What Is ‘Normal’ Anyway? How Being ‘Weird’ Is Totally Okay and Shouldn’t Be Ridiculed

On Ann Coulter mocking Gus Walz’ emotional display

Caitlin McColl
Dose Of Wonder
Published in
3 min readAug 24, 2024

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Photo by Dan Parlante on Unsplash

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Media pundit and commentator Ann Coulter called Tim Walz’ son Gus ‘weird’ after his emotional display of pride, love and happiness for his father at the Democratic National Convention. She has since removed her post, saying she didn’t realize Gus was autistic… But the cat was already out of the bag.

Um, okay so you think it’s fine to bad mouth people who aren’t neurodivergent?! (AKA neurotypical).

WOW.

And what is wrong with being ‘weird’?

NOTHING!

After all — what is ‘normal’ anyway?

Is there a standardized checklist worldwide of attributes for what is classed as being a ‘normal’ person as compared to an ‘abnormal’ or divergent one? No. (If there is, please enlighten me!).

As my husband says, and I 100% agree, everyone is probably on the (autism) spectrum to some degree.

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Caitlin McColl
Dose Of Wonder

Writer on mental health, grief & loss, mindfulness, running, life musings (+ fiction and poetry!). ❤️coffee & dogs. Vancouver 🇨🇦