Holly A. Gultiano
@axoaxonic@synapse.cafe
Learning theoretical/mathematical/computational neuroscience & bioinformatics in dᶻidᶻəlal̓ič (Seattle) -- more interested in studying nervous systems through abstraction than studying neurons to improve artificial systems ⚧ ND (ASD/mTBIs/cPTSD/ET/probably more letters) ⬛ Long time musician, slowly inching my way thru school as first in my close family to do so. Grew up unschooled, lifelong auto- and allo- didact CW: Posts about disease, links to research involving animals
synapse.cafe
Replying to
@dougmerritt@mathstodon.xyz
@dougmerritt Things like this have been said before and it really dismisses the people's lived experience rather than being inclusive, in my and many others
https://www.divergentpod.com/blog/ep-132
https://enna.org/everybody-is-on-the-spectrum-microaggression/ (these are about autism specifically -- and it has been said to me before by someone who ended up making me homeless -- but applies to the more general statement).
Everybody's brain is different, yes, but there is a large percentage closer to the mean and people who are outliers. It's fuzzy and complicated but it's real. The outliers face real socioeconomic consequences in this ableist world , and real violence.
"Neurodivergent" isn't the opposite of something like neuro-homogenous, there's variation in the norm and nobody has the same brain. Typicality, the norm, is a real thing though, even if the propaganda you mention overemphasizes it, and it does so because it the distribution of power in society is hierarchically structured. It states/enforces that typicality is the *only* thing, which I hear you're arguing against, but your post comes off to me as erasure of the people whose brains significantly deviate from the norm.
I process information, like short videos, way different than most people around me, I stim and do echolalia in places where no one else is, my affect is flat, my hands shake, I almost crash my bike when someone goes by with a flashing tailight, etc etc. I've had psychometric tests that said straight up that I'm impaired in some things that people take for granted like executive functions (although rly good at repeating number strings apparently), I've faced real challenges and done unusual things that are interesting and cool because of it, and I'm never worried about it. I'm proudly taking space, asserting myself by talking about my experience.