Comment by dimal

You said "Her video on autism is considered super harmful and misleading by actual autistic people".

While you didn't say ALL, you didn't clarify, so your wording says that autistic people categorically think her video is super harmful and misleading. That's simply not true.

I'm in a bit of a minority in that I see autism through the neurodiversity lens, but I also think this tribal us-vs-them mentality is doing us more harm than good. Tarring and feathering people for not getting everything exactly "right" by my standards isn't helping anyone. It just causes people to throw up their hands and vote Trump.

So, while I disagree with Autism Speaks on pretty much every point and I think they're extremely harmful, labeling them as a hate group is self-defeating. Parents with high-needs autistic children look to Autism Speaks. These parents love their children, but are being mislead. When you push people, they push back. If we shout "You're a hate group!" then all dialogue stops, and we can't help their children. And helping those children the important thing.

Ironically, I think the problem for Sabine is simply miscommunication, which is due to her probably being autistic and not communicating according to neurotypical standards. She ended the video by showing how she scored high on an online test (which isn't definitive, of course), but then she dismisses it out of hand.

I dismissed those tests too when I first took them, but that's because I still didn't really know what autism is, even after I did tons of research. I couldn't really know that by reading studies or talking to a psychologist. I didn't really know until I met other autistic people and realized that they actually "got" me in a way that no one else ever has.

Her behavior is VERY typical of autistic people. Monotone voice, hyperlogical, hypermoral. She quit a successful career in physics for moral reasons. No neurotypical person would do that. An autistic person would. She wears the same velour shirt in every video. Sensory issues(?), repetitive behavior.

It's up to her to make the call as to whether she's actually autistic or not, but I see her as one of us.

And... I'm going to need a TLDR on that Ember Green video. It's a 2 hour commentary on a 25 minute video. Instead of asking me to unpack the arguments, make them.