You said autistic children are a burden. That they ruin families. That they’ll never pay taxes or write poems. That they are, in essence, collateral damage.

I’d like to introduce you to my daughter.

  • vonxylofon@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    I challenge anyone to name one single thing how RFK has contributed to society. One. To show he isn’t just a waste of oxygen. I will be waiting.

  • I’m autistic and I’m doing great ! I pay my taxes, I’ve written quite a few poems, and a whole lot more things too.

    And honestly, if it were even true that vaccines made me this way, then thank you vaccines ! I really like being autistic. It’s been mostly upsides to me.

  • jaek@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    The fact that anyone feels the need to justify their existence because of this sort of rhetoric is just despicable. In a healthy society, people promulgating these ideas would be taken out back and shot.

  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    my in-laws are tipping into supporting rhetoric from this administration even though all of their grandkids have been diagnosed autistic.

    they’re one bad day away from being 1000% cut out like my own family.

    my kids don’t even realize they have an uncle or cousins.

    I have no problem explaining to my kids “pepaw” and “memaw” moved away and we can’t see them ever again.

  • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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    13 hours ago

    trying to convince someone infested with brainworms and had heroin addiction is something.

  • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
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    16 hours ago

    Autist here as well.

    I paid ~$100k in taxes last year. I got married in 2020. I donate thousands to my local community a year. At peak I was helping create 30 some odd jobs locally.

    RFK Jr can fuck off. I’ve historically done more good for this country in a month than he will ever do in his entire life. I wish the worst for him.

  • fckreddit@lemmy.ml
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    13 hours ago

    This fucv can go fuck himself. People are more than their economic utility and more importantly, they are much much more than their neurodivergence or any other health condition they have.

  • frog@feddit.uk
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    21 hours ago

    Autist here.

    I bet I paid more taxes then this corrupt, nepo baby.

    I am also willing to bet I have a higher IQ too.

    • TonyOstrich@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      That’s what I’m saying. Since I apparently shouldn’t have been paying those taxes who do I contact to get it all back?

  • Taleya@aussie.zone
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    21 hours ago

    Motherfucker I guarantee i’ve paid more taxes than the entire fucking kennedy family, and I’m certainly a more useful member of society than captain brain worm

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Daily reminder that the fact RFK has a platform for the health policy of the US and not a grave after having his brain literally eaten by worms entirely due to his own risky behaviour, is fucking comically absurd

    • VirgilMastercard@reddthat.com
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      1 day ago

      Reality has really gone beyond parody. We use the term “brain worms” to describe willfully ignorant people, and along comes this guy who actually does have brain worms. Lmao

      • IndolentRoshi@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        I know, right? Not only is it absolutely horrifying, but it’s also completely breaking my immersion! A little on the nose, eh, devs?

        • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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          12 hours ago

          he may sitll have one, being exposed to that man carcasses without proper sanitation, is asking for a parasite. he also abused heroin heavily too. i think he got his brother/cousin addicted to heroin and he ODed off it, and he drove his ex-wife to suicide too.

        • ConstableJelly@midwest.social
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          5 hours ago

          I’ll tell you something about heroin for me. I did very very poorly in school, until I started doing narcotics. Then I went to the top of my class because my mind was so restless and turbulent and I could not sit still. […] I’d probably today be diagnosed as ADHD, I was bouncing off the walls. I couldn’t sit still, I just wanted to get in the woods. […] I started doing heroin, I went to the top of my class. Suddenly I could sit still, I could read, and I could concentrate, I could listen to what people were saying, things made sense to me. […] It worked for me. And if it still worked, I’d still be doing it. […] It killed my brother, and it destroys your relationships. It hollows out your whole life. You have a one-dimensional life. I was a bundle of appetites and it was a full time job to feed them, with drugs and sex and alcohol and extreme behavior.

          Is he implying that an ADHD diagnosis would have been frivolous for him because…he self-medicated with heroin and it worked out dandy?? Hasn’t he publicly criticized the rate of ADHD diagnoses and related medications?

    • Darrell_Winfield@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I know about the brain worm thing, but not it being attributed to his risky behavior. What was the behavior that the worms are attributed to?

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        13 hours ago

        starting from his 20s, he was quite obsessed with dancing around carcasses and touching them, storing in his freezer and he would regurlarly consume said roadkills. also he would regurlarly use his falcon to hunt rats, and feed them to falcon. the most recent incident was only 10years ago, he found a baby bear carcass in newyork and drove it around and ditched in NYC central park, this set off alarm bells of the state, as they get suspicious if wild animal suddenly dies there.

        hes even nuttier around the whale carcass.

      • Sundray@lemmus.orgOP
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        13 hours ago

        Yes, he’s had a documented pattern of risky behavior (eating roadkill, spreading bones around in the park, doing monumental amounts of heroin), and yes: he had a brain worm. But SOMEHOW those two dots don’t connect? It’s impossible to prove specifics, but according to his spokesperson:

        He had “traveled extensively in Africa, South America and Asia” as part of his work as an environmental advocate and said he contracted a parasite in one of those trips.’

        Then again we don’t know what he got up to while was traveling. Maybe he chowed down on a raw pig, despite all attempts to stop him?

        • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          You forgot the part where he bundled his whole family into a 4hr roadtrip to chainsaw the head off a dead beached whale. Then rode back with the whale head strapped to the roof with the windows down.

          • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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            12 hours ago

            while the whale blood was gushing down on thier heads, and he made them wear bags on thier heads to avoid all the blood.

  • renamon_silver@lemmy.wtf
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    19 hours ago

    RFK Jr is just a complete ghoul. He should have never touched power and the fact that he did speaks volumes to the profound sickness of the society we Americans occupy.

  • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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    24 hours ago

    I’m not sure how people are supposed to talk about autism with precision when the official diagnosis can encompass both someone capable of being a brilliant inventor and someone not capable of even comprehending language. It’s broad to the point of being useless. Even RFK can see the difference between people with severe mental disabilities and people who are socially awkward and like math. What’s the point of confronting him with examples of the latter group when he’s talking about the former group?

    • Forester@pawb.social
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      20 hours ago

      For a very crude analogy, you can imagine a normal four wheel car as nuerotypical.

      Just because I have learned to balance a two-wheel car through sheer determination and willpower does not mean that I don’t notice that I’m missing two fucking Wheels. I’m just exceptionally good at masking deficiencies as I drive from a to b and not letting people notice as my overdeveloped other skills can be used to compensate .

      All that high functioning means is that I am aware of what society expects me to do. Manually take corrective actions to meet expectations and maintain appearances constantly. It’s tiring. Draining exhausting.

      • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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        20 hours ago

        Right, but there are also plenty of people who just ride a bike and get by just fine. Four wheels may be typical, but a vehicle is not defined by having four wheels. And having four wheels doesn’t do you a ton of good when they’re all flat and misaligned.

        I don’t think you should have to balance a car on two wheels, and I’m sad that you do need to. But having “a car” in this analogy isn’t something that should be baseline necessary to be considered a human being.

        • Forester@pawb.social
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          16 hours ago

          You seem to be missing the point of my analogy. I don’t have a bicycle frame. I have a car frame but only two wheels

          If I had meant bicycle or motorcycle I would have used those words

          I chose the analogy that I did because it best illustrates the struggle that I feel internally watching other people operate and live their lives normal lives

    • pg_jglr@sh.itjust.works
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      24 hours ago

      Because not only did he not make the above distinction, the comments try to devalue anyone with that diagnosis.

    • Taleya@aussie.zone
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      20 hours ago

      Well 1) he’s not making the fucking distinction, and 2) how are people supposed to talk about autism? Well how do you talk about abled people who run the gamut from world champion mma fighter to couch potato who couldn’t smack pudding?

      Spectrums? Spectrums??

    • Sundray@lemmus.orgOP
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      20 hours ago

      All individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience challenges with social communication and interaction, and exhibit restricted or repetitive behaviors or interests. These are the core diagnostic criteria for ASD, and they are well defined.

      The “spectrum” part of the disorder refers to the fact that these can vary in severity, but in order to be diagnostically relevant, they must “cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning.” Being awkward and liking math is not ASD unless it meets that standard.

      In any event, splitting ASD into distinct disorders by severity was not seen as clinically useful by the editors of the DSM, presumably after much consideration. If you wish to argue that level of severity between one symptom or another should be treated as a separate disorder, you can reach out to the Board of Trustees of the APA – maybe you’ll get your wish in the DSM VI.