Comment by perihelions
2 days ago
I'll quote Kennedy's dehumanizing comments for context, that people can compare the two styles of rhetoric:
- "Kennedy said many autistic children were “fully functional” and “regressed … into autism when they were 2 years old. And these are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.”"
- "He also said, “Most cases now are severe. Twenty-five percent of the kids who are diagnosed with autism are nonverbal, non-toilet-trained, and have other stereotypical features.”"
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-robert-f...
He's specifically talking about nonverbal kids like mine. I'm sorry, it's a disability, and I'm terrified what's going to happen to my kid when I'm gone. I don't think RFK Jr's policies will help and I didn't vote for them. But the amount of frustration I have towards comments like yours that ignore our worlds is immense. At least RFK Jr speaks honestly and candidly.
The challenges a level 1 autistic person faces are well recognized and good for network TV. finally - finally! - someone is talking about the rest of the population that face far greater challenges.
> At least RFK Jr speaks honestly
That's a very strange take considering he's known to spread lies. The very comment you replied to demonstrated that. He says that vaccines cause autism - they don't. He says that "Most cases now are severe." - they aren't.
I wouldn't say his record shows that he is either honest or candid:
https://apnews.com/article/rfk-jr-samoa-measles-kennedy-vacc...
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rfk-jr-disqualified-from-ne...
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/jul/19/robert-f-k...
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/01/politics/rfk-jr-fact-check-co...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/debunking-some-of-rfk-...
It is that old joke from Seinfeld's Constanza:
It is not a lie, if you believe in it.
From context, I thought he was talking about 1 in 31 eight-year olds (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/74/ss/ss7402a1.htm?ACSTrack...)
The kindness, sincerity and honestly that you attribute to his words are distinctly not there. Otherwise, he wouldn't be pitching pseudo-scientific views after ignoring and firing career professionals in the field. You have an autistic kid. Weren't you still able to recognize the dozen or so absolute falsehoods about autism that he spouted in that half an hour? What's even worse it that his tone and behavior has a very familiar and dreadful analogue from the past. Read your GP's top-level comment. At this point, people are simply ignoring the dozen flashing red lights. Do you really believe that he cares more about people's health than all the researchers who were working on several topics like this, whom he fired?
> The challenges a level 1 autistic person faces are well recognized and good for network TV.
Those level 2 and 3 people you seem to be so worried about are the ones who are going to suffer the most. At least we know how to mask it in public.
What percentage of the millions of twiteraty proudly putting autism in their bio would you guess are "non-toilet trained"?
Seeing some of them still wear diapers, I'm going to assume percentage higher than 0%.
PS. I'm aware what it is.
I didn’t realise until other people replied to you that you weren’t using dehumanising sarcastically.
There is nothing dehumanising about acknowledging the existence of the profoundly autistic.
He's not "acknowledging their existence" though, he listed a series of very typically human activities and experiences, and then said autistic people don't get to experience them due to their innate differences.
First of all that is false, because even profoundly autistic people do the things he said they don't do.
Secondly, it's dehumanizing because the reason he lied (yes what he said was a lie) was so that the listener would feel sorry for autistic people, and would thereby support Kennedy to do whatever he wants to them to restore their humanity, whether that be a registry, concentration camps (or as he calls them, "wellness farms") or whatever else he has planned.
Most profoundly autistic people don’t go the bathroom unassisted, or pay their own taxes. That’s true.
> Kennedy to do whatever he wants to them to restore their humanity, whether that be a registry, concentration camps (or as he calls them, "wellness farms") or whatever else he has planned.
Wild conspiracy theories help nobody, and also harm autistic people.
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