We all have some varying degree of "Autism"

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We all have some varying degree of every "disorder", "condition", and "syndrome". What makes it any of those three things is the extremity of it. If someone has "Autism", they really have an extreme amount of it. What is "normal"?

Well, as I've probably said a million times on WP before, everybody forgets things but that doesn't mean everybody has Alzheimer's. That is the best analogy I can come up with to explain that everybody has traits of everything but not to a degree of everyone actually having everything. So you got to draw the line somewhere.

Neurology or psychology is a very complex thing, it isn't an all or nothing type of thing. It is very complex.

If it's classic autism, there's virtually zero doubt that the person has autism.

The distinction is more difficult in Aspergers, and within some people with HFA.

I agree with the idea of there is no "normal," but autism is something specific. Not a catch-all phrase to denote "not normal." Autism is one variation of how the brain is wired. The range of how severely a person is affected is how sections of the brain connect to each other. I think what you're referring to is whether or not a person is affected enough to have it qualify as a disability. I would be categorized as "high functioning," though I hate the term, yet I am definitely autistic in the way I process information and relate to others.

I think starcats hit it on the nail of what I was trying to say. What I was saying is that if someone has an extremity of a "disorder", "condition", or "syndrome"; they have one of those three things. I am not trying to deduce how a diagnosis is made. I was just pondering philosophically for a moment.

Sometimes I wonder about this.

I'm diagnosed ASD Level 1 but I consider myself borderline autistic, in that often it doesn't really show and I can seem "normal". I know that underneath I'm still thinking in autistic ways, so I'm confident in the diagnosis. But I do sometimes wonder how much other people might also be thinking in autistic ways, too, just not enough that anyone picks up on it, or to cause them too much difficulty. It's hard to tell whether there's a distinct cut-off point between what what is and is not autism or whether it's a continuum from the "neurotypical".

Until we can really see and understand the autism at work inside someone's brain, I don't think we're ever going to know.

I think this page interpreting AQ test results gives a pretty good idea of how many autistic traits NTs typically have, and what it takes to be considered to actually have ASD:
http://aspergerstest.net/interpreting-aq-test-results/

Based on this page:
0-11 low result – indicating no tendency at all towards autistic traits.
11-21 is the average result that people get (many women average around 15 and men around 17)
22-25 shows autistic tendencies slightly above the population average
26-31 gives a borderline indication of an autism spectrum disorder. It is also possible to have aspergers or mild autism within this range.
32-50 indicates a strong likelihood of Asperger syndrome or autism.

So yes, most people do have a certain amount of autistic traits. A "Normal" amount of autistic traits would result in a score of 11-21 on the AQ test. But this would be much fewer autistic traits than most people with ASD.

To me that sounds like saying we all have a varying degree of cerebral palsy or epilepsy.

There are many “degrees” of cerebral palsy. The symptoms vary enormously.

One can be a genius with cerebral palsy. Another could have very low intelligence.

It is true that no claims of a cerebral palsy “spectrum” are made.

Let's have a diabetes spectrum.

My own belief is that psychiatry needs a big breaktrough, moving from lists of symptoms into mechanisms.

This said, what do you mean by "we all"? All on this forum? All humans? This was unclear for me.
I personally suspect (based e.g. on results of this research: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-017-0024-x where the researchers found altered responses common to ASD subjects but not corelated with their AQ or ADOS scores) that there is some on/off-type factor (altered first responses to social signals) underlying the spectrum and the variety of symptoms depending on other factors.
But it's just a hypothesis to be further tested.

I'm not sure whether the AQ is a good measure. I score 37, but would be more confident saying I have 'traits' rather than full blown asd.