Post #2984322

2026-05-14 18:18 UTC

I mean, yes, visibility and legitimacy is a major element in why neurodiversity is more widely recognized. However, STEM folks tend to reassert the authority of science as an institution of capitalism and settler-colonialism by not recognizing that these are not "illnesses" or pathological conditions *naturally*. Yes, they are behaviours that we have no reason to believe are divergent or new from typical human life, and their status as pathological is conditional on the specific social and material conditions that are facilitated by this system. We are recognizing it more because it is covered more in scholarship, yes, but also because this system has created the conditions where we are even in the position to construct these behaviors as worthy of identifying to *prove* that they are real. If neurodiverse people didn't have to justify their worthiness of human compassion and dignity just because they *can't* conform to the expectations and demands of a system that only values human life for its productivity, then there'd be no distinction at all.

Replies (2)

@AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 2026-05-14 21:07

> "However, STEM folks tend to reassert the authority of science as an institution of capitalism and settler-colonialism by not recognizing that these are not "illnesses" or pathological conditions *naturally*. Yes, they are behaviours that we have no reason to believe are divergent or new from typical human life, and their status as pathological is conditional on the specific social and material conditions that are facilitated by this system." There's a lot in this that I agree with, but in the past, I have been quite irked by people who take a hard line version of this stance, who say that I'm being ableist by referring to myself as disabled. Whilst the majority of things that being autistic and ADHD cause me to struggle with that are better understood as a function of our environment, there are plenty of ways in which I would consider to be independent of societal structure. For instance, I struggle with sensory hypersensitivity, such that a bright sunny day, or loud sounds cause me physical pain, and also cause me to become fatigued quickly if exposed to them for a while. This sucks, and I think it would even in a society that was structured radically differently

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@TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2026-05-14 18:47

Oh, and what social system of order and productivity do you think should take over that authority? communism? anarchism? What is 'typical human life'? Am i better off being beaten into submission and diagnosed and drugged by a communist expansionist dictatorship than a capitalist state of settler colonialism?

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