If you have met one Autistic person... and discussed Politics
There is a saying I’ve been hearing ever since I accepted I’m Autistic, which is that if you have met one Autistic Person that you have met ONE Autistic person. We are not a monolith, don’t have the same thoughts, and even how we express being Autistic will be different.
Some people prefer to say that they are a person with Autism, while others think of themselves as an Autistic person. There is no single “correct” language to use, and there is a need to build relationships with people rather than trying to have “correct” language.
Autistic social groups
I was able to witness an example of this diversity recently. I have been a member of an Adult Autistic social group for over a year now, even volunteering to help coordinate it.
While I have had several special interests over my lifetime, my current ones aren’t as boring to other people as the ones I have had in the past. When I spoke about building or programming computers, international investment and trade policy, or technology policy such as copyright and patent law, I could easily put most people to sleep. My more recent interest in anti-racism and anti-colonialism is quite different. Given how these topics sometimes trigger people, I try my best to be careful to only bring it up when the other person is interested, and to exit if they are made uncomfortable by it.
The need to have a safe inclusive environment for fellow Autistic people is more important to me than sharing knowledge about any specific special interest. My interest in sharing is related to my own interest in learning, and not about trying to forcibly convert someone to my way of thinking or “win” some argument or debate.
Unfortunately, one social group is currently on pause because the desire to police the behaviour and beliefs of other people became a priority for some other people. It made the environment extremely uncomfortable for many participants. I don’t know what the outcome will be, or when the group will restart, but felt it was an interesting dynamic to observe.
I’m trying to be as delicate as I can given I like the people involved, even if some are feeling anger towards me at the moment.
My interest in politics
I am a lifelong learner, and have changed political views as I have learned. I’ve previously been an active campaigner for the Green Party of Ontario (GPO) and Canada (GPC), member of the Federal Progressive Conservative Party in the late 1990’s and the Federal Conservative Party in the late 2010’s. I’ve voted for LPC nominated candidates and even voted once for an NDP nominated candidate.
I currently consider myself non-partisan (or possibly anti-partisan, as I see partisanship as toxic to democratic institutions).
Diversity within Autistic community
In the Autistic social group I have spoken with people who are Green Party campaigners and supporters, Conservative party campaigners and supporters, Liberal and NDP supporters, and even people who sing songs making fun of “liberals” for being too centrist and indistinguishable from “conservatives”.
Pay attention to my attempt to differentiate using upper and lower case of these words. The “Liberal Party” doesn’t define the term “liberal”, and the “Conservative Party” doesn’t define the term “conservative”. The Progressive Conservative parties at various points in Canada’s history were more “liberal” than the “Liberal” parties.
There is unfortunately a problem that I’ve observed where some people who identify with one part of some linear left-right political spectrum to visibly signal their position to others, and that has included attacking and disrespecting individuals who don’t share the same language or understanding of issues. As nearly all the problems I’ve observed are systemic, and not about individuals at all, you have two sets of people who I feel are loyal to the existing systems pointing fingers at each other and declaring the other as lesser individuals.
While it would be nice to believe that all Autistic people are logical, and could see the flaw in this narrow focus on individualism, that is not the case. Many Autistic people are trusting of other people, and if they are told that individualism is the “correct” way to think, and that “those people” are bad, then they may not question that as much as I might wish they would. It is hard to be told all your life you are “wrong” and then to feel confident enough to recognize that you aren’t what is wrong, and it is specific ideologies part of the dominant culture that are wrong.
This finger-pointing “othering” dynamic is worse with Autistic people
One of the things I have observed many who self-identify with “the left” wish to do is to remove from any communication “reserved words” that have been used to abuse other people. There is a desire to create rules which everyone must follow, almost like “workplace harassment” policies.
While I understand the intent, I believe the strict enforcement of these types of policies conflicts with a desire to create a safe space for Autistic people. Organizers need to determine what their priorities are in relation to this conflict.
One of the traits I share with many Autistic people is Echolalia.
While my echolalia is often just annoying to people around me, sometimes it is playing back things from my youth. As I was born in the late 1960’s and grew up in a smaller town (Sudbury, Ontario), I picked up many things that by today’s standard are seen as “slurs” or other such things.
This familiar commercial from the 1980’s comes to my mind whenever I hear the word “lemon”. Even as I approch 60 years of age I still have a hard time not repeating the phrase “Real Remon” in an east asian accent.
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The repeated words aren’t directed at any person, and thus in my mind don’t qualify as slurs. Unfortunately with some people, including some fellow Autistic people, any use of “reserved words”, accents, etc, are forbidden in any context.
We have been aggressively told what language to use and how to behave all our lives by Allistic people. In my mind policing the behaviour (including language) of Autistic people is ableist, but that is not a universal belief within Autistic communities.
I’ve had Autism as a special interest in recent years, and I regularly read/hear how important it is to reduce social rules in order to be inclusive of Autistic people who won’t be able to conform to those rules, especially all the unwritten or culturally “assumed” ones.
I was asked by fellow volunteers coordinating this social group to “talk to” other people who were using specific language, to help police language that had been deemed as against the rules regardless of context. When I didn’t do that as I don’t consider that approach helpful, those fellow volunteers felt betrayed.
The group remains paused as the feelings of betrayal and the disagreement on policing the behaviour/language of fellow Autistic people was sufficient for some of the volunteers to exit. I don’t know what will happen in the future, but I felt it was useful to share for anyone who has fewer Autistic people in their lives, may blindly trust some media portrayals, or believe Autistic people are a monolith.
I really enjoyed this one. I'm sorry you are going through "group growing pains" but I have found that in the aftermath of such episodes, I'm always wiser, more patient, and more compassionate, so I wish the same to you and the rest!
Keep writing. I'm learning, which is my only goal in life.
I am henceforth self-identifying as an Autist. I already identify as an Artist. I am fine with being identified as an Artistic Autist, or Autistic Artist, or Autist/Artist, or whatever, but if I am am artistic, and by extension an Artist, and also am autistic, my internal logic suggests I am an Autist. Capitalization is optional. I'm being quasi-serious, I think.