Lets talk about #aspergers (a thread) since @GretaThunberg is being bullied for this: 1) I'm diagnosed by multiple practitioners as having high-functioning autism with aspergers. "Having" is a problematic verb. I don't "have" blackness or "have" maleness or "have" brown-eye-ness.
@GretaThunberg 2) The neurotypical majority (people without autism) aren't "othered" as "neurotypical" just like I'm not "othered" as right-handed for being in the right-handed majority. The conversation about being autistic often starts in the problematic place of "having" an ailment.
@GretaThunberg 3) Finding my own truth and self-worth as an "I am" rather than "I *have*" is challenging because many diagnoses related to my autism also use the language of ailments. "Sensory processing disorder." "Depersonalization / derealization disorder."
@GretaThunberg 4) With the world so predisposed to view my neurological differences as an anomaly, I have to go to inordinate effort in many typical life-situations to self-determine myself as not-a-"mistake" or "anomaly" but as a valuable (tho painfully misunderstood) perspective.
@GretaThunberg 5) What makes ME different in MY particular diagnosis? I'm extremely sensory-sensitive (to sound, light, changes in my environment). Not controlling my exposure to and engagement with common sensations contributes to emotional disregulation in which I struggle to think/live/be.
@GretaThunberg 6) Because of this, it is often the case that when I interact socially, I may appear to neurotypical people to be "stiff" or "blank" or "unfeeling." The truth is that my baseline for functioning in civilization as-it-exists is one where I'm visibly cautious and self-regulating.
@GretaThunberg 7) This is not because I need a drink or to "unwind." It's because my brain is constantly processing a massively greater amount of sensation in typical interactions than most brains. For me, it can take more work to find the social-signal in the noise.
@GretaThunberg 8) The upside of my brain always being sensory-overloaded in a way that neurotypical brains might not be is that I'm hyper-aware of the operation of systems, structures and meta-influences. I feel determinative structure intuitively, dramatically and constantly.
@GretaThunberg 9) The downside is that because the prevailing messaging in the world appeals to passion over reason -- and the way humans are taught to enjoy products, cheer history and convey self is anthropologically demagogic, Im often on a different emotional page and seeking common ground.
@GretaThunberg 10) As it turns out, music and other performance-art can sometimes be a Rosetta Stone that translates the way I articulate and experience the world to more widely-relatable terms. It can be the common ground I seek. Art, for me, has utility long before it has vanity.
