this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
370 points (98.4% liked)
Not The Onion
17897 readers
1497 users here now
Welcome
We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!
The Rules
Posts must be:
- Links to news stories from...
- ...credible sources, with...
- ...their original headlines, that...
- ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”
Please also avoid duplicates.
Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.
And that’s basically it!
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Donald Trump isn't a smart man and he has some very concerning beliefs. I mean we know for a fact that Trump slept/sleeps with a copy of Hitler's Speeches in his bedside drawer. He admitted that himself. He also has some very strange views on exercise, claiming the human body is like a battery and too much exercise can kill you. He tweeted that he believes vaccines cause Autism.
A lot of political positions have some weird fucking ideas on health and science, even the "normal" ones (Look up Posadism, right now, drop whatever you are doing and look it up right now, it's ducktits bonkers), but the Right are the ones who are most infamous for them. I mean the basis for OG Nazism involved Supermen with high technology coming to Earth on an Ice Ball (no seriously), but you also have ideas popular on the right like:
And many more.
Now I am going to also say that alongside insanity, there's a more "rational"/Machiavellian reason for them doing things like getting rid of vaccines and that is the following:
The reason why Trump and his ilk having these beliefs are the following:
We now have a working theory on how autism develops — a genetic predisposition allowing malfunction in cell danger response — and an almost miraculous clinical treatment for it in children that is currently undergoing trials.
https://www.autismparentingmagazine.com/autism-suramin-evolution/
Unsurprisingly the cause and treatment are completely unrelated to the Right’s insane and dangerous conspiracy theories.
Oh my God this is going to be an ethical minefield the likes of which we have never seen, and I say that as someone who has Autism. Like right now people on the Spectrum, as well as people with conditions like ADHD, are looking at the things RJK Jr is saying not just about Autism but Neurodivergency in general and getting very worried. Like he's saying people on adderal should be sent to labour camps and there should be a national register of Autistic people. Man believes people like me are an existential threat to the country. That's Nazi shit. Straight up fucking Eugenics for Neurodiverse people in general. The idea of an "Autism Cure" like this could very well turn into something we really do not want to see and I think we need to understand that.
Like here's the thing: I'm not one of those "Autism is my Superpower" types. It's an annoying, frustrating, horrible disability that fucks with me everyday in ways even I understand. But while it is horrible, and has fucked me six ways from Sunday, I also have to admit that without it, I would be a vastly different person and not in a good way. Without Autism, I would not have had a history degree, I would not have the hobbies, interests and knowledge I have, I wouldn't have had the impact I have had on the world or the ideas I have had. Fuck, would I be writing this comment if I didn't have the 'tism?
I'll also be honest with you, Autism, while being a disability also likely gave us a lot of people who did a lot of things they wouldn't have otherwise done if they weren't on the spectrum. I might be speculating with a lot of these figures, but Newton, Einstein, Turing, Babbage, Cavendish, Lovelace? What would the world be like if they weren't Autistic? I don't think they would've done a lot of what they had done if they were not. I'm not sure computers would exist without Autistic people, nor do I believe a lot of science and art would exist too.
Also, how are we defining Autism. We go back to the days of Hans Aspberger, who invented a condition to say "yeah, they have the 'Tism, but they're useful"?
It's a bit like if you gave a bigot the ability to wipe and entire group from reality and they chose gay people, and then suddenly they notice the phone in their pocket has disappeared and there's no internet.
I agree. I have autism and ADHD, but I’m old, so I’m not sure this treatment would do anything for me, and it certainly wouldn’t erase the life I’ve already lived. But I would still like for younger generations have this as an option. their futures haven’t been written yet, and everyone deserves the opportunity to choose their own path. Autism is a part of who I am, but I am not about to force that on others who have the opportunity and desire to live their own life differently.
Ehhh... Maybe it just functions differently. Not really big on the negative connotation there.
The world would be a much more boring place without our autistic friend. They don't need a fucking "cure."
Tell that to the people who aren't able to function on their own or lead a normal life
No, the CDR is a phenomenon that appears to be a major contributor in numerous detrimental conditions should it become stuck. This includes conditions like insulin resistance and generalized anxiety disorder. We now have evidence that the symptoms that make up “autism” are merely one of the possible results of CDR becoming stuck. Small doses of suramin reset the cellular danger response, allowing them to function normally again. To generalize, it’s as if the body’s cells are stuck in a perpetual panic attack as if they are in danger, even if they are not. This is not a “difference in function” it is a malfunction.
As a dinosaur who also has autism, I don’t think this would do anything for me and I’m not sure I would want to if it could. But nobody is trying to force it on me or you, and depriving others of the ability to choose for themselves is no less monstrous. Acceptance of neurodiversity and treatment of treatable conditions are not mutually exclusive endeavors. So please do better and make your own decisions for yourself while staying out of other peoples lives as they make their own decisions for themselves.
A LOT of people believe the body has a set total of heartbeats.
That sounds like...something an obscure ancient Greek philosopher would claim, leading Diogenes to start chasing him around the room counting down.