Warning to Undiagnosed Autists in America: Do not seek diagnosis at this time
Autists will be one of the first in the camps it seems. In fact, getting out of America should strongly be considered
I had looked into autism diagnosis as an adult and there are basically no upsides. It's expensive and you'll have to fight doctors for it, and you'll be given a piece of paper that doesn't mean anything to anyone. There are no real resources (the ones gated by neoliberal austerity that require the paper) for autistic adults in the US from what I've seen. For adults it seems to be "just be thankful your support level is low".
Nobody is going to check your papers and kick you out of a support group or meeting for not having them.
Having an autism diagnosis has already been a hurdle to approval for adopting a child. If that existed, to me it meant neurodivergent people would be a target in the future.
Yeah I'd almost never disclose ND status regardless of what it is and to what bureaucracy, it's almost always bad, and it's almost always on me to fight for any kind remedy regardless of disclosure. The liberal rules around disclosure esp. in the work place are effectively meant to make ND people more vulnerable. The standards protect only those with visible physical disabilities to a extremely minimal degree.
The only things protecting us have been HIPAA. That's actually the worst part about RFK's database, given that the government just leaked Abrego Garcia's wife's address to their stochastic psycho contingent.
IDK what I have, as far as the full spectrum of neurodiversity does, and I'm definitely suffering in some way as a result, but I'd expand this to far more than autism, I think if they have any success sending people to death camps for autism, they'll probably start picking up everyone else without even making an announcement. In fact, it would not surprise me if suddenly they start picking up random US citizens and just declare them autistic.
In fact, it would not surprise me if suddenly they start picking up random US citizens and just declare them autistic.
I have my doubts about this because they are already doing this through ICE and they have said they are going to do it for people who disagree with the President regardless of their citizenship status.
RFK's HHS is not going to out-compete ICE to create a general gestapo model, it already exists, has for a long time, in multiple different modes. It's just that it was much more polite before.
I'm much more scared about keeping my passport up to date, and being denaturalized than I am about RFK's goofy autism caregiver based genocidal ideas.
Waaaaay ahead of you there, my paranoia about the rise of the 4th reich is why I never sought diagnosis for over a decade of thinking I may be autistic
go into autism death camps thread
people are mostly discussing the finer points of the personal noun form of the word autism
:classic:
An hour from now:
go into autism death camps thread
people are mostly discussing people discussing the finer points of the personal noun form of the word autism
Hexbear, famous home of people who don't care about others' (pro)nouns?
The first people have already been sent to camps and they are Latin Americans.
Side note, how do people with autism feel about the word autist? I feel like I've only seen it used by terminally online people as a sort of slur
I'm not going to dox myself, but I am an autism activist and we all pretty much use the term autist. If you read Unmasking Autism, a good book btw, it will show that Autist is the preferred nomenclature
Autist is the preferred nomenclature
for who, the author? many autistic people dislike the term. IMO we don't really even need a noun for autistic people. adjectives work fine.
I appreciate the insight from everyone here, I have a friend who taught kids with autism and told me that they were taught to say "person with autism" so I've always gone that route since then.
i do not like autist as ive only ever heard it used as a slur at me and others. the matter is far from settled and there is no "preferred nomenclature." you're supposed to ask people individually, which is great unless you're in a group - i think maybe "autistic" is fine, like "autistic people" but that's just my preference. if someone opened with "autists" i would absolutely tense up and probably not engage with what they were saying
Context dependent for me. First person "as an autist" etc I generally find funny. Third person "Autist's be like" I generally dislike
I like the word, but a lot of autistic people dislike it so generally I don't use it much
I received an email from the place I got diagnosed saying they would never share diagnosis results voluntarily, and would not give access to those results, without a legal battle. Their stance is that their patient's rights fall under HIPPA and applicable state privacy laws, making them confidential. They sent out a statement saying they do not support any kind of registry that lacks full informed consent, and that they stand with the neurodivergent community.
Based on the wording the hitlerites in the gov't are using to describe how they'll get our data, it might actually be through medication, vaccination status, and disability claims on medical records, but don't quote me on that (and please fact check me if I'm incorrect, I'm pretty tired rn).
It scares me that no mention of protecting minors' privacy and safety are being mentioned much. I can't imagine how scary this must be for younger folks right now. Stay safe out there, and keep your wits about you.
I am still undiagnosed and not in the US, but this sort of thing and employment evaluations are still the big reasons I haven't pursued it.
We have the tech broyi big data medical records where I live, if I had the diagnosis, it would be so easy to pick me up from the records. The surveillance that people have just willingly signed up for cover all medical records nbd diagnoses on a national level. They are just ready to be exploited for when this country gets to where the US is now.
I am so worried for our US comrades tbh.
I don't think I can get it taken off my records so I am very nervous.
They're making a list🎵 We're paying the price🎵 It's not a surprise🎵 Since they came for Trans Rights🎵 Black triangles'🎵 Cominnnn, to townnnnnnn🎵
I can’t get past how strange of a hill this is to die on. Though I have to imagine this rhetoric is completely based on optics and mob preference (just like the latin xenophobia). Either that or the state is afraid of us because we don’t fold to social norms and traditions.
Like I get parents being scared of having disabled kids for the financial strain if nothing else, but like afaik most autistics can be self sufficient and independent with the right developmental help. Compared to a serious physical disability or developmental/degenerative neurological disability it seems kinda silly. I would guess my parents paid more for me to play hockey as a kid than it would cost to provide assistance to the average autistic (with money left over for the kid to be into less expensive activities).
If we’re looking for preventative mental issues how about we worry about american football first.
If capital cannot profit off of you, it will kill you. Autistic people tend to be bad at the wage work capital demands of us - hence why so many of us are chronically unemployed.
This is an important point. We should remember that this means that the most realistic worse-case model they have to cleanse us en masse is corporate private prison contracting where some Trump friendly dipshit gets $25k/per body a month from the Fed to warehouse us in a concrete tomb.
They cannot kill us cheaply and we aren't actually a balance sheet problem because there is realistically social spending for the majority of us. They'll starve all disabled and poor people before they single us out in any effective way. We might be a trial balloon, but it's extremely unlikely that we'll get it nearly as bad as migrants.
Autism is just a political talking point for their shit for brains NT base who doesn't want to be shown anything on the TV except their own shallow world view, and for the people who they talk about the TV with in public to never tell them the TV is wrong. We're just a means to an end, effectively to get society to agree to the fact that kids should die of measles.
America in 2025 is utterly incapable of mega-projects like Japanese internment, the government has been too hollowed out. They spent $1.1 billion in 2025 dollars in the 1940's just to build the camps alone using the US Army Corps of Engineers, the CCA and WRA. They were mostly public works. Doing something of this size is going to be a major in-fight between oligarchs on who gets this money, and it won't be $1.1 b done over a year, it will balloon to hundreds of billions and be stuck in development hell because of all the inefficiencies.
A single prison today typically costs $1b. For example Indiana is currently building a new prison for $1.2 that holds 4,200 people. They started in 2023, they're expected to finish in 2027.
Don't get me wrong people will be hurt, but we are so laughably incapable of 20th century style population transfers.
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But we also tend to be very good at doing the work capitalism demands of us. Thats why at 6 years old they pulled me aside in class to give me harder math and say “You should be an engineer” a thousand times.
It’s not even a problem of capitalism, it’s a problem of distribution and not putting autistic people in roles they can perform well.
Like I get parents being scared of having disabled kids for the financial strain if nothing else, but like afaik most autistics can be self sufficient and independent with the right developmental help.
It's basically been a long running joke in my family that back in my father and grandfather's day we didn't have people with autism. We just had engineers.
I would extend this to related diagnoses as well unless you really need them for something. They might decide to target ADHD next, for instance. If you aren't relying on adderall just to function, it's worth weighing the risks of being diagnosed with that.
Pretty sure as a trans person I'll already be one of the first in camps. After immigrants obviously.
Okay I'm curious, are autism diagnosis kept on any kind of central data base? I get there's some of that with other medicinal records but aren't most cases of autism diagnosed by childhood psychologist and therapists, do they have a central database? Aren't a lot of people self-diagnosed?
At the state level only, until now. I think there were like 8 US states that kept a registry with mandatory reporting.
Insurance companies would know. They would know because they know diagnoses and track them to approve or deny medications, visits to medical professionals like psychiatrists/psychologists/etc. They can just demand those records from them scarily enough.
When I got diagnosed the psychologist kept a record for herself and game a copy to me. I haven't even told my primary care doctor, so I don't know how they'll find it unless they go to every testing center and request all diagnostic documents
I read something about the process including broad access to medical records of the public. So, I suppose they'll just be searching wherever they feel they'll find evidence.
They're putting together a database with all the autistic people in the US. It doesn't exist but its construction was announced today.
I literally got my diagnosis two months ago. 😔