"Everyone is a bit Autistic"

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Why has it become cool to say this? I generally don't agree with it or like it. It can be said by people who haven't a clue. I can kinda see where they might be coming from, but I don't think it's true.

My mother, sister and father definitely do not have Autistic traits and I'd say the same with my friends. So, let's leave the hyperbole at the door, shall we?

I think that the only people who can possibly be autistic, are the people on the spectrum, themselves.

Why do you capitalize autistic?

lol I never saw the profoundness of that saying. You can say the same thing about everything else. Oh we're all a little psycho, a little NT, a little bipolar, whatever.

We're obviously a little bit of something extreme.

One thing where that can't be applied to though is that there isn't a little pedophilia within all of us LMAO

I think they may say so in order to make us feel better, or less different. But it doesn't really make sense.

Or they may mean that all people have the trait to an extend, but when it is found in NTs it's not really an autistic trait. Or that we have it in a more or less extreme way, makes us autistic.

I mean, eg. when I talk about my executive dysfunction, saying that I have issues with planning and getting things done, people often say "oh, it's difficult for everyone". But it's not the same thing.

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Wir alle sind verflucht
[...]

We all are NOT autistic. People are people, but some of them have a glass isolation (I call it Aquarium) so they see the world in the other way. But they feel the same feelings.

I'm guessing there's two meanings to this phrase

1 - "Everyone is a little autistic" - This is semantics! It could also mean : Everyone can really focus, everyone can have social difficulty, everyone can have x trait. Which is true, people who are not autistic can have extreme focus or social difficulties, but not the point of clinical impairment. Of course, this doesn't mean they are autistic, instead the word "autistic" is a modifier, not a noun representing a group of people. You may argue that using the term autistic trivializes the difficulties of people that are autistic and I would agree with you, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

2- "Everyone is a little autistic". Similar to "everyone is from africa" - society derives its unity from diversity, and we all people on earth have the essence of humanity. Humans often bond because of similarities, but their bonds are strengthened by their differences - so "everyone is a little autistic" is like saying "everyone is a little unique" or "everyone is a little different"

I assume it's just hyperbole and what they mean, and assume you understand, is that everyone has the odd few autistic like traits themselves. One NT might have a passionate interest that just slightly verges on an obsession. Another might annoy people by taking things too literally now and again. Another might not like bright light.

The Spectrum is made up of traits that are found in the general population; only in autistic people, they are so strong that they cause impairment--thus, the need for diagnosis. The genetics for autism are also most likely floating around in the general population, waiting to combine in the right ways before an autistic person can be born.

So, in a way, everyone *is* a little autistic--having some of the same traits, in varying degrees, and some of the same genes. Autism isn't some foreign invader or inscrutable puzzle; it's simply one of many possible extremes on the human bell curve.

This does not, however, mean that autism is not "a real disorder". Autism, like many disorders (both mental and physical), is not a singular entity; it fades into the normal, with no obvious boundary. We've simply determined that at the point where people start to need help thanks to their autistic traits, we will call it "autism" and take steps to help compensate for the gap between the autistic person's skills and society's expectations.

Everyone lacks TOM, everyone lacks empathy, people are inflexible. Look at all of us being unemployed. Why? Because they are so inflexible to hire us. They are so rigid and miss the overall picture because they focus on the little details about us and see them as flaws. Who's autistic now?

Sometimes I feel I have better empathy than others and I have better TOM than others but yet I score low on the EQ test because I don't do it the NT way. I feel I care more about others than lot of people and I am the one with the AS label? Same goes for people not listening and missing the overall picture and being inflexible and I am the flexible one and seeing the overall picture and all the others are now aspies and I am the NT now. It feels like I have switched places.

"Everyone is a little bit autistic"?
Nope, I don't agree. Not one bit.
That's like saying everyone is a little bit nearsighted. Yet there are plenty of people in the world who don't need glasses of any kind. No nearsightedness at all. Just as there are people who have no autistic traits whatsoever.

I'd rather own up to my limitations, be aware of them, learn to function in my way, and cope with the world as an autistic person and not apologize for being the way I am, because I didn't make myself this way, and I cannot will it to go away no matter what sort of word-garbage people spill out of their mouths.

This isn't aimed at anyone speaking here, I'm just railing against the people in my own life who have been so patronizing and belittling of my challenges and have said "Everyone is a little bit autistic." It's nonsense.

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"Not everything that steps out of line, and thus 'abnormal', must necessarily be 'inferior'. " -- Hans Asperger (1938)