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victOwOia t1_jchvc2y wrote

Autistic person here, what's with the title? It sounds like it's implying autistic people are deficient in some way and therefore its awe inspiring that one owns a business

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ethan52695 t1_jci60yy wrote

Yes, autistic people are deficient in some ways. This is the definition, “A serious developmental disorder that impairs the ability to communicate and interact.”. Autism is literally a deficiency in social skills that make it harder for them to succeed in a modern day society that relies on social skills.

I don’t mean to be offensive, but being deficient in something or having a medical condition that makes you struggle in certain situations, is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. But pretending that people with autism don’t need help or assistance only makes it harder for them to get actual assistance.

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vegancookie t1_jciehkh wrote

You can offer help via the social model of disability, different =/= deficient.

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tangerinesubmerine t1_jcmfodt wrote

Autistic person here. Sure, deficiency is part of autism. But autism is a grab bag, a whole spectrum of presentation. Some things we do worse than neurotypicals, some things we do better, depending on the individual. For instance the idea that autistic people make better scientists, engineers and programmers is widespread within those communities, and in fact it can even be harder to find a job in those fields if you are not autistic. But an inspirational article about a non-autistic person becoming a scientist would feel odd, wouldn't it? Maybe even a little patronizing?

I'm not saying autism is without it's downsides, or that we're better than neurotypicals, or even that some autistic people don't feel wholly disabled by their condition. In fact I'm sure this article might even be inspirational for some autistic people. But in that same vein, I think it's understandable that things of this nature ruffle some peoples feathers.

Everyone has different preferences, I know. But personally, if I ever started a business I would feel quite insulted to see an article like this.

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vessva11 t1_jci12mh wrote

I see it as inspiring those with autism or any disability that they too can also run successful businesses as well. That self-sufficiency is possible with autism or disabilities. In the article, he didn’t feel self-sufficient in his workplace so he decided to create something of his own.

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vegancookie t1_jciedbv wrote

I mean the medical model of disability is deficit based so I get why we end up with weird titles like that, as well as weird person first language that shouldn’t apply to neurotypes :/.

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Mississimia t1_jci22hw wrote

He's also sold 600 bags of pretzels and they describe his business as booming. I mean.. Elon Musk has autism.

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DespressoCafe t1_jci84em wrote

Autistic person here.

Elon Musk is a terrible example considering he comes from old money and spends his time being maliciously incompetent and shitting on people because "I'm rich and ur not lol". And that's not the "lack of empathy" or autism making him incompetent either. Dude's a full on sociopath.

He also tried to "cure" autism when the only way to do that would be to kill autistic people. It's part of who we are, and it's not us who need to adjust. It's the world around us who treat us like shit 99% of the time.

Most autistic people (at least in the US) can't even get employed full time much less get rich or have a business. 50% are employed, and only 15% work full time. Most of us also don't even live to be 40 due to elevated rates of depression and suicide because of how we get treated by people around us.

inb4 the elon simps to downvote me into oblivion for criticizing the guy they wanna suck off.

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Mississimia t1_jci8ltr wrote

The only point I was making about Elon Musk is that he has found more success in business than the gentleman in the article.

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DespressoCafe t1_jci9v8n wrote

He has "success"....because he came from money. He takes credit for the work of others. He didn't found Tesla, he bought it. He didn't invent any of those cars, his workers did. He can't even credit an artist who's work he reposted when people politely asked him to. And any time he does something cringe or throws a shit fit, Tesla's stock goes down.

And what of Twitter? Also something he bought, and screwed a lot of people over. Especially small artists who already struggled because the algorithm was shit, and the only "viable" way to avoid it is a stupid subscription service he wanted to impliment, as if he needs more fuckibg money. He's so stupid that he fired the "bottom half" of his staff because they had the least amount of coding (PS, less coding is more efficient).

Most autistic people here do notcome fom money or even a decent family, never mind their income. We live from paycheck to paychck or disability if we got lucky jumping through hoops. And even then that money doesn't come for weeks or months.

He's everything autistic people SHOULD NOT strive to be.

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DespressoCafe t1_jcib9bv wrote

He may not be "as successful" but that gentleman probably has far more moral integrity than Musk does.

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