Why is Autism considerd a disorder?

Because we're cats living in a world set up and run by dogs. What I mean by that, isn't that we're a different species, although we may often feel we are and the world often treats us as though we are, but that NT's seem to want to herd us into being like them and punish us for not being so.

I wonder if the world was always this split? It's easy to think life was simpler and more top down rules based than now, but I think that's an oversimplification. I wonder if there were/are societies where ASD etc are less common, not because of lack of diagnostics but because it wasn't seen as a problem, except at the extreme disability end?

I also wonder how much the preferences for "disorder" over "condition" are moral ones? Is it a hangover from ideas of some kind of divine punishment being manisfested as some kind of disability? This was quite common in mediaeval Christianity, to see any disability as punishment for sinful parents. I think it's quite common in Hinduism too to see such things as karmic.

Good post Cat. I like the dogs/cats analogy as I've often felt that most people are like pack animals whereas I've always felt a bit more like a loner. 

I think, ND would be spread fairly evenly across humans as a species, but I don't know and like you say depending on cultural norms it maybe more or less of a problem. I think one of the reasons ASC has been historically underdiagnosed or not thought possible is because many ASC traits are seen as socially desirable in women, things like lack of eye contact, shyness, happy to not socialise and be generally demure, to not stand up for ourselves or argue back.

I also heard somewhere, some years ago, that dyslexia is more common in English speaking countries, not because we're thick, but because of the complexity of our written language, think of people from other countries struggling with bough, brought, bought, through and all the other instances of silent letters, or the one that drives me personally crazy, Americans saying thorow insteag of thorough.

I think humans are weird because in small groups we behave as a pack with a pack mentality, that wants to keep the  pack together and protect its individual memebers, as long as they behave and adhere to the pecking order, bt in larger groups like a herd, think motorway driving.

I think the first part of this sort of journey would be to start in sub-Saharan Africa where there's more genetic diversity to begin with.

I'm not sure about 'fairly undiluted' populations as trade between and within these populations is thousands of years old, India has been dealing with China and the far east for thousands of years and the trade winds have carried ships from India to Africa and back again since pre-Roman times. To the point that there are more Roman coins found in India than anywhere else outside of Italy. Then I guess you'd get people trying to link ASC to Neanderthal's and bits of relic DNA we have from them, I think between 1 and 5% for most people, or Denisovan populations is places such as Nepal and Tibet.

I disagree about fabrics being rough, they can be, but many are remarkably fine, don't forget silk is one of the older fabrics, fine linens and other fabrics have been made for thousands of years and leather and suede for even longer. .

I think the first part of this sort of journey would be to start in sub-Saharan Africa where there's more genetic diversity to begin with.

I'm not sure about 'fairly undiluted' populations as trade between and within these populations is thousands of years old, India has been dealing with China and the far east for thousands of years and the trade winds have carried ships from India to Africa and back again since pre-Roman times. To the point that there are more Roman coins found in India than anywhere else outside of Italy. Then I guess you'd get people trying to link ASC to Neanderthal's and bits of relic DNA we have from them, I think between 1 and 5% for most people, or Denisovan populations is places such as Nepal and Tibet.

I disagree about fabrics being rough, they can be, but many are remarkably fine, don't forget silk is one of the older fabrics, fine linens and other fabrics have been made for thousands of years and leather and suede for even longer. .