everyone in science is neurodivergent. There are plenty neurotypical people currently doing similar work to this because they developed an interest and an area of expertise.

EO Wilson didn't have autism, and dude wrote a massive book IDing every known ant genus based on morphology. Some people just go hard

The social niche thing makes the most sense IMO. The autistic guy who prefers being alone was probably Jim the game warden who was more than happy to murder any trespassers and even the Lord listened to when it came to matters of the land. Rather than bob who knows a lot about nature and is about two steps away from having a meltdown at his job at McDonalds.