Why Does Everyone Hate Autistic People?

And yes, it is “both” sides.

Photo by Morgan Basham on Unsplash

For anyone who follows the news (I’m sorry), the latest distraction from the Epstein files is the Trump administration’s insistence that Tylenol causes autism somehow. Of course, before that it was vaccines, a myth that has caused and continues to cause untold damage in America and beyond.

Look, neither Tylenol nor vaccines of any kind cause autism in kids, but right now I’m too lazy to post a bunch of stuff that debunks those myths because I’ll either be preaching to the choir or generally ignored. Instead, I want to point out something that is well-known in neurodivergent circles and generally ignored by mainstream media outlets: everyone seems to hate people with autism.

There seem to be two major sides to the whole autism “debate”: either autism is a scourge that didn’t exist until a few decades ago or kids with autism are soft, helpless beings that must be protected at all costs. Both of these arguments seem to be fairly prevalent in media articles about autism as it relates to public health, and they both ignore the fact that autism spectrum disorder is, in fact, a spectrum.

The public image of autism seems to consist of a small handful of extremes. It’s either a nonverbal child who requires constant care to not have meltdowns, a NEET with no…