I’m somewhat new to learning about autism and neurodiversity, but even before that I was of the opinion that some of what is called “mental illness” wasn’t really, but just seemed that way because of how society is optimized for certain personality types. Now I’m trying to figure out if autism and any other ND types fit this idea.

So I wanted to gauge the community and find out how popular/accepted this idea is. Do you see these as inherent handicaps, like being blind, or just circumstantial, like say being 8 feet tall (side effects of gigantism notwithstanding)? Or, now that I think of it, perhaps like being 8 feet tall with the side effects: are they not inherent handicaps themselves, but often or always come with inherent side effects?

  • @HalashamEnglish
    10•8 months ago

    Society is optimized for the majority of people, not just certain personality types.

    Eh, more or less. Society is also distorted by those who have a significant amount of economic or political power. It’s still shaped very much with an exclusion of consideration of us but it’s not really something approaching a ‘decent fit for the majority’ rather I would say it’s something more akin to the powerful impressing their demands for the structure of society upon all of us and the majority contorting around it.

    Ex. Why doesn’t the US & Canada have a robust passenger rail network? Because of the influence of a strong automotive lobby (they used to and the car companies lobbied for it’s de-prioritization leading to slow degradation to the sorry state they’re in now).

    • @Murdoc@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      4•8 months ago

      It’s still shaped very much with an exclusion of consideration of us but it’s not really something approaching a ‘decent fit for the majority’ rather I would say it’s something more akin to the powerful impressing their demands for the structure of society upon all of us and the majority contorting around it.

      That’s a good point, and is I think the reason why I never saw myself as anything like “neurodivergent” for most of my life. I just assumed that my “not fitting into society” was because of how badly designed it is in general, and I was just one of the unlucky ones. It took a friend of mine who is autistic and knew about this stuff to point out that for me it was likely more than that. So yeah, there is this issue too, and I wonder how many other people it has caused confusion for other than me.

      • @HalashamEnglish
        6•8 months ago

        Yeah. Our society is distorted against all our well-being we, the Neurodivergent, are just especially affected by this malady. For the sake of a vanishingly small proportion of the population to be absurdly wealthy we all suffer.

      • @Tull_Pantera@lemmy.todayEnglish
        1•8 months ago

        “just assumed that my “not fitting into society” was because of how badly designed it is in general” I don’t think this is an assumption, personally.