this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
459 points (86.4% liked)
Autism
6887 readers
30 users here now
A community for respectful discussion and memes related to autism acceptance. All neurotypes are welcome.
We have created our own instance! Visit Autism Place the following community for more info.
Community:
Values
- Acceptance
- Openness
- Understanding
- Equality
- Reciprocity
- Mutuality
- Love
Rules
- No abusive, derogatory, or offensive post/comments e.g: racism, sexism, religious hatred, homophobia, gatekeeping, trolling.
- Posts must be related to autism, off-topic discussions happen in the matrix chat.
- Your posts must include a text body. It doesn't have to be long, it just needs to be descriptive.
- Do not request donations.
- Be respectful in discussions.
- Do not post misinformation.
- Mark NSFW content accordingly.
- Do not promote Autism Speaks.
- General Lemmy World rules.
Encouraged
- Open acceptance of all autism levels as a respectable neurotype.
- Funny memes.
- Respectful venting.
- Describe posts of pictures/memes using text in the body for our visually impaired users.
- Welcoming and accepting attitudes.
- Questions regarding autism.
- Questions on confusing situations.
- Seeking and sharing support.
- Engagement in our community's values.
- Expressing a difference of opinion without directly insulting another user.
- Please report questionable posts and let the mods deal with it. Chat Room
- We have a chat room! Want to engage in dialogue? Come join us at the community's Matrix Chat.
.
Helpful Resources
- Are you seeking education, support groups, and more? Take a look at our list of helpful resources.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
A poster above stated neurodivergent wasn't a synonym for autism, I'm pretty sure for a lot of people it is a synonym for "different".
Eddie does represent a counter-culture that was prevalent at the time, for many that codes as "neurodivergent".
How does counter culture have any relation to actual neurological conditions. I think that’s the questions people are asking. This whole post is insulting and stupid to actual neurodivergent people.
I was never defending the definition, just giving my perspective. But, to take the argument further (because this is the internet, and it's made for doing just that), expressions of neurodivergence are often just ways of thinking atypical to the norm. A lot of counter-culture is based around that idea, people thinking in ways that go against the grain.
The difference, of course, comes from choice. Do people choose to think differently? Then most likely they don't fall under neurodivergence. Whereas if they just think differently naturally, that is more likely to be true neurodivergence.
The problem is this is mostly pop-psychology. It's not necessarily strictly defined in those terms. As with most things, especially when it comes to digital representation on the internet, people will grasp on to labels and seek to find role models to slap those labels on to boost their self image.
That is just people without a condition trying to coop it for their own ends. It’s no different than when people say “I’m so OCD” when they like clean up a crumb. It’s not the most evil thing in the world but let’s not continue to perpetrate any kind of relation to counter culture or “other ways of thinking” and the actual condition people don’t choose and often struggle to deal with. Especially in a community dedicated to discussions around the latter.
Those people I see who falsely claim they are neurodivergent because it’s a popular thing now are so much more insulting and annoying than people who for instance say having ADHD must be like having super powers.
I understand language evolves and all that, but I think it’s a problem to change the meaning of a word like that without another word with the original meaning to take its place. If “neurodivergent” just means “different”, what word do we use in its place?