OK well let us then not call it winning a lottery, let's call the negatively affected ones getting run down by a car. That's better! People who did not get run down by cars have it pretty good, no matter if they like to wear certain clothes or have hyperfocus on hobbies it's all pretty good stuff, but the ones who got run down by cars and then the car turned around and went over them a couple extra times, they don't have it that good.

It's not very helpful to say if someone has been run down by a car that they just have different highway experiences than people who were not run down by cars. Their difference is a significant problem, because they have been run down by a car and it hurts.

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MrDarcy 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I agree with you and I’m struggling to see how my reply wasn’t helpful. I’m saying those people who get run over by a car in this analogy shouldn’t be run over by cars on the highway. I look at what’s wrong with the highway. I don’t believe the sole primary reason people get run over in this analogy is because their brain developed wrong.

More that their brain developed differently and our current highway system is incompatible with that difference.

The highway system can and should change just as we individuals can and should try to change our minds in areas where it makes sense to do so.

My preferred analogy is that all neurodivergent people are playing the game of life at least on hard mode. Some are playing on ultra hard mode. Some are playing on impossible mode.

As it relates to treatment, the goal is to help a person live as close to typical difficulty as possible. Same goal for accommodations extended to the person by society.

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bryanrasmussen 3 hours ago | parent [-]

it's fine I guess. but the thing really is that there are two different problem levels, and it seems almost always that any discussion of autism only focuses on one or the other problem level.

So if people discuss the getting run down by car problem level the people who have an "I'm different" problem level feel as if they are being insulted, and if people discuss the "I'm different" problem level the people who care for the people who have been run down by cars feel like... well, insulted would probably be the least of it.

	▲	MrDarcy 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		For my part I'm obviously at the "I'm different" level and I don't feel insulted discussing the whole spectrum. Hopefully that's true for more people over time. Edit: In retrospect I suppose the “developed wrong” language is insulting to me and the boundary is just beyond the idea of “different” I suppose then the request is for those people caring for autistic people who are so different life is impossible to live without care to view the concept of “different” as a spectrum too. Not wrong.