wtf, Temple Grandin. *anxiety intensifies*

I don’t buy this assimilationist, anti-worker, anti-poor nonsense. Full stop.

I’ve worked way too many jobs where i was miserable, my coworkers were miserable, the department heads were miserable — and those were the sort of “not just a job, a career” sorts of positions she’s talking about.

It’s not just her, unfortunately. Some corners of the Autistic community, especially among people who tout being high functioning (or being “cured”) as a panacea, have a ways to go in terms of:

– not playing high/low, aspie/autie games, especially “high-functioning” punching down towards “low-functioning”
– active inclusion and acceptance of POC
– active acceptance of people who self-dx
– acceptance of neurodiversity, neurodivergence and neuroqueerness in general

We’re a community, not a horse race. Asserting that we’re not dealing with the same core issues is bunk, even if they manifest to varying levels from person to person, and within a given person.

When people try to draw a hard distinction between auties and aspies, or the employed (and careered, no less) vs. the unemployed, what they are doing is attempting to reify passing, including passing as allistic and/or NT, as well as “I never would’ve guessed that you’re autistic” sorts of mind games. It may work for them to do that, and that’s fine, but insisting that everybody be like them is both cruel and divisive.

Counter-propoganda for your informational needs:

We Are All Part of One Spectrum

Functioning Labels, Again

Decoding the High Functioning Label

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