Thread by @JHMarble

I’m about to do the hardest, most wonderful thing with some great people. I arrived in #BlackRockCity tonight for my second year at #BurningMan, coming five days early to help build it and acclimate to the sensory input.

PS - There’s lots of autistic people here.

The sensory input of Burning Man is a bit overwhelming, but I’ve found some autistic people handle it better than most of the neurotypical attendees as we live this every day and already have experience accommodating ourselves to such input.

Much of the culture of Burning Man is very autistic. It’s hard not to look at the art, the infrastructure, or the approaches without seeing influence of autistic people.

Difficulty with social navigation is much, much less here. The Burning Man culture is one of treating everyone equally, stripping pretense, and being generally kind and giving. It strips away the social static autistic people have difficulty with and allows us to make friends.

When you mean someone here, you can expect they will treat you with kindness, be genuine, mean what they say, and be curious about getting to know you...and accepting you for who you are.

I’m looking forward to all of this!