Comment on Anon tries to break the ice
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 3 hours agoThey have a very outdated, paternalistic, rightwing view of autism. They very much view it as a disease on the level of cancer that needs to be cured, versus the “neurodiversity” view that most autistic autism activists have, and they have basically no (openly) autistic people in leadership positions. Also held on to the “vaccines cause autism” myth for a long time.
Viceversa@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Genuine question: can an autistic person be a leader?
piccolo@sh.itjust.works 1 hour ago
One could argue they’ll be the best. Everything would run smooth and optimized and everyone would only have to work one day a week. Cars would be replaced with trains in 2 weeks.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 3 hours ago
I do agree that it doesn’t necessarily come naturally to autists, but it seems to work fine for all the autist-led autism advocacy groups. Lots of autists have substantial skill in social masking, anyway - doing it around the clock is damaging to them, but it’s not like non-autistic leaders are always their fully authentic self in public, either. A good advocacy group enables, where possible, the participation of people who are directly involved.
As a prominent example for leaders of activist groups with autism, consider Greta Thunberg.
Viceversa@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Greta is pretty controversial, but thank you very much for the well elaborated answer!
Bassman1805@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Yes.