1100
Science is political. (thelemmy.club)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
211 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 6 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Wow.

Per the article (thanks for posting it all!): autism is a social construct.

Do they just throw random things to the wall to see what sticks?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I mean, I think autism could be partially a social construct, in the sense that many people who have been diagnosed with autism (though nowhere close to all) would have very few symptoms if society were geared towards them. My autism is mostly problematic because of how other people react to it or because of getting overwhelmed by things that would be greatly reduced in a world where (at least a subsection of) autism was neurotypical.

    I am not trying to minimize the experience of people whose autism is a significant disability that wouldn’t be noticeably affected by societal change, to be clear.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    Yeah, it's a social construct in the sense that it's just natural differences among humans, specifically differences that don't as often square with societal/social norms as the average person. If society were comprised of all autistic people, you wouldn't have the label "autism", you'd just have "people that are the way people are."

    That said, unlike the article implies, autism is, of course, not just something everyone is choosing, making up, or using to justify not doing work.

    I will note the article doesn't technically say "everyone with autism is faking it and it's not real", it just implies that because a lot of people self-diagnose with it now, that must mean that the real numbers are way lower than they actually are, and that people who have autism, but don't experience major social or productivity related issues from it, aren't actually autistic and are just "introverted" or some other general term that could theoretically apply.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago

    Per the article (thanks for posting it all!):

    I actually didn't post all of it! The full article was probably about 4-6 times as long as just the snippets I showed, if not more. I cut out a lot of either repetitive points, or stories that just didn't really make a point and were more there just to illustrate this specific person's life in general for emotional attachment.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent