[faeriechangling]

>I'm under the impression people who have autism take issue with pathologizing it and calling it a "problem" or "illness," and want to be accepted as people who are simply different.

If you're talking on Hacker news, this is correct, don't pathologize autism or you are condescending to and infantilising your peers. It is obvious autism played into the success of many in this field, treating autistics as if they simply have an illness is unfair.

This is CONTEXT DEPEDENT though. If you're talking to a mother of an 8 year old who is having problems with their child damaging their brain by smashing their head on the wall repeatedly to self-stimulate, and they say to you "I wish we could cure this disease of autism", that's when you go with the flow.

[atlas_hugged]

Context dependent indeed!

My nephew and I both have it.

I just seem like a weird guy to the average person, and sometimes people will even get offended if I mention that I’m autistic.

My nephew, on the other hand, is what people think of when they think of autism: Arm flapping, making stimming noises/hums, echolalia, etc.

And boy do I just adore that kid.

His sense of humor is one of a kind.

Anyway… I wish there were subcategories like there are for Depression or ADHD.

People getting mad at me for misunderstandings gets old.

[faeriechangling]

There are "levels", but people ignore them. The status quo is that everybody gets put in one bucket called "Autism" regardless of if they're unable to live independently or are multi-billionaires like Elon Musk.

That is not socially useful.