[faeriechangling]

Autism is literally medically defined as a series of deficits, latest criteria = DSM-V-TR

https://www.reddit.com/r/aspergirls/comments/th9hku/dsm5tr_n...

The only positive thing said about autism in that entire gigantic write-up is "Special interests may be a source of pleasure and motivation and provide avenues for education and employment later in life"

Why would doctors treat autism as being anything but negative with no positive when Autism is literally defined in that way? Of course, people since Leo Kanner and Hans Aspergers noted Autistics having extraordinary abilities, and people are vaguely aware of this, but doctors hold autistics in worse contempt than the general population mostly because you can't bill insurance to treat a "difference" or get a study grant to research a "difference". So the system they're in forces them to treat autistics as contemptible and even in need of curing. Besides that, psychiatry is after all the study of mental illness and disorders, not of mental differences, so there's a bias just from training.

Legal, UN definition, trying to cure a mental disorder is not eugenics. It is logically the same idea as eugenics though, the UN just didn't outlaw this idea since the mentally disordered were considered sufficiently inferior. Autistics can also be banned from sperm banks.

There's nothing to be done really as a mere not neurotypical internet dweller. The inertia of the status quo is like a train and many people benefit from it. The only real choice you have is to call yourself something like "Not neurotypical" instead of "Autistic".

[randomNumber7]

Because people with autism have often a very high IQ and also are often very talented in some things (while beeing bad at others).

This combination can be very useful for specialized taks. Like programming, math, research ...

[ywvcbk]

> people with autism have often a very high IQ

I don’t think that’s necessarily true even if we only consider those with high-functioning autism (and the average is significantly lower if we include everyone).

Some people with autism have a very high IQ, just like some people who don’t have it.

e.g. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9058071/