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after elon& #39;s SNL monologue I& #39;m seeing a lot of people talking about asperger& #39;s and I think it& #39;s important for neurotypical people to know the history behind this term and why it& #39;s no longer being used as a diagnosis (thread) https://twitter.com/BeffernieBlack/status/1391307475568271360">https://twitter.com/Beffernie...
I& #39;m not necessarily saying it& #39;s wrong to like the label for yourself bc I know some people do and I don& #39;t think it& #39;s my place to dictate that, but I think it& #39;s important for neurotypical people to be careful with their language here
under the DSM-5, people who would have been diagnosed with asperger& #39;s are diagnosed with ASD. this is important because asperger& #39;s was essentially invented by neurotypical people to neatly separate a very specific "higher functioning" set of behaviors from other types of autism
it& #39;s now understood that autism is a much broader spectrum that isn& #39;t just a straight line from "low functioning" to "high functioning." it encompasses a very large variety of combinations of traits and can& #39;t be easily classified into categories
and also yeah, Asperger was a nazi who, while not the inventor of the term as a diagnosis, used this rigid classification to determine which children were and were not worthy of life
it& #39;s also worth mentioning that people with autism generally don& #39;t want to be "cured" of it. such research is usually seen as harmful and often goes hand-in-hand with eliminating behaviors associated w/ autism and forcing autistic people to act neurotypical which can be traumatic
that& #39;s why it& #39;s upsetting that arguably the most famous autistic person right now has a history of promoting these ideas
anyway if any autistic people read this thread and have anything to add or any corrections to make, please do so. I hope this was accurate and thorough enough to educate someone out there
