Post by @SaraTonin@lemmy.world

2026-02-24 12:23 UTC

> Anyway, as to the linguistics of ending a word with -ist seeming awkward to you... All the words you cited describe what people *do* or *believe*. Not what people *are* > Autism is not a disability, to me I think it clearly is There’s a saying “everybody has different abilities and needs, but ‘disability’ is a product of society”. You yourself list some of the struggles that we face. And these struggles more often than not have consequences beyond what you list - lack of employment, isolation, barriers to healthcare. Hell, our *lifespans* are shorter on average than allistic people. 5-10 years *without* any mental health comorbidities, and up to 20+ in people *with* comorbidities All from existing in a society which is built around other people’s needs and which doesn’t account for ours I don’t see how it can even be a question. And I say that as someone who firmly believes that if the stats were reversed and we made up 98-99% of the population and allistic people made up 1-2% of the population *they* would be the ones considered disabled *because society would actually be built around us* And let’s not start shrugging off the term “disability” as if that itself is something to be shunned or ashamed of. There’s enough stigma around disability - particularly mental disability - without having it also come from inside the house

Replies (1)

@sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-02-24 13:10

> All the words you cited describe what people do or believe. Not what people are. ... I do not the mental bandwidth to attempt to fully delve into the level of linguistic/philosophical implications of you drawing that as a dividing line. Its an element of one's identity. Many people very much would say they are what they do, be it professionally, or in their free time. I love food, I'm a foodie, I'm a gardener, I like to tend to gardens, I believe in Jesus, I am a Christian, etc. ... As to the 'disability is when society treats you differently' line of thinking... Ok, then being poor, or a minority ethnicity is a disability. So is being a child of a single parent, so is not having access to adequate education. --- My understanding of disability is I guess much more directly related to the human body, of which the mind, being essentially an ongoing activity performed by the brain, an element of the body, is a part. I would consider a person with dyslexia to have a mental disability, because there are basically only detrimental effects to one's ability to perform a common mental task. I would consider having only one fully functional leg to be a disability, as it significantly impedes many otherwise common tasks, not too many direct upsides to that. Autism? Autism is unironically my superpower. I am very skilled at complex data analysis, I notice details others miss, I tend to be much more objective and blunt by default, which is very beneficial when dealing with data and systems, but I also notice tons of microexpressions and tonality variations that make it possible for me to be extremely empathetic, when I'm not too exhausted by the mental energy I need to expend to do that. I can think systemically and specifically in a greater capacity and with greater ease than most non autists I've met. As such, I can write code, design mechanical things. I can plan out beneficial routines and strategies for many socioeconomic scenarios, I have a comparatively heightened sense of my own explicit train of thought that allows me to know when I am getting emotionally disregulated to the point that I need to take a break and calm down, avoid burnout. --- ... My point here with all this is that I view Autism as more of ... well, what it literally is, a different paradigm by which a brain and mind operate. And many of these things do grant abilities and propensities that are directly beneficial to many parts of just being a human doing human stuff, as well as being a person in a society. Yes, Autism also comes with many drawbacks, compared to the baseline neurotypical. But this is how I see it, why I don't see it as a disability in the same way you do. Basically, I see it as a kind of different character build, or class, in an RPG. Drawbacks in some areas, balanced out by aptitude in others. Yeah, it may net out to generally being not overall positive, for the aggregate of people who are autistic. But its not the same thing as a 'disability', which to me, is basically just a clear detriment, with no upsides. --- Here's maybe a thought experiment: Say that somehow, a human is born with tetrachromatic vision, can see colors other people can't, but also, is overwhelmed by many common visual scenarios that don't bother most people at all. ... Is this a disability? Or a superpower? ... Or is it a different kind of being different?

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