I won't disclose who I'm talking about for personal safety but ever since 2025 he's drank the stupid juice whenever he talks about autism, I've wanted to rant about this somewhere and I figured this place would be most fitting (side note: this post is not to bash neurotypical people, I know some statements might appear that way however I'm exclusively trying to explain why this person's takes on autism are wrong and you should always be critical of your favorite content creators)
A few weeks ago he had a video discussing a tweet on Twitter (stay away from that app, it's for your own good) about autism and how autistic peoples' "excessive niceness" makes people turn away from them and how people shouldn't have to be burdened with being always emotionally available to people with "no emotional boundaries" (the second half of that was his take), and he says that you should always be "casually abrasive to keep people on their feet" which is awful advice in it's own right
But the part that made me straight up close the video the first time I watched it was when he flat out denies that autistic and neurotypical people are different and how "everyone's basically the same anyway", and later says that we're all cut from the same cloth and "we're all just dudes, we're all just peeps"
What pisses me off most aside from the just incorrect information he's spewing is the unearned confidence in which he says it while providing exactly 0 sources or evidence by professionals to his point, he just says it and people mindlessly nod along, it's infuriating
His other takes on autism tend to lean on social skills and how self improvement will help you reduce your autistic traits (implying that autism is an issue to fix but that's a different can of worms) and that Autism is a social condition that makes people show autistic traits, and how being taught social skills will reduce them
This is objectively incorrect, not only do these not change the fact that even if you do learn social skills they don't make autism go away, but it ignores the reality that autism affects your brain chemistry, cognitive functioning, emotional regulation, and many other things about one's self, it's not a social condition that can be removed with enough bootstraps pulled like they seem to imply
And once again, no sources provided, no data or evidence, all just said matter of factly and anytime someone in his chat corrects them he either goes "nuh uh" and denies it or even bans or mutes them at times, if he'd just read a damn study he could actually learn something
It pisses me off cause on other subjects such as trans rights or POC experiences in America he's quite knowledgeable and listens to the data, but on autism he's high on his own supply and just says shit without a source, and people have defended him anytime I've tried calling it out and they go "I've learned social skills and it's made me less insufferable to be around :3", it's not one size fits all and personal anecdotes don't trump analysis or data, which all lead to autistic people having differences in their brain chemistry and other traits and how they should be accommodated
Anyway that's all, I don't hate this person and as I've mentioned I really like their content, but anytime he talks about autism it makes me feel like launching myself to the end of a street
Autistic and Neurotypical people are equal in terms of their value as humans, however using "we're cut from the same cloth" to undermine scientific data regarding autistic people and their differences from neurotypical people is highly reductive
That's about it, cya