“If autism isn’t caused by environmental factors and is natural why didn’t we ever see it in the past?”
We did, except it wasn’t called autism it was called “Little Jonathan is a r*tarded halfwit who bangs his head on things and can’t speak so we’re taking him into the middle of the cold dark forest and leaving him there to die.”
Or “little Jonathan doesn’t talk but does a good job herding the sheep, contributes to the community in his own way, and is, all around, a decent guy.” That happened a lot, too, especially before the 19th century.
Or, backing up FURTHER
and lots of people think this very likely,
“Oh little Sionnat has obviously been taken by the fairies and they’ve left us a Changeling Child who knows too much, and asks strange questions, and uses words she shouldn’t know, and watches everything with her big dark eyes, clearly a Fairy Child and not a Human Like Us.”
The Myth of the Changeling child, a human baby apparently replaced at a young age by a toddler who “suddenly” acts “strange and fey” is an almost textbook depiction of autistic children.
To this day, “autism warrior mommies” talk about autism “stealing” their “sweet normal child” and have this idea of “getting their real baby back” which (in the face of modern science) indicates how the human psyche actually does deal with finding out their kid acts unlike what they expected.
Given this evidence, and how common we now know autism actually is, the Changeling myth is almost definitely the result of people’s confusion at the development of autistic children.
Weirdly enough, that legend is now comforting to me.
I think it’s worth noting that many like me, who are diagnosed with ASD now, would probably have been seen as just a bit odd in centuries past. I’m only a little bit autistic; I can pass for neurotypical for short periods if I work really hard at it. I have a lack of talent in social situations, and I’m prone to sensory overload or you might notice me stimming.
But here’s the thing: life is louder, brighter and more intense and confusing than it has ever been. I live on the edge of London and I rarely go into the centre of town because it’s too overwhelming. If I went back in time and lived on a farm somewhere, would anyone even notice there was anything odd about me? No police sirens, no crowded streets that go on for miles and miles, no flickery electric lights. Working on a farm has a clear routine. I’d be a badass at spinning cloth or churning butter because I find endless repetition soothing rather than boring.
I’m not trying to romanticise the past because I know it was hard, dirty work with a constant risk of premature death. I don’t actually want to be a 16th century farmer! What I’m saying is that disability exists in the context of the environment. Our environment isn’t making people autistic in the sense of some chemical causing brain damage. But we have created a modern environment which is hostile to autistic people in many ways, which effectively makes us more disabled. When you make people more disabled, you start to see more people struggling, failing at school because they’re overwhelmed, freaking out at the sound of electric hand dryers and so on. And suddenly it looks like there’s millions more autistic people than existed before.
“…disability exists in the context of the environment.”
Reblog for disability commentary.
That last paragraph is absolutely important.
“How come nobody ever heard of ‘dyslexia’ until widespread literacy became a thing?”
Trump’s brutality wasn’t something they politely ignored, it was his whole appeal.
I would be all “but I never thought leopards would eat MY face!” about this, but even that’s too kind here. It’s not that Trump voters didn’t care whether other people got hurt as long as they were exempted from consequences, people voted for Trump explicitly for spite, because they wanted to hurt other people - immigrants, gays, black people. And now he’s not hurting them enough. If he was persecuting minorities more this lady would be willing to put up with the hardship, because that’s how much she hates her fellow Americans.
This is a thing I had and still grapple with after the election. Many people when talking in to news people about why they voted Trump gave their reason as they he is “a business man and will run the country like a business”, will have economic reform, and essentially get them money.
Which if anyone knows anything about Trump knows that isn’t true and the average person isn’t going to get a penny.
But the message I was getting is that the rampant racism, his history of anti-black racism, his antisemitism, his long long history misogyny, creepy sexual behavior, his disturbing incest comments about his daughter, his racist dog whistles used all though out the campaign, his transphobia, his homophobia, and the massive support he got from white supremacists that doesn’t matter to you because of money.
Your greed is more important the damage and pain he will cause. That I find so highly disturbing and scary.
Because I already knew American had racists and they were salivating over trump and they would be more then happy to suffer if it meant minorities would suffer fuck ton more.
I mean it is scary to see just how many racists there and to see the implosion of neo-nazis in this country, even though I knew they were already here (and shit ton of them can be found wearing the uniform of police officers though I’m sure for many americans they already knew that)
I guess I just also find terrifying how easy it was for some many people to turn to flat out say that there greed was more important the suffering of others.
I don’t if this moral deficit, if this is because of capitalism, or if because to these voters at the end of the day they thought the only people who would suffer would LGBTQIA+ people, black people, Jewish people, immigrants, disabled people, mentally ill people, and other marginalized minorities. Or perhaps a combination of all three factors.
I mean there is nothing wrong with wanting more money and financial stability, but not when it comes with suffering of others.
America has so many massive corporations that rake is billions of dollars and there are mutli-millionaires and billionaires living here that is who the government should be taxing. That is presidential candidates should go after in their campaigns not people belonging various marginalized minority groups.
i speak french in public to my grandparents and to my boyfriend. people are surprised that im bilingual and say its cool and ask me to teach them some time
but when one of my classmates speaks arabic in public to her family, she gets strange and disgusted looks. no one asks to be taught arabic. no one says its cool that shes bilingual
This figure is obviously inspired by Ridley Scott’s Alien movie and is found on Paisley Abbey in Scotland where it was added during repair works carried out in the early 1990s
Archaeologists in 1000 years are gonna have a lot of fun with this
Reasons I believe my friend is secretly some kind of deity
1) First time we spoke was a week after the beggining of freshman year she summed up my entire character and most of the events of my life Sherlock style. I asked her how the hell she knew all that. She just shrugged and said she figured out our entire class already.
2) The one time we had religion class instead of ethics she listened to the teacher for a few minutes, laughed and told me:
“Humans have wished to be gods so much they’ve forgotten they have to ability to create them. Imagination has truly suffered from this ‘monotheism’ stuff.”
I was confused and asked her if she was an atheist. She rolled her eyes and said:
“Oh I believe in god alright. I just don’t think the bastard deserves to be worshipped.”
3) Out of nowhere she gave me this advice:
“The only truth a liar ever told was that lies weren’t going to save you. Don’t become the liar who has to pass that wisdom on, because they speak from experience.”
4) To this day, she has one of those old-timey phones with buttons she only uses to ocassionally call someone. When I asked her why she never got a smartphone she got pouty:
“I hate social media. On Facebook they talk a lot but never say anything. If I wanted to listen to people moan about their problems and ask for help they don’t expect I’d listen to their prayers.” (Notice the choice of words)
5) I noticed she was stiff and I offered her a massage since I’m really good at it but when i started kneading her back I swear to this day those were not muscles I felt. I asked her what she did to turn her muscles into rocks covered with a thin layer of skin and she kinda froze then shrugged and said she was just really, really stiff. My hands hurt after ten minutes when I can usually go for an hour. Next time I offered she seemed surprised and laughed. She still has rocks for muscles.
6) We were having a debate over the way neural pathways are formed (I study biology and she forensics) and I jokingly asked if I could have her brain for study when she dies. She laughed.
“Sure, if you find a way to kill me you can have it. I’m actually curious what you’re gonna find.”
7) One time she was tired and miserable and I tried to comfort her. We both have really dark sense of humor so I told her she could scare the dead out of their graves with that glare. She told me the dead can’t come back and I rolled my eyes and said ‘obviously’ but she continued:
“When you die you descend to the underworld with nothing to lose. To keep you, they give you something to lose. When you want to return, they will demand it back. That’s why nobody ever leaves. The only way out is to never enter.”
8) One day she just came up to me with a disappointed look on her face. When I asked her what was wrong she was quiet for a few seconds and then just told me:
“Betrayals committed in good intentions are still damning. Just… keep that in mind.” Then she left and didn’t speak to me for three days. I still don’t know what she meant but even three years later I haven’t forgotten it.
9) We were casually sitting on a bench when, out of nowhere, she asked me: “Is it just me or have humans gotten dumber? Or have they always been this stupid and I just haven’t been paying attention?”
10) She asked me if I ever wondered what it was like to die. I said no but told her I would tell her when I found out. I meant it as a ghost joke but she smiled at me and said:
“Great. I’ll wait for you to come back. Maybe you’ll even remember me.”
In conclusion, she is some kind of low-key god and she lost her faith in humanity even before we lost our faith in her but she’s stuck with us because immortality is a bitch.
P.S. I just remembered her name is a variation on ‘Eve’. Maybe I should reconsider my atheist status?!
She totally sounds like a goddess from one of Rick Riordan’s novels honestly. I kinda love her. If you have more stories, update us, cause I love this stuff.
Develop a roomba that reacts to being petted and you’re going to make bank with millennials
Don’t forget to give it a little screen so it can flash up emoticon faces.
*bump into wall* >_<
*gets pet* :3
*low battery* ;_;
*stick on a ledge* D:
*sucks up something it’s not supposed to* >:3c
I loathe how badly I want this.
There’s a lil food delivery robot at uc Berkeley campus that does this and one spontaneously combusted last week and the students had a candlelight vigil on the middle of finals week
