up there with the best album opener / best opening lyrics of all time. this is such a winter album for me. perfection.

Hatred towards autism has allowed conspiracy theories about autism and vaccines to thrive.

Why it's important to push back against the dangerous #ProfoundAutism label; + CN: Suicide: "Stereotypes created by 'Profound Autism' risk denying suitable support from many Autistic persons, which will predictably result in more Autistic suicides." thinkingautismguide.com/2023/09/grav... #autism

Which led to this, which was nothing less than child abuse. www.barrons.com/news/france-...

I wrote about this in relation to other cognitive biases. As the study points out "autistic individuals are less susceptible to social influence and cognitive biases than non-autistic individuals". A significantly under-researched characteristic of autism. autism-advantage.com/autistics-do...

"serious flaws, inconsistencies, and contradictions" ... hardly rare in research around autism, especially for both causes and (lord forbid) cures.

It absolutely beggars belief that with all the evidence we have of climate change there are still people who deny it exists. While countries like the USA roll back what little moves there have been to tackle it, the situation is getting pretty dire for the planet. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Yet another new study that's found that ABA therapy is linked to worse mental health outcomes. The number of hours of "therapy" did not make a difference--any exposure to ABA is traumatic. You can't fix conversion therapy. LGBT conversion therapy has similar results in studies. #autism #ABA #trauma

"Burnout as experienced by autistic people is characterised by profound exhaustion, loss of functional abilities, and a chronic course marked by intermittent crises, with impacts on sensory, emotional, cognitive, and daily life functioning" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... systematic review

No it doesn't say that, no autism isn't an illness as @kathryndeplume.com below says. Where are the science journalists who actually understand results sections? Covid infection is bad full-stop but this study does not show a link to autism. And it's also damaging to the autistic community.

"autistic people have noticeable sensory & movement differences from day one" You don't become autistic, you're born autistic. Nothing that occurs after birth will make you more or less autistic.

I've never seen a single skill taught to an autistic kid by an ABA therapist that required ABA therapy to be learned. Not one. I *have* seen many harms imposed upon autistic kids because ABA therapists considered autistic traits like sensory needs "behaviors," however. #BetterWaysThanABA #autism

“the terms ‘neurological diversity’ and ‘neurodiversity’ were first printed in 1997 and 1998, respectively, in the work of the journalist Harvey Blume, who himself attributed them not to Singer but rather to the online community of autistic people”

The media has also published far too many essays by these "autism parents" who hate their autistic kids. This has increased the vilification of autism IMO.

Autism is a naturally occurring neurotype. Around 1% of our species are born autistic.

Language hack - When talking about "autism", replace autism with "tall" and see if it makes sense: "The tall community has opinions about new tall research that came out recently, about the increased risk of tall." Now write it correctly, using tall, and then replace "tall" with "autistic".

"There is a much higher bar for proving causation than association. In this case proving causation would mean showing that eliminating exposure to Tylenol would actually reduce the number of autism cases." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

My personal timeline is full of autistic people trying to explain that there isn't more autism than before, it's just that we're better at detecting it, and there's nothing more autistic than hoping explaining something at length will help matters when nobody is really listening.

Paracetamol (Tylenol, Acetaminophen) does not cause autism. MMR vaccines also don't cause autism. Autism is not a disease. Stop pathologising it!

You want constant positivity from autistic people right now? It’s hard to stay upbeat when watching society laugh at our traits, misrepresent our struggles, and dismiss our voices. We’re tired. We’re not broken we’re reacting to real harm. We do have feelings even though we are stereotyped as robots

It’s NOT a communication “deficit”… It’s the Double Empathy Problem - and it changes everything 💬 Autistic people aren’t defective, uncaring, or unsociable 🧠 The real issue? Two different neurotypes trying to connect Communication is a two-way street, not a one-sided flaw (1/7)

"There is no 'autism epidemic.' Autism is a developmental difference that has existed as long as human beings have." -ASAN executive director @colinkillick.bsky.social. Spread the word: Tylenol does not cause autism. But reproduction sure does! www.usatoday.com/story/opinio... #neurodiversity

If I could get non-autistic people to understand one thing, it wouldn't be that I have support needs. It would be that YOU have support needs.

Siobhan Moorton, a white middle-class woman who was diagnosed as autistic last month at the age of 30, has defied stereotypes by not immediately signing a publishing deal.

Thanks @worldoflove.bsky.social Behold. The festering carcass of American rot shoved into an ill-fitting suit: the sleaze of a conman, the cowardice of a draft dodger, the gluttony of a parasite, the racism of a Klansman, the sexism of a back-alley creep, the ignorance of a bar-stool drunk,

"Everyone is a little autistic." No. Autism is a perfectly normal part of human diversity, but it isn't a quirk of character; it's a lifelong pattern of social, sensory, and behavioural differences that shape how a person experiences and interacts with the world.

The strongest predictor of autism is genetics. Data: • If one identical twin has ASD, the other has a 90–99% chance. • Compare that to 31–67% chance for fraternal twins. • Non-twin siblings have ~20% likelihood of ASD, 7-fold higher than general population. 1/

Black, autistic & PROUD 👌🏽♾️

I don’t know who needs to read this but: “non-Autistic people are NOT humanity’s baseline.” Similarly: “Neurotypical is NOT the default state of humanity, but simply an average our society has been designed to cater to.”

Believe trans people when we tell you the 'science' behind the Cass Report is as solid as the 'science' behind paracetamol causing autism.

“Autism is not a disease to be cured. It is a natural variation in human neurology”

Mothers have long been unfairly blamed for their children's autism, as Kate McAnelly recently wrote in #VIDAblog. Knowing this history is all the more important following yesterday's scientifically unfounded allegations about paracetamol/tylenol. Read more here ⬇️ www.auswhn.com.au/blog/unreal-...

Make no mistake, linking tylenol (paracetamol) to autism is simply an attempt to suggest that neurodivergence is not a 'natural' part of life (which it is), but instead to 'other' the condition and attempt to shift the 'blame' for it onto mothers.

“The current administration has made its Big Autism Announcement, and it is big, all right: a big, easily predicted steaming pile of bullsh**.” Details on the garbled ableist mercenary pseudoscience from @ejwillingham.bsky.social, in the latest TPGA newsletter: buttondown.com/TPGA/archive...

Autism is not caused by anything. It's a naturally occurring neurotype. And always has been. It's not a disease or a pathology. You can't catch autism or become autistic, or vice versa. There is no non-autistic person behind someone who's autistic. It's not an add-on, it's who you are.

“Acetaminophen use during pregnancy was not associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability in sibling control analysis. This suggests that associations observed in other models may have been attributable to familial confounding.”

The word “autism” was first used to describe behavioral differences in children in 1911 but autism has been documented using available records going back to the 1700s (definitively) and further. Acetaminophen (Tylenol, paracetamol) was discovered in 1878 and first sold in the United States in 1950.

Autistic and neurodivergent people deserve far better than a government looking to prevent their existence, let alone one that will invent fictitious ways to do so that puts everyone in danger

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Trump will claim that Tylenol is linked to autism. But every expert Julia Musto and I interviewed say this is a gross misreading of the data. via @the-independent.com www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

This rhetoric is almost as bad as what trump is doing. The idea of "blame" and "cause" isn't fucking relevant. Autistic people have always existed. We will always exist. Looking for "causes" for a natural human variation is the first step to this nonsense in the first place.

For no particular reason whatsoever, I wrote a whole book about why society should stop trying to cure #ActuallyAutistic people and instead focus more on creating a better world and society for them. You can buy it here. www.harpercollins.com/products/wer...

Hey folks, if you want some early insight into this coming week's shower of health and science misinformation, check out Thinking Person's Guide to Autism's summary of what FDA/RFK Jr. are going to be up to in the coming days, and what their motivations could possibly be (hint: $$$).

“Interoception is the ability to notice and understand internal bodily sensations, like your heartbeat, hunger, or the need to take a deep breath. For autistic adolescents, this ability can be hyperactive or underactive. Both extremes can contribute to anxiety.” crae.ioe.ac.uk/experiences-...

"Profound autism" is as non-sensical as "profound pregnancy". You are or you aren't and within that every person's experience is unique.

half of an autistic person’s life is just going “but that’s not what you said”

Asking autistic adults why they did not seek help when suicidal--"It is essential to recognise... that reticence towards help-seeking is a wholly appropriate response to ineffective treatment and physical and/or psychological harm from medical care..." journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... free

There is a misconception that “Autism is a mental illness” – which it’s not. Autistic People can have good or poor mental health… just like non-Autistic People. I was Autistic AND had mental illness due to being treated badly for being Autistic. I’m doing much better now, but I’m still Autistic.

Nine in ten #ActuallyAutistic people older than 40 in the United Kingdom are undiagnosed, which makes them susceptible to "age-related problems" and social isolation in older age. www.the-independent.com/news/health/...

#home is where the coffee is amazing, the trains never really run on time and you're only a "free tram zone" ride away from a music or sporting event. i ❤️ you, melbourne. you are my home. #photography #EastCoastKin #BlueSkyArtShow #Melbourne