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You're not Autistic!

Do you want to make sure some other autistic isn't allowed to contradict what you say about autism? Do you want to feel proud of yourself while "recognizing" that there are people who have nothing to be proud of? Do you believe there are certain people who should be locked in institutions (but of course not the people like you)? Do you have a pet theory about autism that can be easily dismissed if someone shows you an autistic that doesn't fit it?

Have hope! There are ways to prove that these others are not really autistic (or, if you prefer, Asperger's - if you like that label better), but are something else. Something that can and should be treated differently!

Why Separate?

Politics

Perhaps you have a new (probably untested) cure that you would like to sell - you wouldn't want those pesky adult autistics to say, "Hey, this makes no sense." Or you are employed in an organization that makes its' money by locking up people. You wouldn't want an adult autistic to be able to get away with saying, "Wait, what about people like me?" No, you are talking about someone else! And that pesky adult autistic has no place in a discussion about people who are obviously (to you) different then him!

This technique can be used to basically exclude any autistic who happens to disagree with what you want to say - they are in that other group!

Discrimination

Perhaps you are uncomfortable around people with certain autistic expressions. For instance, you might not be comfortable with people who haven't been able to attend university, who scream or throw things, who don't talk, who enjoy meeting people, or something else. This is one area that autistics themselves divide each other - somehow it's considered okay in autistic circles to create an event for one type of autistic and actively exclude the other (you can even do this while complaining about the discrimination faced by the your type of autistic in the workplace, society, etc).

How To Divide

Asperger's vs. Autism

This is a very basic form of division, usable by nearly anyone. Right now, there are about 1,000 competing definitions for the difference between Asperger's and Autism. Basically, any researcher (or otherwise) who can find a measurable difference (or otherwise) between two groups of autistic can arbitrarily label one "Asperger's" and the other "Autism" (they can also throw in PDD/NOS if they want).

Once you separate autistics into two (or three) groups such as this, you can explain that your opinions only apply to one of the groups, and anyone that can show a counter-example must not be in the group you are talking about! For instance, you can come up with a theory that all autistics have blond hair - and when a red-haired autistic questions this theory, you just tell him, "Hey, you must really be Asperger's, since autistics have blond hair." When he objects, you can even pull the "Are you prejudiced against your own people? There is nothing wrong with being Asperger's."

You Can Communicate!

It can also be helpful to treat those who can communicate (in any way) with language as a less-severe form of autism (or, better yet, something entirely different), not needing all the treatments you want to give to "Autistics." For instance, you wouldn't lock up someone with Asperger's, just those with autism. The same with drugs, chelation, intensive therapies, eastern medicine, or whatever other thing you come up with to treat autism. That way, when anyone with the actual condition of autism objects, you can remind them that their mere act of objection proves they aren't autistic!

The best part of this way of separating autistics is that only the autistics who currently have no way of objecting are your "real" target. Imagine - a group of people with no voice! You could do anything you wanted!

Intelligence

We know that intelligence has nothing to do with autism - that there are autistics who score both extremely low and extremely high on IQ tests, for instance. It's even better if you can get autistics to go along with you - to think that, for instance, a "high IQ" autistic and a "low IQ" autistic have nothing in common. We wouldn't want them to work together! Because there is a sizable number of autistics who put tremendous faith in IQ, and use it to determine who is "like them", this is typically relatively easy. Once this is done, you can talk about what you would do to the other group. ("Oh, yes, I know this intensive 80-hour-a-week program wouldn't be good for people with high IQs, but people with low IQs need this type of help.")

Racism and Sexism

Don't forget racism and sexism! You can claim black autistics are different then white autistics, males different then females, straight autistics different then homosexual autistics, etc! But, because you now are talking about autistics, many of the normal complaints about this type of division go away. It's perfectly acceptable, for instance, to say that autistic females are emotional while male autistics are logical - even if you couldn't say the very same thing about neurotypical males and females without hearing an objection.

Introvert vs. Extrovert

You can separate autistics on the basis of whether they want to seek out new friendships or not. You can claim, for instance, that introverts need more early intervention, and that extroverts aren't really autistic but have some sort of personality disorder. One of the beauties of this technique is that figuring out if a 3 year old is an introvert or extravert, when they are autistic, can be very difficult, so you don't need to worry that you put children in the right group if you are selling a cure to their parents! But it can easily dismiss any adult autistic that disagrees - "You clearly are less withdrawn and socially introverted than the people I'm trying to help." Others may find that introverted autistics in particular have a hard time understanding that extroversion also exists in autism, so use this to your advantage ("See, these autistic adults don't think that these extroverted adults are autistic either")!

Co-Morbid Conditions

You can claim that some autistics are affected by co-morbid conditions. For example, you can claim that autistics don't ever have low IQs, but sometimes other conditions cause the low IQ. Thus, you can remove the category of people with low IQ from the discussion on autism - they would be better served by a discussion on their own specific condition, after all. You can do the same thing to ignore sensory, executive function, cognitive, social, language, or any other area impacted by autism. Thus, if your personal theory of autism doesn't quite fit because of these other differences, you just dismiss those differences as indicating the presence of something in addition to autism. For instance, someone who mentions the savant skills that many autistics have can be dismissed by saying, "Oh, that's what happens when someone has savant skills. Autism alone doesn't have any areas of high ability!"

Other Diagnosis

This has been a very successfully exploited area. For instance, we know there are no drugs for autism. But there are drugs for schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, psychosis, etc. So the person we want to give drugs to really needs another diagnosis! This can also be used successfully to deprive some autistics of freedom. Even many autistics would agree with you that a schizophrenic should be locked up, even while strongly opposing institutions for autistic people!

You can also create a new diagnosis out of thin air (mercury-damaged people, for instance) and say that anyone that fits that category would respond to the treatment you are selling, the rest are actual autistics. This can be particularly useful for parents who are more scared of the word "autism" then whatever label you come up with for your new group.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many ways to divide autistic people for political or discrimination purposes. This list is only intended as a starting point - I'm sure most people can think of hundreds of other ways to divide. Remember, if anyone who is autistic challenges you, you can use that alone as proof that they aren't in the group you are talking about!