[dcow]

Not the GP, but they seem to be frustrated at the frankly inhumane characterization pushed by a non-trivial group of upper middle class privileged (aka white washed) parents whereby autism is considered a disease or generic defect than needs correcting (loosely “eugenics”). The between the lines implication is that these parents choose this worldview either a) because parenting an autistic child can be tough, and these people, in their privileged nature, expect it easy, or b) they are so privileged they’re Karen/Ken level blissfully oblivious (arguably braindead) about how their outlook might be interpreted by autistic people, because, you know, it’s a spectrum and most of us fall on it somewhere. Or it’s both. Really makes you wonder which cognitive profile is truly um.. retarded.

[hoseja]

That's an absolutely wrong way to interpret the wording. The author was clearly saying: "this is eugenics but wrapped in an illusion of decency". That's what "white-washing" means. Your explanation doesn't seem to make sense and is shifting the intended meaning.

One could of course argue that most of medicine is "white-washed eugenics" and point to similar efforts by, say, deaf people to view cochlear implants as a bad thing but that's not the topic here.

[AllegedAlec]

> autism is considered a disease or generic defect

It is.

[loriverkutya]

It’s considered as a mental disorder, not a disease or a genetic defect.

[AllegedAlec]

That's bandying words. Mental disorder, illness and disease are used pretty interchangably. Furthermore, there's oodles of literature on ASD susceptibility genes.