this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
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But that isn't just genetic. Two color-blind people can have very different aesthetic tastes despite both "seeing" the same spectrum of color.
In this case, the "cure" appears to involve treating secondary symptoms that are far more sever than simple perception. And, again, in mice. This is miles away from a holistic rewriting of consciousness to be neurotypical.
It is diagnosed through its symptoms.
Its a disorder that's diagnosed by a particular brain disorder. And conditions within the brain can produce both epilepsy and autistic symptoms.
Another bad equivalence, colourblind people clearly have "less" vision in that they see less information. Autistic people usually have "different" cognitive functions in a way that's hard to even describe in text to a neurotypical person.
But even then it doesn't matter whether the neurodivergence is genetic or not, it has obvious and direct impact in how people see reality and themselves.
And if this is advertised as an "anti-autism jab" treatment rather than say a "social anxiety" one, I hope you'll forgive me for disliking the obvious ableist implication that "curing" autism is desirable, even if it could be optimistically interpreted as "alleviating common autistic issues".
That is still the end goal of organisations like Autism Speaks and I'd rather actual sane people were more careful when talking about the medicalisation of neurodivergence. We live in a world where it's not even that hard to find stories about autistic people who basically grew up locked in medical institutions being put on all sorts of treatments because this is how our current systems treat neurodivergence. So we can't pretend that "voluntary" will actually mean "voluntary" when push comes to shove.
It's still not a symptom so "sharing symptoms" is a moot point. Some people with brain tumours experience sensory hypersensitivity, but that doesn't mean it's that related to autism (besides being neurological) or that some kind of autism cure will have any use for that. It's not even clear from the article if their treatment is directed at "symptoms" or just behaviour.
I did not realize I was talking to a debate-bro. My apologies.
There are plenty of conditions that change how people see reality that aren't desirable.
Are we going to medicalize the discussion of medicalization, then? You're a champion of neurodivergence who casually dismisses an intervention by denouncing the researchers as "insane"? Dafuq?
It is diagnosed by its symptoms.
The article specifically calls out sever conditions associated with autism that they were seeking to treat in mice.
I'm going to assume by this non-response that you're apologising for a faulty analogy. It's okay, I sometimes do it too.
This was a response towards you claiming that autism being part of somebody's identity being "genetic-essentialism". Of course there are plenty of conditions, like colour blindness and brain tumours. But I wasn't arguing that autism is good because it's different. I was arguing why autism can be part of somebody's identity besides whatever genetic origins it has.
Obviously I could've chosen better words and I apologise. But by "actual sane" I meant people who aren't reactionary ableist bigots like those of Autism Speaks (who are not researchers). And at no point did I imply that the researchers themselves were such, though I wouldn't be surprised. But although the word I used was unfortunate, I'll still denounce interventions based on what I actually meant (bigoted/ableist/reactionary reasoning).
Which is different from being a symptom. You can't just lump a bunch of unrelated conditions with possibly very different underlying causes because they have common symptoms. Like I said for brain tumours.
Fair point, I missed it. Here's the line.
Those are definitely not what I'd associate with the worst of ASD. Nor are they very well defined ("problems").
It's strange though, this is a thread about autism erasure and "fixing" but you are the one getting flippant despite all forces between at your side.
E: fixed a lot of bad grammar