How have lolcows influenced the perception of autism?

[Realistic]

So I've been following up on the Chris Chan saga since... 2019 I guess. I wasn't supposed to be a part of this forum nor know about Chris Chan but here I am so...

Autism has always been complicated, genetically and culturally. There have always been efforts to portray autism as a curse that needed to be cured dating back to the early years of the US in the 1800s. Autism treatment throughout the years have ranged from treating said people as children who don't know anything to being a burden of society.

I know autism can be passed down either generically or through environmental conditions but that's just scratching the surface. While the genetic research has gotten to the point where we know more than we knew before, we still don't know everything about the difference between neurotypicals and neurodiverse people or how genetics form the person.

Chris Chan is a complicated character like most lolcows on here. He is aware of his autism but does nothing to fix his own problems. He has done allot of stupid stuff that has created a wiki, created this forum and ultimately hurt the perception of autism as a whole in my opinion.

We could talk about how bad the parenting of Bob and Barbara has been or how we could of done more to not create this monster but that's not what the topic is.

While autism is a diverse and mysterious condition with a wide range of severity. Allot of that has been neglected because of the actions of lolcows who do stupid stuff for attention.

We live in an era where stupid shit gets amplified and social media profits off of said stupidity, outrage and click bait. We also live in a culture war environment where both sides push topics that promote hate, division and ignorance. We also live in a world where Gay and Bisexual people have been pushed out in exchange for power hungry Lesbian, Queer and Trans people who's intent is to exploit the current environment to maintain power.

I don't know what these people are doing and what the intent is but ever since the merge, it feels like autistic people are treated like lolcows regardless of intent or effort. It's easier to judge people than to get to know people. All people seem to see when they see the word "autism" is dangerous and that trans people deserve praise and protection.

Whatever happened to accountability?

We as a society are regressing backwards because of the actions of many who only care about themselves instead of everybody else. I miss the days where we could parody without consequence, where we could be funny, where people would not be easily offended. We are living in days where everybody is offended, everything is sanitized and everything is out of whack.

And it's all because of stupid ideals about autism, lack of information on how to raise kids properly and the concept of power over self.

That's enough from me. What are your thoughts? What do you think about this subject?

 

[Dr. Eldon Tyrell]

We could talk about how bad the parenting of Bob and Barbara has been or how we could of done more to not create this monster but that's not what the topic is.

That should absolutely be the topic, tho.
If it wasn't the true root cause of his problems, people wouldn't keep pointing out societies shortcomings producing someone like chrischan. Whatever inborn condition (the mutism, the tics) he might have had which impaired him as a school kid, he has long grown out of, what remains are the learned self destructive behaviors. Always regressing to muh autism, when it's clear that we are looking at a broken grown man who doesn't even exhibit most tism traits anymore feels like a cop out. Tism was originally a child developmental disorder and wasn't diagnosed in adults because it was said you can't really tell if someone was always a sped or became one for other reasons in an adult, which was sensible - same with the rampant adult ADHD pill popping going on.

 

[Karen of Human Resources]

I genuinely don't think they've had much, or any impact.

As much as the buzz words are dropped, I don't think the public on the whole understands the difference between autism, learned behavior and mental illness.

When Chris Chan, assuming the average person knows who he is, does something weird it's because he's autistic. It's only when it gets to the dangerous or criminal it's because he's mentally ill. Because he's so far removed from the norm, I doubt they'd even consider if it was learned repeated behaviour.

When the gender stuff gets involved it gets even more confusing, because even though the research is there showing a strong correlation between a desire to transition and autism, the public either doesn't know it or behaves as if blind to it.

I imagine people think of very different thinks when they talk about autism too. Until I met someone with a severely autistic adult offspring, I tended to think of autists as badly behaved children, rather than "five year old in a grown ups body".

It's one of those muddied terms, ro the point I think we need several new words to better show a spectrum from "Mildly eccentric" to "Vegetable". Because at the moment autism covers both, and I don't think the cows have really impacted it in any meaningful way.

 

[Dagoth AMOGUS]

Keep in mind that every lolcow topic is a case study and not a set of statistics

 

[Metallic Blood]

This post is probably gonna be just me sperging out about "muh society" rather than talking how Chris or JustinRPG impacted autism, but I always get a little mad when I think about the subject.

And this part right here:

It's one of those muddied terms, ro the point I think we need several new words to better show a spectrum from "Mildly eccentric" to "Vegetable".

Is what grinds me the most out of my gears.

I've seen so many normal people wear those autistic tags collars to show that they're indeed autistc, and even hearing the big media talking about "Autism Awareness" and how we should celebrate our almighty warriors that have to deal with their daily mental challenges or whatever jargon they feel like spitting out that day. But I barely see ones that talk about people who really can't function at all to society.

It feels patronizing, and people here just seem fine with that. Chris ain't no saint that's for sure, but there's no reason why we should ignore people like him over the ones who are just a lil quirky. It's always how this autistic person got a job, finished college or is even a politician, but never about how this one guy who can't even tie his own shoes needs people's help to live a happy life.

You know the world is screwed when everyone used to point and laugh at Chris, and the only people that actually cared to defend him... were the trans community. And only when people started misgendering Chirs, because correcting a person's pronouns is way more important than people mocking their character... what deplorable pigs.

 

[Xev]

It's not just autists who have become increasingly annoying because of characters like Chris. The internet has given a global platform to village idiots of any variety. It's only really a problem though if they're not funny.