Reports from a Resident Alien

I especially dislike the saying "Everyone is a little bit autistic". No, that is not true. Most people are a tiny bit autistic, and a few people (about 1 in a 100) are markedly autistic.

After all, do you brush off a blind person with "Everyone is a little bit blind"? No, blind people are much more visually impaired than the rest of the population. People are not all the same.

Nor can you understand what it's like to be blind by remembering what it's like to hit your shins on the coffee table in the dark...

Umm. Is "Most people are a tiny bit autistic" any better than "Everyone is a little bit autistic?" The blind comparison is even worse. What would it take for this anonymous person to "get" it?

Anyway, before I got sidetracked--that's a great video. I doubt that she forgot anything.

Captchas may reject non-real people, but they don't reject stupid ones.

Can you not tell the difference between these two statements:

(1) "99% of people have insufficient autistic traits to qualify for a diagnosis, while 1% of people have clinically significant autistic traits warranting a diagnosis."

(2) "100% of people have insufficient autistic traits to qualify for a diagnosis".

The first statement means ... "Most people are a TINY bit autistic and a few people (about 1 in a 100) are MARKEDLY autistic". A "tiny bit" autistic could simply mean that you scored higher than 0 on the AQ Test.

The second statement means "EVERYONE is a LITTLE bit autistic". It also implies that if you think you are markedly autistic - more autistic than nearly everyone else - then you are just imagining things. And I reject that viewpoint that "we are all the same" and "we are all a bit autistic". A few of us (about 1% of the population) are much more than "a little bit" autistic.

"Most people" and "Everyone" are worlds apart. "Most people" acknowledges the existence of a minority ("a few people") who are different to the majority. But the term "everyone" denies the existence of the minority - saying "everyone" invalidates the experience of the minority (in this case, the experience of the {markedly} autistic minority).

Thank you for this great work. I am a parent of an autistic teen and have heard many of the things on this video. I am sure my teen has too. Thank you for paving the way . . .