There's a topic I'd like to bring up here, if that's okay?
Often, neurodivergence is an invisible prejudice. Autistic people, for example (like myself), have differently structured brains. We're wired to focus more on empathy, less on socialising. In fact, I know that some (including myself, and some others I have spoken with about this) are wired in such a way that we actively avoid socialising as there's an inherent manipulative factor that not only do we not possess, but which makes us distinctly uncomfortable.
In other words, there is innate manipulation in socialising that will drive us away.
So it's easy to spot an autistic person due to our lack of ability for manipulation in a social setting of any description. We'll be the ones who're brusquely honest, then the ones who'll feel excessive amounts of guilt if we accidentally hurt anyone by doing so. So we tend to stand out like a sore thumb.
The thing is? We don't stand out at all, at the same time. It's a paradox, really. What I'm getting at here is that because a person with a divergent brain isn't in a wheelchair, doesn't have a different skin colour, or any other easily identified target for bigoted prejudice? It's hard to see that we do receive no end of hate.
Just Google "Why do I hate [mentally disabled/autistic/neurodiverse] people." to find out. It's gotten so bad that there's an undercurrent of neurotypical supremacy that we can't ignore. A great example here is Autism Speaks, which is actually an autism hate movement (which few people realise). They support the Judge Rotenberg Center (look that one up), and cures which would bring about the eradication of autism.
Many AS researchers tend to speak about autistic people as though our 'condition' is one which renders us completely non-communicable to neurotypicals. In other words, we have no means to communicate with neurotypicals according to the AS perspective. That's why their researchers talk about us, rather than to us, and try to "figure out what's best for us and the families affected by autistic children" without actually asking the opinions of autistic people.
I don't feel like the most intelligent person, to the contrary, I don't know that I'm even of above average intelligence. Thinking about that too much makes me uncomfortable, as does seeing acts of indiscriminate hate as those leave me feeling that swathes of people may possess less awareness than I do, and according to AS researchers, autistic people are meant to lack Theory of Mind. So if I do indeed lack Theory of Mind, what does that mean for the neurotypicals who openly spread hate?
Shrug????
Anyway, not the point, sorry for the digression.
The thing is is that there's this clear undercurrent of neurotypical supremacy that we can't ignore. It's horrible for us. Not many people seem to care, and it's left a lot of autistic people (myself included, sometimes) feeling so thoroughly bitter at neurotypicals that it's turning into a counter-prejudice of our own. It's important to always try to remember to not be binary, but there are days when it's harder than others.
And interestingly, the blind attitude toward neurodiverse prejudice, along with the attitudes of neurotypical supremacy, are alive and well in video games. Even in smaller video games where I'm not expecting it.
My case here is going to be Dreamfall Chapters. In that game, we have a scene where an autistic character is hit with a series of slurs (including the likes of 'slow' and 'retard') by a 'friend.'
Ragnar, the lead writer, thankfully was called out for his behaviour. Not by any mainstream news sites, that I recall, but mostly on sites like Twitter and Tumblr. Interestingly, the news sites DID cover his response, which painted him as a victim of the evil neurodivergent menace.
His perspective was this (paraphrasing for brevity): "In reality, you have people who have awful attitudes and can be responsible for prejudice. If you're making a mature video game, you have to mirror the behaviour you see in reality."
That's fair.
What Ragnar didn't say, though, and didn't respond to when brought up on it was the nature of the problem. It wasn't that the slurs against an autistic character were present, but rather that no one spoke up in defence against the autistic character. In fact, no one even seemed all that uncomfortable about it.
When you have a scene that depicts a strong sense of hateful prejudice, and no one speaking out against it? All that does is cement that prejudice in the minds of the viewers. It normalises the behaviour.
And the hatred of neurodiverse people is becoming quite normalised. Whereas groups like (sorry to bring them up) the Alt-Right would use gay slurs in the past, they've moved away from that realising that there's too much of a push back against such behaviour. Instead, they're now using slurs designed to target and hurt neurodiverse people as not so many people actually care about us.
What's even more hurtful is how often neurodiversity (autism) is mixed up with sociopathy. See Sherlock for an example of this. The autistic person isn't the cold, detached, manipulative person. That's the definition of a sociopath, basically. You just need to add some glib charm on top to complete the picture.
The autistic person is the skittish, nervous person who avoids being around others as their empathy dial is permanently jammed up to 11. So any pain others feel, an autistic person (like myself) will feel ten times more. We amplify emotions, within ourselves. This is why I'm so sensitive to my partner's concerns about sexual objectification (which has come up in another thread I've spoken in).
Basically, if an autistic person seems avoidant it's because they're scared they'll accidentally hurt someone by being honest (instead of manipulative). Then that hurt will come back down on them many times over in the form of guilt and negative feedback amplification loops. Only other neurodiverse people seem to actually get that, which is why we can be prone to shying away.
Some of us can handle these feedback loops better than others, which is why they're more sociable. It's this kind of behaviour though that makes people think we can't communicate. No, we're just afraid of hurting you. It hurts us. It's awful. Plus, it's easy to overload us with emotion and we tire easily, which is something that neurotypicals don't really understand. So they tend to get snippy about us not helping them refuel (extroverts, basically) with socialising.
But not only can we functionally not do it (in almost all cases), but we don't do it for a whole smorgasbord of reasons relating to our inability to handle the milieu.
This is what can make a lot of people detached. As I said, the confusion regarding us and sociopaths is even more hurtful and problematic. Some autistic people, our of excessive guilt and shame (hooray for the overwrought emotions of the autistic mind) will even start to buy into this and believe that they're to blame for being monsters. When really the monsters are groups of neurotypical supremacists like Autism Speaks.
It's an unfortunate situation.
Really, though, the only evidence I need for my position is that the Judge Rotenberg Center is still open. It's still using excessive electroshock (more than 30 times a day) to brainwash autistic people into being more neurotpical.
How often do you see articles about 'curing' autism, too? If these researchers would bother to talk to us, we don't want to be more social. Socialising is manipulation, which plays on our guilt. We don't like manipulating people. Why is that not okay?
Which brings me to my overall point. Deep breath.
We really could be better represented in all forms of media, it'd be nice if people took an interest in us and bothered to learn why we are the way we are. Most neurotypicals don't have a clue. For most, they still believe that an autistic person is like Sherlock. I can only imagine that a few will be nodding along with this thinking that they did exactly that. I don't blame anyone for that, how can I? That's the line that the mainstream media has been giving people. How can you know any different?
And for some of us, the overload is so bad that we do actually have trouble expressing things to neurotypicals (no issues doing so with other autistic people, though). One interesting example of this that came very close to being good was To the Moon. It showed how things are for an autistic person (River) trying to communicate with a neurotypical. They had to use very careful, guarded words, symbolism, and so on.
The question no one ever asks (which sadly the game didn't, either) is why?
Why do this?
Why did I do this as a kid? Why do I still, in person, do this a lot? Why does this happen? Is it because we're cold and detached, or is it because we're scared of neurotypicals and we don't know how to communicate without causing both us and them immense pain?
This is something that not even autistic parents understand, and it's a very bothersome thing.
So, really, I'd love to see more autistic representation. And I'd like to see a lot more accountability in cases like Dreamfall Chapters where genuinely hurtful stuff to further the hate neurodiverse people get.
I don't know what else I wanted to say on top of that, really. I think that this might have given a few of you new perspectives, some might not care enough, and some of you might even be a milder (or worse off) form of autism and either glad at me, or mad at me, for having said anything.
It's a difficult topic, so I'm sorry for that. I'm also sorry for any problems it'll cause. But as I said, I go day to day sometimes just struggling against the bitterness that neurotypical people make me feel. It's so easy to just fall back into prejudice and buy into that myself, but I fight it. I just wish that neurotypical people would make the same effort. I don't think most of them really do.
So whereas I'm trying to remind myself each day that "neurotypical people aren't shallow, herd-like, easily manipulated people who function through their enjoyment of being manipulated by sociopaths" (which is kind of a trope)? I wish neurotypicals would stop blaming us, pathologising us, and hitting us with so much hatred and blame.
And I really wish more people understood that Autism Speaks is a hate group.
I will end this on a positive note.
Did you know that Sesame Street actually broke ties with Autism Speaks when various autistic people presented them with evidence of being a hate group? Sesame Street went their own way with representing autism. If you want evidence of that, hit up 'autism speaks site:sesamestreet.org' in Google. The web result mentions Autism Speaks, but the page does not.
So I'm proud of Sesame Street for actually listening. If only that was the norm.
Edit: Sorry about that, was more TL;DR that I expected. I don't blame anyone for not reading it. And sorry if it upsets anyone. If it's a bit too brusque in how I feel, or anything, as that's the only way I know how to be. Similarly, sorry about not being succinct. I can be succinct about as easily as I can cut off my own arm.
