Living Autistic in Dangerous Times: Trump Labels 1 in 4 Families “Dire Threat”

Cold Open (into silence)

You love Dune? Like me?

Frank Herbert is dead... wrong.

Fear is NOT the mind-killer. Denial is.

[Music ]

Intro

You're listening to AutisticAF Out Loud. One voice. Raw. Real. Fiercely Neurodivergent. Since 1953.

Season 5, Episode 5. Attacks on neurodivergence, facing our fears, finding our strength. Today we're talking threats, resistance, and the power of a hundred million voices. Just one autistic elder's truth. I'm Johnny Profane.

Content Note: political violence, eugenics, genocide, institutionalized discrimination, systemic oppression + experiences & opinions of one autistic voice... in my 70s.

[Music]

You love Dune? Like me?

Frank Herbert is dead... wrong.

Fear is NOT the mind-killer. Denial is.

I must honor my fear.Fear is my guardian. My junkyard dog. My screaming siren.Fear is the warning of annihilation. It must be heeded.I will embrace my fear. Then share its wisdom.I will let it flow through me. Become purpose & strength.And when we have acted? I will remember… its lessons.Where the Beast of Fear once stood, we will now stand.We will abide. Stronger for having feared… then acted… Together.

Trust me. I know a lot about fear. I’m autistic. ADHD, too. In my 70s.

Living in dangerous times in America. And we got a lot more to fear… than fear itself.

[Music]

Hey... you know how this works. If this resonates, now might be a good time to like, share… maybe text a link to a friend. Really helps get the word out.

Trump administration identifies Autism & ADHD as "dire threats to the American people."

Some folks called this headline hyperbole. Click-bait exaggeration. To my face. With hostility. Calling out what they see as “fear-mongering.”

One fellow autist on LinkedIn really tore me a new one along those lines. Tried to anyways. I got a bit strong on her ass… So she blocked me. Exercising her denial.

But this is how it starts.

The White House labeled us a "dire threat." Not as evil actors, but based on our condition… our existence itself. Autism as a "dire threat." Not a difference.

Then throwing out a gratuitous observation... “77% of young adults do not qualify for the military based in larger part on their health scores.” (Full Whitehouse.gov post.)

As if that is how America now measures the value of our lives. As cannon fodder. As if there aren’t now… and haven’t been throughout history… Neurodivergent warriors.

Demonizing all the disabled. All the Different. As if we are the ones destroying America.

I'm struggling. I'm terrified...

Even knowing that cruel terror is their purpose. Didn't help watching Man in the High Castle lately. The scene where ashes are falling because they're cremating the old and defective...

I'm toast.

About 1:43 in the YouTube linked in text.

{video clip in text}

This terror? Not just my personal problem. We neurodivergents ain’t a small marginalized group. The numbers tell a bigger story:

* About 30 million Americans have direct family ties to an autistic person

* Roughly another 30 million have cousins or close relatives who are autistic

* 60 million. That's 1 in 6 Americans with close autistic connections

But we're just getting started. Add in ADHD, even accounting for overlap between conditions, the numbers become staggering:

* 69 million Americans have immediate family members