General Discussion

I’m not autistic, but I hear an unpleasant undertone in these kinds of statements.

I was a premie and suffered a stroke before I had been in the world two weeks. My vision is not good, and I have no depth perception. I’m also bipolar. But, I’m a success story: I luckily had no cognitive impairment, and my biggest challenges have been motor reflex problems and a minor speech impediment. Not only can’t I play baseball, I have no interest in it. I’ve been lucky, my parents got me various therapies and I learned to drive, went to college, then taught college, and by any rational standard, I’m a contributing member of society. I’m atypical but I’m not defective. I’ve even written some (bad) poetry.

When I hear people like RFK Jr. speaking like this, it chills me. I worry about how far they’ll go to make everyone “normal.”