Published on 12, July, 2020
Is anyone else interested? I'm not party political, because I find to much that is disagreeable about the various parties, for every plus point theres an equal minus one.
I realise this might be contravercial to some, is politics a taboo subject on here?
What autism friendly policies would you like to see parties take up?
A lot of people in this thread agree that they're disillusioned with the political system in some way (myself included) but have very different ideas about what the solution should be, or what their position in relation to that system is. I think we as autistic people share a very strong conviction in whatever we believe in and get upset about what we perceive as unjust about the world, but aside from that passionate approach to it our actual political values and opinions are as varied and conflicting with one another as those of people who are not autistic.
In general I don't really buy the idea that autistic people have some unique superpower that enables us to see through bullshit that neurotypical people don't see or that makes us superior to them, and that applies to politics as well. To be honest I would find it much easier and more fruitful to have a discussion about politics with a neurotypical person who shared at least some of the values I held than with another autistic person whose views were diametrically opposed to mine. Of course it can be important for us to form communities for the purposes of discussing and campaigning for issues that affect autistic people as a group, but even that requires a certain degree of shared assumptions about the world and what to do about it - e.g. that we are marginalised in XYZ way, that this is unjust and we have a right to demand an end to it - which by necessity not every autistic person is going to accept.
On the whole I agree with you, but in this thread I just wanted to open up a discussion on politics and choose to do so using an Autistic lens. Part of the reason for this was because I think autistic people don't get seen as having opinions or that any opinion we do have needs to be mediated and reshaped by an NT. I wanted to hear some real opinions, unmediated by NT's and their need for sides etc.
I dont' believe in autistic superpowers, but my experience is that many of us do see through NT bullshit, I know I do, I find it quite easy to see the evolution of games learned in the playground acted out into adulthood and this seems particularly so in politics.
I was also curious to see if anyone had any ideas for policies and reforms that would impact us as a group, say in health, education, criminal justice etc. Naturally one size dosen't fit all, but the fit might be better?