halfway through responding i talked myself out of my own opinion on this. language changes and i think “on the spectrum” is coming to the end of it’s usefulness. it was helpful for a time but now i only use it at work in the context of “i’m just grasping for language that will make you understand how to communicate with me”.

On the spectrum is a helpful middle ground when exploring the topic though. And it was a very helpful middle ground when every discussion of autism seemed to devolve into clinical diagnosis vs awareness that the medical system in most countries is a dumpster fire. getting my son diagnosed took very little effort. when i looked into it for myself 6 yrs ago, the clinician was helpfully blunt with “look unless you need accomodations dont put yourself through this yet. theres one person in this state who can diagnose in adults and it’s a 2 yr wait list to start the 1 yr $1200 out of pocket process”.

a friend got her offical diagnosis about 6 months ago and the process has by her description, improved and shortened significantly. so i may explore that again. at this point outside work i just use autist/autism, but at work i still use spectrum. I do agree the language is aging out of broad usefullness, but i don’t believe it’s something i’ll be bothered by for a long while still. i get your frustration with it. I think we’re in that be kind and let people use the language they’re comfortable with period for the spectrum. it may die off or it may become elder millenials term for ourselves as aspie has for some genxers who grew up before the spectrum entered the dms5.

i deleted my world account back when some of the active posters in 196 started pushing for a move to that instance. i have precious little free time to burn on the internet. on world i was wasting that time with “just asking questions guy” or maintaining a block list of accounts who’s say “I support that in concept BUT this real world human actually existing is too far!”. it was facebook without ads and brought zero value to my life, so i left lemmy. very relieved to see the 196 community chose to stay here. this instance is the only reason i decided to give lemmy another go.

good start this year. got my peppers and slower flowers started under the growlights. seeded another section of the yard with tall grass and native flowers. and im adding my first bee hive this summer, ordered a nuc from a local farm that breeds for harsh winters. should be a good year if the weather would stop toying with my heart.

look i don’t know what your grudge is against my bank account, but i have $100 in strange vinyl disks being mailed to me now. please cease this witchcraft.

that article had me hooked in the first two sentenced too. and now the budos band is gonna cost me money.

didn’t know my life was missing this band until today, holy shit. thanks :)