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Autism disinformation on Telegram soars in Latin America and Caribbean.
(agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br)
this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2025
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its not just telegram. i see misinformation all over the internet now. autism is "trending". so you see memes, posts, jokes, articles that have very little actual information that can be discerned.
I still don't really understand what the purpose is. Who's getting rich off this information?
nobody. its just become popular to label yourself as autistic and blame everything on that.
i've seen posts on social media with something like "omg my autism is goin brrrr hahaha." in relation to something that has nothing to do with being on the spectrum.
"If you like video games, you might be autistic!" and other such nonsense.
makes it rather difficult when people think its "hip" and will attach non-spectrum behavior to autism.
It's the new "ADHD" or "OCD" or whatever. People latch onto something that's getting some amount of attention, twist it to somehow apply to themselves, and completely water down the whole thing, hurting the actual people who live with whatever the condition is since they're no longer the recipient of that attention.
I don't get it. How could having autism or whatever be "hip"? Surely it's undesirable for most, because it tends to ostracize them, no?
At least as far as ive seen, people aren't labelling them autistic to influence the way they are treated by the world- they are claiming the label because they see it as an explanation for previously unexplained anomalies in how the world treats them. It's used as a flag to build community around those with shared experiences, not a doctor's note to get out of gym class.
I suppose, but it also highlights how little people actually seem to understand autism. Autism doesn't "kick in," it's a description for how your interaction with the world differs from most people.
Being socially awkward isn't autism, it's just being socially awkward, with a dash of social anxiety. Being really into a hobby isn't autism, it's being really into a hobby. And so on. Yet people extrapolate something that looks vaguely similar to what they think autism is into being "on the spectrum," when really it's just a coincidence.
It just always felt weird to me.