Autism

You do realize the word has a meaning?

“an illness or condition that disrupts normal physical or mental functions”

Generally people are born with 4 limbs because that is the normal, if you are born without them it’s abnormal you need to use words to classify things, the world operates on the norm… it wouldn’t make sense to make all cars be only able to operate for people who were born without limbs

Saying that, just because you have a disorder doesn’t make you any less of a person, anyone that thinks that is a moron.. basically don’t get hung up on a word, you had no choice in your biology/birth you just got what you got

They way you describe it as being oppressed or marginalized you are gonna be well on your way to always being a victim if you want to frame your worldview that way

I feel like this is just a step toward throwing out the classification and description of individuals in terms of social norms and averages. Like, however it came to be (and I'm skeptical of your assertion that society has somehow been fashioned - presumably on purpose? - "to meet the needs of [so-called] allistics"), the society in which we live has bell curve distributions of many personality traits and capabilities and interests and on and on.

There is such a thing as the middle of the bell curve, the 1 standard deviation from the mean, etc. It's useful to call that something. We've called it "normal" or "typical" or whatever. And so people in the 2 std dev and higher bands are increasing magnitudes of "abnormal" or "atypical." So what?

Well, since time immemorial, being different could be dangerous to the survival of the group. So being different became pejorative. Only in the past couple hundred years have we began to appreciate that creative genius is almost always associated with "atypical" people. (Destructive genius, too.)

I think we're going through a time now where we're acknowledging that maybe more people have always been "atypical" but they concealed it for various reasons. I see my kids' generation as being particularly open to the variation that's apparently pretty natural in our species (or driven by microplastics and forever chemicals).

I don't think doing away with statistical analysis of populations is the way to go, though. A better approach, to my mind, is to do away with the negative connotation that still accompanies the diagnosis of being 2 or more standard deviations away from the mean. Certainly it's not coming up with a slew of new terms to replace "normal" or "typical."

I don't disagree that neurodivergent people would have a way better time if people/society took them into consideration more. But I am low support needs and still consider it a disorder. My boyfriend has ADHD and agrees. While there are a lot of things that would be fixed by having sensory friendly environments for example, there are still a lot of things about being autistic that hinder me that I wish would go away regardless of what accommodations exist.

As a person with ADHD, I totally hear you.

You're right that in a different world, built for any particular neurodivergence, the balance of challenges would be different.

For me though, I've learned to acknowledge that no fictional world-building could make me better at remembering names, faces, birthdays, the stories I've already told someone, or keep me from burning out my interest in new passions.

At the end of the day, despite people thinking I'm "smart" and getting along well with others, I'm constantly exhausted by the additional effort it takes and nobody sees the excessive downtime it takes for me to recharge.

I always think of GATTACA and how in a world of genetically modified rich people, a man has to hustle hard to blend in. It's a constant effort 24/7 just to create the illusion that I'm operating the same as everyone else.

The other thing is that most of the socioeconomic changes that would benefit me, would also benefit everyone else. Which is good, but means the balance would not be dramatically changed.

I've realized my internal discomfort with acknowledging my condition as a disability, stems from believing a disability makes me lesser. What has alleviated that discomfort is realizing that's not how people see each other in real life (in general).

My sense of being lesser, of unfair struggle, comes from capitalism exclusively valuing persons/things that best grow the wealth if those with capital.

I'm not lesser because I'm a bad person, or a stupid person. I FEEL lesser because the world I live in let's people die when they can't afford a hospital visit, and only values human life to the extent that it makes rich people richer.

It doesn't even matter if you bring greater value to the world with your art, if capitalists can't monetize it for themselves.

As capitalism's stranglehold tightens on everybody exponentially, the rest of the world is starting to get a taste if disenfranchisement for themselves. As more people recognize the root of so many problems, people will continue pushing for more radical change.

We might not live to see the best outcome of this fight, but know that you aren't fighting you struggles alone and your obstacles aren't your fault.

Its a disorder, not calling it one is not making it any less of a disorder.