Unpopular opinion but autism IS NOT NORMAL. The problem over the last few years is that like everyone suddenly has autism and so it's become normalized in society. Lots of people look for any slightly odd thing they do and conclude "I have autism," but as someone who has an older adult brother with a more severe, obvious type of autism, I can tell you it's really not something to strive for. There are kids with autism who aren't able to hold a job, live out on their own, hold social conversations, etc., without a lot of outside help.
We should have specialized programs for kids with special needs but this wave of people self-diagnosing as autistic when it really doesn't make their life that much harder than that of a "neurotypical" person just frankly comes off as selfish. It takes away the attention from the kids who have serious behavioral problems and further alienates those in society with severe autism.
It's an obvious fact that more and more people are being born autistic in recent years. I understand that this is a sensitive topic, but I'm glad that RFK is bringing light to it. People just didn't have autism in the 1800s, or if they did it was an incredibly small statistic. Something changed. I don't know if it's the processed foods we're eating (certainly can't be helping) or something else we're doing or what, but if RFK wants to figure out why this has been happening, I'm all for it. This really shouldn't be a political issue.
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