"Eradicating Autism" Is Just Eugenics with Better PR
Autistic Minds Are Made of Stars — Try Erasing That
Some truths must be spoken plainly, even when the world has grown deaf to them:
Autistic people do not need to be cured. We need to be understood.
In recent months, public figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have fueled dangerous myths — suggesting that autism is a tragedy to be prevented, a flaw to be erased. Let’s be clear: this is eugenics wrapped in the language of "hope."
It is a direct threat to the existence, dignity, and humanity of neurodivergent people.
It’s not new. It’s an old song of supremacy: homogenize the wildness, silence the different, eliminate the unpredictable.
But we, the neurodiverse, are already here.
We have always been here.
And we will not be disappeared quietly.
Understanding Autism: Beyond the Myths
Education is essential to ending these ignorant ideologies of hatred and othering.
When people truly understand autism — when they see us as fully human, valuable, and vibrant — they are less likely to fall prey to fear-mongering and dehumanization. Knowledge dismantles stigma, uproots myths, and lays the foundation for a society where difference is celebrated, not erased.
The goal is not to make us normal. The goal is to let us be extraordinary.
Autism is not a disease.
It is a natural neurological variation — a different way the brain is wired to experience, process, and interact with the world.
Here’s what people often misunderstand:
Autistic people are born autistic. It is not something that happens to us. It is who we are.
You cannot "cure" autism without eradicating the person. Trying to "fix" autism is trying to unmake the individual.
Even the language matters.
We are autistic people, not "people with autism."
Our autism is not an accessory. It is woven into every thought, every joy, every challenge, every solution we bring into the world.
We carry a particular magic into this world:
We notice patterns others cannot see.
We build new worlds from broken pieces.
We sense what others miss and imagine what others fear to dream.
Our minds spiral in constellations, offering connections and creativity that a rigid world desperately needs.
Without autistic minds, humanity would lose many of its greatest artists, scientists, rebels, and visionaries.
What Are the Levels of Autism?
Modern diagnoses sometimes describe autism in "levels" to explain the kinds of support a person might need. These levels are clinical shorthand — not a hierarchy of human worth — and they often miss the full complexity of an individual’s life.
Level 1 (Requiring Support):
People who may appear independent but still face daily struggles with executive functioning, sensory regulation, and social nuances.Level 2 (Requiring Substantial Support):
People who need consistent support with communication, emotional regulation, and adapting to environments.Level 3 (Requiring Very Substantial Support):
People who need daily, intensive assistance for communication, daily living, and safety.
Importantly:
Terms like "high-functioning" and "low-functioning" are not only outdated — they are deeply harmful.
"High-functioning" erases the very real struggles that people face because they seem "fine" on the surface.
"Low-functioning" strips people of their autonomy and potential, reducing them to their support needs instead of honoring them as full human beings.
You cannot divide autistic people neatly into "good enough to include" and "too disabled to matter."
We are whole, complex, living, breathing stories.
And a person’s needs can shift daily, hourly, across a lifetime, depending on environment, support, stress, and other forces often unseen by outsiders.
Why So Many Autistic Women and Girls Are Missed
Another deep wound in how autism is understood:
The way we diagnose autism was built by studying boys.
When the diagnostic criteria for autism were first developed, researchers focused almost entirely on young white boys.
The "classic" signs of autism — lining up toys, avoiding eye contact, speaking in monotones — were drawn from boy-centered studies.
As a result, generations of autistic women, girls, and gender-diverse people were overlooked, misdiagnosed, or left to mask their struggles in silence.
Masking — or camouflaging — is when autistic people consciously or unconsciously hide their autistic traits to fit into a world that demands conformity.
This might look like:
Forcing eye contact even when it feels painful.
Memorizing scripts for conversations instead of intuitively flowing.
Mimicking social behaviors to "blend in."
Suppressing stimming behaviors that help regulate the nervous system.
Girls and women, especially, are often highly skilled at masking.
From a young age, they are conditioned to people-please, to stay quiet, to perform "normalcy" at all costs.
The numbers reveal the truth:
Historically, autism was diagnosed in boys four times more often than in girls (CDC, 2020).
New research suggests the real ratio may be closer to 2–3 to 1 — meaning many autistic women and girls are being missed (Loomes, Hull, & Mandy, 2017).
A 2017 meta-analysis found autistic females are far more likely to be misdiagnosed with anxiety, depression, eating disorders, or borderline personality disorder before — or instead of — autism.
A 2020 study in The Lancet showed that autistic girls often show subtler signs and are less likely to display externalizing behaviors that prompt evaluations.
Masking comes at a brutal cost.
Prolonged masking is linked to:
Anxiety
Depression
Identity loss
Autistic burnout
Suicidal ideation
Imagine living your whole life being told you are "too sensitive," "too weird," "too much," or "not enough" — without ever knowing the true name of your own difference.
That is the reality for countless autistic women, girls, and gender-diverse people.
Why "Asperger's" Is No Longer Used
You may hear older generations refer to "Asperger’s Syndrome." Here’s why we have chosen to leave that word behind:
Hans Asperger, who first described the condition, collaborated with the Nazi regime and actively participated in identifying disabled children for euthanasia programs.
The term carries the heavy legacy of eugenics, ableism, and profound human rights violations.
Today, autistic people are diagnosed under the broader umbrella of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) — recognizing the full diversity of experiences without separating "acceptable" and "unacceptable" kinds of autism.
Moving away from the term is an act of respect, remembrance, and refusal to sanitize the brutal histories tied to disability oppression.
Why the Fight Against RFK’s Narrative Matters
When people like RFK talk about "ending autism," they are not offering hope.
They are offering annihilation.
Their language dehumanizes autistic people.
It positions us as problems to be solved rather than people to be loved, supported, and valued.
And history shows what happens when societies decide that certain types of people are "problems."
This is not just a disagreement. This is a matter of survival.
How We Push Back: Solutions Rooted in Humanity
1. Education is the first shield.
When people understand autism as a way of being — not a disease — they are less vulnerable to eugenic rhetoric. Share real information. Amplify autistic voices.
2. Make space for autistic people.
In workplaces, schools, media, and policy. We are already here. We belong here. We are not expendable.
3. Celebrate neurodiversity.
Autistic minds gave birth to many of the ideas, solutions, and stories you cherish:
Your favorite quirky characters.
Innovations that reshaped science and technology.
New ways of seeing and being when old systems have failed.
We are the artists of the unexpected, the architects of wonder, the healers who mend broken systems with stubborn, radical love.
Without autistic minds, the world would be flatter, dimmer, less alive.
4. Challenge ableist language and ideas.
Don’t let eugenics slip by under the guise of "cure" or "prevention." Call it what it is.
5. Center autistic voices.
When in doubt, listen to autistic people about what we need.
Nothing about us without us.
We are not broken.
We are not tragedies.
We are not warnings.
We are the dreamers, the doers, the ones who see new paths where none existed.
We are a vital, irreplaceable part of the human story.
And we are not going anywhere.
In Root & Ritual,
Ayana
If this energy and post resonates with you, consider joining the Rooted Rebels and continue to spread this message to the world.
Learn More, Stand Stronger:
What Hans Asperger Did During the Nazi Era (Spectrum News)
Loomes, Hull, & Mandy (2017) Meta-Analysis
Why Your Exhaustion Isn’t Laziness, It’s Trauma Concrete in Your Veins
The lies we swallow don’t dissolve—they calcify. Grief clogs the lymph like concrete silt, rage knots behind your collarbones, shame plates the hips in black ice. Recent studies echo what our grandmothers already knew: chronic fear hacks immunity, stalls the river that scours toxins from blood and brain, and welds unseen shackles into flesh. A jammed ly…
The War on Thirteen: How They Erased the Divine Feminine
You were never meant to live by the clock.
This is so good! Bestie, you're really cooking out here.
There is another reason why this POS is trying to eliminate us: we are a threat to his and the regime's plans. Just by existing.
We cannot be contained. We cannot be blinded. And so we will not be denied.