Is autism rights movement associated with left-wing politics
29 Dec 2025, 3:34 pm
MaxE wrote:
Fishyfisherton wrote:
There is nothing inherently left wing about autism self advocacy or disability rights per se but the far left have made themselves at home and ideologically captured much of it. So we get sucked into the all-encompassing intersectional Omnicause. Liberal and progressive types are more likely to join causes anyway but there is less diversity of thought now than there used to be.
I very much like the way you phrased this. I can't see how any young person who grew up in the UK would be a leftist, but then the Left seems to own the anti-Zionist cause which is today's cause célèbre, perhaps that's where the recruiting would get done.
In the US, I believe many autistics including YouTubers and SM influencers are so right wing they'll turn your hair white, and vice-versa. Can't prove it though.
I am not a right winger but I feel sorry that so many who were here before got run off.
The so-called “anti-Zionism” is just another name for blatant antisemitism (or, to those of you liking accuracy and preciseness, “blatant Jew-hatred”), as it’s based entirely on lies and false premises. The only reason for it to be “cause celebre” is that certain middle-Eastern countries sponsoring it very generously, and too many people are dumb enough to blindly believe what TV and internet are saying without giving it extra thought. But the effect of this sponsorship is largely exaggerated. As dumb as the audience might be, it’s very unlikely to give s**t to what’s going on thousands of miles away, caring more about what’s going on on their own street.
29 Dec 2025, 4:49 pm
exminsker wrote:
MaxE wrote:
Fishyfisherton wrote:
There is nothing inherently left wing about autism self advocacy or disability rights per se but the far left have made themselves at home and ideologically captured much of it. So we get sucked into the all-encompassing intersectional Omnicause. Liberal and progressive types are more likely to join causes anyway but there is less diversity of thought now than there used to be.
I very much like the way you phrased this. I can't see how any young person who grew up in the UK would be a leftist, but then the Left seems to own the anti-Zionist cause which is today's cause célèbre, perhaps that's where the recruiting would get done.
In the US, I believe many autistics including YouTubers and SM influencers are so right wing they'll turn your hair white, and vice-versa. Can't prove it though.
I am not a right winger but I feel sorry that so many who were here before got run off.
The so-called “anti-Zionism” is just another name for blatant antisemitism (or, to those of you liking accuracy and preciseness, “blatant Jew-hatred”), as it’s based entirely on lies and false premises. The only reason for it to be “cause celebre” is that certain middle-Eastern countries sponsoring it very generously, and too many people are dumb enough to blindly believe what TV and internet are saying without giving it extra thought. But the effect of this sponsorship is largely exaggerated. As dumb as the audience might be, it’s very unlikely to give s**t to what’s going on thousands of miles away, caring more about what’s going on on their own street.
I don't think it's just Middle Eastern Countries. It could be more traditional European Christians with their centuries-old traditions regarding the proper place of Jews in the world. Those people rejoiced when Germany was defeated but couldn't give a toss about the Holocaust. I think the destruction of Israel was on the UN's agenda from the beginning. That was why the UNWRA was established, to ensure that a population of resentful Palestinian refugees would grow to the point that they would threaten Israel's existence, although I think they expected Israel to yield decades ago, so now they've turned to supporting an organization like Hamas, while at the same time marginalizing Middle Easterners in their own countries.
ASPartOfMe
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29 Dec 2025, 7:07 pm
exminsker wrote:
MaxE wrote:
Fishyfisherton wrote:
There is nothing inherently left wing about autism self advocacy or disability rights per se but the far left have made themselves at home and ideologically captured much of it. So we get sucked into the all-encompassing intersectional Omnicause. Liberal and progressive types are more likely to join causes anyway but there is less diversity of thought now than there used to be.
I very much like the way you phrased this. I can't see how any young person who grew up in the UK would be a leftist, but then the Left seems to own the anti-Zionist cause which is today's cause célèbre, perhaps that's where the recruiting would get done.
In the US, I believe many autistics including YouTubers and SM influencers are so right wing they'll turn your hair white, and vice-versa. Can't prove it though.
I am not a right winger but I feel sorry that so many who were here before got run off.
The so-called “anti-Zionism” is just another name for blatant antisemitism (or, to those of you liking accuracy and preciseness, “blatant Jew-hatred”), as it’s based entirely on lies and false premises. The only reason for it to be “cause celebre” is that certain middle-Eastern countries sponsoring it very generously, and too many people are dumb enough to blindly believe what TV and internet are saying without giving it extra thought. But the effect of this sponsorship is largely exaggerated. As dumb as the audience might be, it’s very unlikely to give s**t to what’s going on thousands of miles away, caring more about what’s going on on their own street.
Welcome to Wrong Planet.
Off Topic
An brief introduction to my thoughts on some of these matters. I am posting as an interested party as I am Jewish. I do think Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state. I do not think anti zionism and antisemitism is the same thing. I do think and have always thought anti zionism is an important if not the prime cover for antisemites.
When race and Jews get conflated it is always bad for Jews. Until a decade ago this was the purview of the fringe right. As I started writing here in the late 2010s as “wokeness” started to emerge the intersectionality notion of hierarchy of privilege/oppression gained currency Jews were put in the “white privileged” group or worse close enough to white to be glomming off of white privilege. Since most American Jews are both ashkenazi and Jews were doing well beyond their numbers it made it easy for “wokes” to put us in the white privileged category.
Even though a very large percentage of Israeli Jews are people of color the Israeli Palestinian conflict fell into white people oppressing brown people narrative. How some people viewed us was changing from an ethno religoius group to a race.
Fast forward to October 2023. The “Great Awokeining” of 2020 that made these ideas mainstream had come and gone. Black Lives Matter has run out of steam. When the horrific images started appearing on peoples phones both the narrative and intimidating cancelation tactics were ready to go.
The above is a long way of saying probably most pro Palestinian protesters do not hate or are prejudiced against Jews. They believe they are trying to stop a genocide and the “zionists enabling” it. In the process unintentional(and intentional) harm is occurring.
Now the antisemites on the right who were ostracized into laying low for so long see that you can get away with things you could not get away with until recently are taking advantage. They are not so fringe anymore.
That leaves us Jews in between a rock and a hard place. Go after antisemitism of the left and you validate antisemites on the right and visa versa.
When race and Jews get conflated it is always bad for Jews. Until a decade ago this was the purview of the fringe right. As I started writing here in the late 2010s as “wokeness” started to emerge the intersectionality notion of hierarchy of privilege/oppression gained currency Jews were put in the “white privileged” group or worse close enough to white to be glomming off of white privilege. Since most American Jews are both ashkenazi and Jews were doing well beyond their numbers it made it easy for “wokes” to put us in the white privileged category.
Even though a very large percentage of Israeli Jews are people of color the Israeli Palestinian conflict fell into white people oppressing brown people narrative. How some people viewed us was changing from an ethno religoius group to a race.
Fast forward to October 2023. The “Great Awokeining” of 2020 that made these ideas mainstream had come and gone. Black Lives Matter has run out of steam. When the horrific images started appearing on peoples phones both the narrative and intimidating cancelation tactics were ready to go.
The above is a long way of saying probably most pro Palestinian protesters do not hate or are prejudiced against Jews. They believe they are trying to stop a genocide and the “zionists enabling” it. In the process unintentional(and intentional) harm is occurring.
Now the antisemites on the right who were ostracized into laying low for so long see that you can get away with things you could not get away with until recently are taking advantage. They are not so fringe anymore.
That leaves us Jews in between a rock and a hard place. Go after antisemitism of the left and you validate antisemites on the right and visa versa.
The above has nothing to do with Autistics political views.
The above gave short shrift to complicated topics and ignored important topics. There is an existing thread or existing threads for all these topics. I would suggest exminsker search for them and reply there.
I chose to reply here as an offtopic because too many topics involved for starting a new thread, and replying on several threads would be confusing.
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18 Jan 2026, 3:05 am
exminsker wrote:
The so-called “anti-Zionism” is just another name for blatant antisemitism (or, to those of you liking accuracy and preciseness, “blatant Jew-hatred”), as it’s based entirely on lies and false premises.
I totally disagree, but this thread is not the place to discuss it. Threads where in-depth discussion and debate about the Israel/Palestine situation is on-topic include:
- Evidence of Israel's genocidal intentions toward Gaza?
- How Ethnic Cleansing Created Israel
- Israel/Palestine and settler-colonialism
- 4 Reasons Why Israel is a Rogue State
See also:
- What life is like for Palestinians
- Critiques of Zionism by Jews
- Palestine/Israel: 2-state solution vs. 1 binational state?
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- Autistic in NYC - Resources and new ideas for the autistic adult community in the New York City metro area.
- Autistic peer-led groups (via text-based chat, currently) led or facilitated by members of the Autistic Peer Leadership Group.
27 Jan 2026, 5:48 pm
exminsker wrote:
MaxE wrote:
Fishyfisherton wrote:
There is nothing inherently left wing about autism self advocacy or disability rights per se but the far left have made themselves at home and ideologically captured much of it. So we get sucked into the all-encompassing intersectional Omnicause. Liberal and progressive types are more likely to join causes anyway but there is less diversity of thought now than there used to be.
I very much like the way you phrased this. I can't see how any young person who grew up in the UK would be a leftist, but then the Left seems to own the anti-Zionist cause which is today's cause célèbre, perhaps that's where the recruiting would get done.
In the US, I believe many autistics including YouTubers and SM influencers are so right wing they'll turn your hair white, and vice-versa. Can't prove it though.
I am not a right winger but I feel sorry that so many who were here before got run off.
The so-called “anti-Zionism” is just another name for blatant antisemitism (or, to those of you liking accuracy and preciseness, “blatant Jew-hatred”), as it’s based entirely on lies and false premises. The only reason for it to be “cause celebre” is that certain middle-Eastern countries sponsoring it very generously, and too many people are dumb enough to blindly believe what TV and internet are saying without giving it extra thought. But the effect of this sponsorship is largely exaggerated. As dumb as the audience might be, it’s very unlikely to give s**t to what’s going on thousands of miles away, caring more about what’s going on on their own street.
Hm.... Nah, f**k Zionists. They're settler colonialists and they can eat my foot.
funeralxempire
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27 Jan 2026, 6:05 pm
exminsker wrote:
MaxE wrote:
Fishyfisherton wrote:
There is nothing inherently left wing about autism self advocacy or disability rights per se but the far left have made themselves at home and ideologically captured much of it. So we get sucked into the all-encompassing intersectional Omnicause. Liberal and progressive types are more likely to join causes anyway but there is less diversity of thought now than there used to be.
I very much like the way you phrased this. I can't see how any young person who grew up in the UK would be a leftist, but then the Left seems to own the anti-Zionist cause which is today's cause célèbre, perhaps that's where the recruiting would get done.
In the US, I believe many autistics including YouTubers and SM influencers are so right wing they'll turn your hair white, and vice-versa. Can't prove it though.
I am not a right winger but I feel sorry that so many who were here before got run off.
The so-called “anti-Zionism” is just another name for blatant antisemitism (or, to those of you liking accuracy and preciseness, “blatant Jew-hatred”), as it’s based entirely on lies and false premises. The only reason for it to be “cause celebre” is that certain middle-Eastern countries sponsoring it very generously, and too many people are dumb enough to blindly believe what TV and internet are saying without giving it extra thought. But the effect of this sponsorship is largely exaggerated. As dumb as the audience might be, it’s very unlikely to give s**t to what’s going on thousands of miles away, caring more about what’s going on on their own street.
If you're going to insist that believing Palestinians are entitled to their homeland is hatred of Jews you're going to need to make a better case.
Broadly speaking, human rights are bound to be associated with left-wing politics because the rest of the political spectrum tends to dismiss or be openly hostile to those concerns until they become widespread enough that they have no choice but to start adding them to their platform.
EmpireHonda wrote:
Any kind of advocacy for anyone who isn't an in-group is pretty much inherently left-wing, since conservatism is all about preserving traditional hierarchies and making sure the in-groups are taken care of while the out-groups are further and further disenfranchised.
Well said.
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lostonearth35
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08 Feb 2026, 3:52 pm
Well the right-wingnuts appear to think we're all demons, a burden, a human tragedy with a horrible disease that must be cured, because we do unspeakably evil things like not make eye contact and line up small objects on our desks. So I don't see why many of us wouldn't be the opposite of right-wing. Except I'm not sure if this is a thing in Canada. We have liberals and conservatives, which I guess is similar. It's kind of sad I know a lot less about the political nonsense in my own country than I do the US. Social studies was one of my worst school subjects. It was just so boring and my dyscalculia made it difficult to remember dates and stuff.
10 Feb 2026, 12:08 am
EmpireHonda wrote:
Any kind of advocacy for anyone who isn't an in-group is pretty much inherently left-wing, since conservatism is all about preserving traditional hierarchies and making sure the in-groups are taken care of while the out-groups are further and further disenfranchised.
On the whole I agree with this, but there are variations.
There do exist right-wing variants of advocacy for marginalized groups. Usually this takes the form of trying to make one's own marginalized group look respectable to the powers-that-be, often at the expense of other marginalized groups, whereas the left-wing approach typically emphasizes solidarity with other marginalized groups, especially closely-related ones.
Within the autistic rights movement, the mainstream view (e.g. as represented by the Autistic Self Advocacy Network) is left-leaning. ASAN sees itself as part of the larger disability rights movement.
On the other hand, there also exist some autistic advocates who say that autism is not even a disability, in the first place. These folks place a lot of emphasis on celebrating the talents of various people who are/were or might have been autistic. Some of them place so much emphasis on this that they sometimes get called "Aspie supremacists" by their critics, who see them as throwing the more severely disabled autistic people under the bus.
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- Autistic peer-led groups (via text-based chat, currently) led or facilitated by members of the Autistic Peer Leadership Group.
11 Feb 2026, 11:36 am
There are plenty of "right wing" advocacy groups, Government is not an inherently right or left wing concept. So, there are right-leaning autism advocacy groups, and left-leaning autism advocacy groups.
Personally, I always found it was easier to make friends with the "liberal" types even if many of them completely exhaust me with how wrapped up in to moralism they are. Anyway I've never seen any reason to be for right-wing governance, especially the modern RW movement that has a pattern of treating minorities with disrespect. I do think that autists and LGBTQ share a similar cause because of the overlap though I really hate "intersectionality theory" I think that being against homosexuality / transsexuality for "being immoral" makes no sense at all to me, people who decide such things so arbitarily are probably not going to be good governors over autists... i think we should be allowed to do what we want as long as it doesn't directly harm other people. As a kid I always loathed rules that didn't make sense to me and usually broke them anyway. So I'm never going to support a regime of ridiculous rules against people based on unprovable inherent morality.
Many people say "but the left!" and "cancel culture!" but this refers to a group of people online and not an actual governing party, I feel like whenever people say they are mad at how "radical" Democrats are what they are actually mad at are tumblr posts and twitter posts. Or just completely blinded by bias.
TLDR Autism advocacy is an issue of freedom so regardless of left or right it should be a cause of the side that promotes more freedom and respect for others.
