1 Anarcho-Autism
1Anarcho-AutismAnarchism&Autism AcceptanceBy Detroit LeprechaunSecond Edition
2Dedication:This one is for every autistic who’s ever hated themselves. We gon’ be alright.Acknowledgments:I would like to thank my friend ewokABdevito, my friend Wu Kang, my friendMalcolmFleX, my friend Reilly, my brother from another mother D’shon, my friend John, myfriend Mike, my professor KDK, all my friends who have helped me survive, and all thecomrades who have taught me through the years.
3Table of Contents o My Qualifications & An Introduction of Sorts: 4Framework: 5o Anarchism Is: 6o Nick Walker’s “What Is Autism?”: 7o Autism Is: 9o Cure Culture: 13o Neurodiversity Is: 14The Struggles of Anarchism: 15o Authority: 16o Capitalism: 18o The State: 21o Anarcha-Feminism: 29o Anti-Racism: 34o The Abolition of Whiteness: An Irish-American Anarchist Perspective: 43o The Natural Extrapolation: Communism: 46The Struggles of Autistics: 49o Ableism: 50o Parental Abuse: 55o Autism MomsTM: 59o Gatekeepers: 61o Infantilization and Inspiration Porn: 63o Sensory Problems: 64o Social Interaction and Communication: 66o Eye Contact: 69o Physical Contact: 71o The Autistic Experience: 73Integration: 75o Incorporation of Neurodiversity: 76o The Social Revolution: 77o Self-Liberation: 79o The Authority of Allistics & Neurominority Status: 81o Nietzsche’s Übermensch: 84o Disability, Freedom, and Rebellion: 87Application: 89o The Ableism of Capitalism: 90o Employment: 92o Autism and Gender: 94o Racism and Autism: 98o Ableism within the Left: 103o An Autistic Anarchist: 106o Pride in Identity: 108o Mutual Aid among Autistics: 110The End: 112au·tism: a word: 117Glossary of Terms: 119Works Cited: 123
4My QualificationsI am a political science and urban studies major, not a psychologist, psychiatrist, orneuroscientist. As such, this book will be written from a primarily political perspective.However, as an autistic and an anarchist, I believe that I am still an authority on this. Classicalanarchist political theory is something of a Special Interest of mine and neurodiversity matters tome, so I felt compelled to write this.In no way, shape, or form do I represent all anarchists, all autistics, or all autisticanarchists. I am an agender, nebularomantic, neuro-demisexual, neptunic, Irish-American,working class, autistic, disabled, mentally ill, deist from a mixed Jewish and Catholicupbringing, anarcho-communist. That should about surmise my social identity.An Introduction of SortsIn this work, I will attempt to incorporate neurodiversity into anarchist thought. I hope toshow what it means to be autistic, what the anarchist cause is, what anarchism offers forautistics, an application of anarchist thought to neurodiversity, why anarchism requiresneurodiversity, and describe the experience of being an autistic anarchist. To be autistic is morethan merely a neurological condition; it is a political identity.I will be using they/them pronouns as a gender neutral singular pronoun. I will beincluding trigger/content warnings (tw’s/cw’s) at the beginnings of chapters. I will be includingimage descriptions. While I will use autistic and anarchist terminology as is relevant, I aim towrite this so that it is accessible to the non-academics of the world. The left needs to reachpeople, and autistics need to reach the left. I hope to create a comprehensive framework forautistic anarchism in the social anarchist tradition.This is deeply personal to me. We’re talking about the life experiences of autistics, so thiswork will not pretend that I am not a human being writing it. I will talk about my personalknowledge and story, as well as those of people I know. Let’s get free.Second Edition: I have updated this work to be more accurate and to include articles Ihave written that articulate points I was not yet able to make when the first edition was written.Many of the changes will involve better integrating philosophy with politics, particularly theworks of Max Stirner.
5FrameworkIn this section I will establish the very basics of what we’re working with. I will explainthe basic fundamental idea of anarchism, I will explain what autism is, and I will explain themain ideological struggle for autism, that of cure culture against neurodiversity.[image description: the rainbowinfinity symbol for neurodiversityis layered over a black rectangle,the black flag being a symbol ofanarchism]
6Anarchism IsAnarchism is the political theory which holds that authority is not inherently justified andthat if authority is neither just nor necessary, then it should be dismantled. Anarchism opposesauthority and hierarchy and seeks to replace these with liberty, equality, and solidarity.Historically functioning as a movement rather than a set of rigid policies, Anarcha-FeministEmma Goldman (1869-1940) described anarchism, “Anarchism is the great liberator of manfrom the phantoms that have held him captive.” Anarchists seek to liberate people from all formsof unjust oppression, authority, and hierarchy. While anarchists throughout history haveadvocated various different economic systems, Anarcho-Syndicalist Rudolf Rocker (1873-1958)noted, “common to all Anarchists is the desire to free society of all political and social coerciveinstitutions which stand in the way of the development of a free humanity.”While we find that anarchist ideals are a natural part of the human spirit and can be foundthroughout history, the social anarchist tradition developed alongside the socialist tradition in the19th century. The first person to call themselves an anarchist was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (18091865), who theorized a socialist economic system called mutualism in which every adult wouldown their own private property in a market economy. Building off of his work, Mikhail Bakunin(1814-1876) developed a system called collectivism in which workers would collectively ownprivate property and money would be replaced with labor notes. When a worker spends a labornote, the labor note does not then transfer to whichever collective shop it was spent at. The labornote is done. Anarcho-collectivism envisions a non-market economy. Bakunin also helped freeanarchism from Proudhon’s rampant misogyny. Building on the work of Bakunin (and leavingBakunin’s anti-semitism behind), Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) established that communism isthe natural extrapolation of anarchism and conceived of an anarcho-communist society.While these three theorists have contributed much, anarchist thought has no decisivetheorist, no authoritative idol. Anarchism has always been democratic, of the people, in its form,and millions upon millions of people, from Proudhon to the peasants of Anarchist Spain to theZapatistas to this anarchist writing in their bedroom have contributed to its ideas and practices.Anarcho-Communism, also known as anarchist-communism, seeks to create a stateless,classless society in which human organization is based upon free association, direct democracy,and mutual aid. Peter Kropotkin, the father of anarcho-communism, envisioned such an equalsociety that resources would be distributed “to every [person] according to [their] needs.” Foranarchist communists, one’s ability and willingness to produce resources is not a considerationfor resource distribution.Most of the classical anarchist theory used in this book comes from white people,particularly European men. This is partially a result of my only being fluent in English. Moderntakes and analysis used in this book does not share this flaw with the classic theory used.
7Nick Walker’s “What Is Autism?”For a concise and scientific description of autism before I go into my own more detailedexplanation, I offer autistic activist and blogger Nick Walker’s short piece on it:Autism is a genetically-based human neurological variant. The complex set ofinterrelated characteristics that distinguish autistic neurology from non-autistic neurology is notyet fully understood, but current evidence indicates that the central distinction is that autisticbrains are characterized by particularly high levels of synaptic connectivity and responsiveness.This tends to make the autistic individual’s subjective experience more intense and chaotic thanthat of non-autistic individuals: on both the sensorimotor and cognitive levels, the autistic mindtends to register more information, and the impact of each bit of information tends to be bothstronger and less predictable.Autism is a developmental phenomenon, meaning that it begins in utero and has apervasive influence on development, on multiple levels, throughout the lifespan. Autismproduces distinctive, atypical ways of thinking, moving, interaction, and sensory and cognitiveprocessing. One analogy that has often been made is that autistic individuals have a differentneurological “operating system” than non-autistic individuals.According to current estimates, somewhere between one percent and two percent of theworld’s population is autistic. While the number of individuals diagnosed as autistic hasincreased continually over the past few decades, evidence suggests that this increase in diagnosisis the result of increased public and professional awareness, rather than an actual increase in theprevalence of autism.Despite underlying neurological commonalities, autistic individuals are vastly differentfrom one another. Some autistic individuals exhibit exceptional cognitive talents. However, inthe context of a society designed around the sensory, cognitive, developmental, and social needsof non-autistic individuals, autistic individuals are almost always disabled to some degree –sometimes quite obviously, and sometimes more subtly.The realm of social interaction is one context in which autistic individuals tend toconsistently be disabled. An autistic child’s sensory experience of the world is more intense andchaotic than that of a non-autistic child, and the ongoing task of navigating and integrating thatexperience thus occupies more of the autistic child’s attention and energy. This means theautistic child has less attention and energy available to focus on the subtleties of socialinteraction. Difficulty meeting the social expectations of non-autistics often results in socialrejection, which further compounds social difficulties and impedes social development. For thisreason, autism has been frequently misconstrued as being essentially a set of “social andcommunication deficits,” by those who are unaware that the social challenges faced by autisticindividuals are just by-products of the intense and chaotic nature of autistic sensory andcognitive experience.Autism is still widely regarded as a “disorder,” but this view has been challenged inrecent years by proponents of the neurodiversity model, which holds that autism and other
8neurocognitive variants are simply part of the natural spectrum of human biodiversity, likevariations in ethnicity or sexual orientation (which have also been pathologized in the past).Ultimately, to describe autism as a disorder represents a value judgment rather than a scientificfact.
9Autism Iscw: ableism, functioning labels, person-first language, cure cultureHere I will explain some of the most common and distinct aspects of autism. This chapteris primarily concerned with the biological experience of autism, with the “Struggles of Autistics”chapter handling the social experience.Contrary to popular belief, autism is not a disease, and not something to be cured. Autismis a neurotype, a brain type, of which there are several, including: dyslexia, dyspraxia,dyscalculia, and ADHD. Those without a neurological condition, without an atypical neurotype,are called neurologically typical, neurotypical, or NT for short. Autism is an “atypical neurology(brain wiring), leading to atypical processing, cognitive functioning, communication, socialinteraction, and sensory sensitivity.” Around 1 in 68 people are autistic. Before going over themedical definitions and classifications of autism, I would like to note that nearly all theprofessional research about autism is done by non-autistic (the term for this is allistic) people,and thus shows a bias in favor of allism over autism.[image description: awhite outline of alightbulb with anorange backgroumd. Tothe left of the lightbulbis white text that reads,“Proud member of theautism epidemic,” asarcastic expression]Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a development disorder characterized by “deficits insocial communication and social interaction” and “restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior,interests or activities.” This does not tell you much, but it should provide a base understanding ofautism. The National Autistic Society of the UK offers a somewhat negative, but mostly accuratedescription, “Autism is a lifelong, developmental disability that affects how a personcommunicates with and relates to other people, and how they experience the world aroundthem.” With autism, atypical development leads to atypical functioning.You may be familiar with what has been called aspergers syndrome, which is commonlythought of as smart people with bad social skills. This is an outdated diagnosis and is no longerofficially used in the United States. All people who would’ve been diagnosed with aspergers arediagnosed as having an Autism Spectrum Disorder. You may think that these people are on oneextreme end of the spectrum (what may be called “high-functioning”) and that what you maythink of as ‘classically autistic’ people (what may be called “low-functioning”) are on the otherend. This is incorrect. Autism is a multi-dimensional spectrum and affects all autistic peopledifferently. “Functioning labels” are also highly ableist, and are considered demeaning,derogatory, and dehumanizing by the autistic community.
10Most autistic people prefer what’s called identity-first language. I am autistic, an autistic,an autistic person, not a person with autism. To call an autistic a person “with autism,” personfirst language, implies that you can separate the autism from the person, which is false. Being anautistic is an integral piece of who I am. I think autistically, act autisically, feel autistically, senseautistically, and experience the world autistically. Many autistics find person-first languagegross. While many allistics may intend to use person-first language to remind themselves thatautistics are people, the notion that you need to clarify that an autistic is a person is franklyinsulting. Unless an autistic person explicitly prefers that you refer to them with person-firstlanguage (which you should always respect), always default to identity-first language. Otherterms autistics may use to refer to themselves include autist, autie, and aspie, although theseterms are rarely used by allistics. Aspie, deriving from aspergers, should not be used by allistics.Autistic people process things differently, atypically, from allistics. We often have verydifferent abilities from allistics, and commonly have comorbid conditions. Many autistics havemotor dyspraxia, which can result in “clumsiness, or issues with fine motor control.” Some havecentral auditory processing disorder, atypical processing of verbal communication. Some haveverbal dyspraxia and are thus non-verbal. All of us have sensory issues.All autistics have sensory integration issues, often manifesting in what is called SensoryProcessing Disorder (SPD). This means that autistics will often not process external stimuli onsenses the same way an allistic would. An autistic may be over, under, or both over and undersensitive to something like bright light, loud noise, color, textures, or temperature. Autistics alsohave an increased sense of touch, able to both appreciate textures to a greater degree and to beincapable of handling others. This applies to food, as well. The majority of autistics, myselfincluded, cannot eat many foods on the basis of texture. Due to these sensory issues, manyautistics will develop Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), a reluctance to trynew foods.When an autistic is exposed to external sensory stimuli beyond what they can handle,compounded with senses like emotions, they are faced with sensory overload. Sensory overloadis difficult to explain, but from personal experience I can testify to how incredibly overwhelmingof the body it is. Often compounded by social anxiety, when autistics are pushed beyond theirlimits, they may experience autistic burnout, at which point they need to rest and not doanything, or have an autistic meltdown, a physiological fight or flight response in the body.In order to combat sensory overload and anxiety, autistics engage in self-stimulation, orstimming, “habitual, repetitive movements that provide comfort, and/or stimulation.” Stimmingis one of the most characteristically autistic behaviors. When stimming, an autistic will stimulateone of their senses on their own in order to combat external sensory stimuli. This may meanbouncing their leg, touching soft things, rubbing their arms, rocking or spinning, listening tocomforting sounds, watching comforting visuals, flapping their hands, and other such selfinduced stimulation. Important to understanding stimming is the prominence of two more sensesin addition to the standard five: touch, smell, taste, sight, and hearing. These are the vestibularsense, the perception of our body in relation to gravity, and proprioception, our sense of wherewe and our body parts are relative to other things. Stimming is highly discouraged by many
11allistic parents and by public allistic culture. Many autistics will prevent themselves fromstimming so as to avoid being perceived as “weird” in our ableist society where “disability isconsidered kind of shameful and bad.”[image description: a scalelabeled “Autism Level Today”that progresses as follows:Cool autistic, Cooler autistic,Super autistic, Stimlord,Stimgod, Stimtastic]Autistic people struggle with social interactions as a result of atypical development.Janine Booth explains, “typically-developing people learn social conventions through socialinteraction, from childhood, from the people around them. Autistic people may not do so, andmay only learn social ‘rules’ by being taught, by themselves or others.” Autistics may also havedifficulty reading facial expressions. Autistics may not know how to read social cues, such as“when to speak, when to stop speaking, when a conversation is over, how close to stand tosomeone.” Booth points out that these are all social rules, and therefore what autistics reallystruggle with is knowing what society expects of us. Autistics may also not grasp unwrittensocial rules and not know what those rules are.Autistics tend to have a liking for “structure and dependability.” We want things such asrules to be explicit and clear. Many of us rely heavily on routine and “like to do certain things incertain ways and do not like this to be obstructed.” Additionally, we have a preference for apredictable schedule. We “like to know what [we] will be doing, when, and for that to happen asplanned.”Autistics tend to think literally. We tend to prefer that things are expressed explicitlyrather than implicitly. Booth offers a list of things that neurotypicals tend to say or do that canthrow off our literal mindset: Say things that they don’t meanTell you to do things they don’t want you to doAsk questions but don’t want an answerAsk questions but don’t want an honest answer (e.g. how are you?)Answer a question with an answer to a different questionUse figures of speech (e.g. ants in your pants)Don’t say things they do mean (e.g. they don’t express their disinterest)Say things in an illogical orderLaugh when there is no obvious jokeThink you have said things that you haven’tSay the opposite of what they mean (sarcasm)To top all this confusion off, neurotypicals expect autistics to know that they are doingthese things.
12Autistics f
Anarchism Is Anarchism is the political theory which holds that authority is not inherently justified and that if authority is neither just nor necessary, then it should be dismantled. Anarchism opposes authority and hierarchy and seeks
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Fall/Winter 2011 AUTISM ADVOCATE 7 A s the nation’s oldest grassroots autism organization, the Autism Society has been working to improve the lives of all affected by autism for 46 years. When the organization was founded in 1965, the autism community was very different than it is today: the term “autism” was not widely known, and doctors often blamed the condition on “refrigerator .
Autism spectrum disorder encompasses disorders previously referred to as early infantile autism, childhood autism, Kanner’s autism, high-functioning autism, atypical autism, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, childhood disintegrative disorder, and Asperger’s disorder
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Autism Eye media l Autism Eye Magazine (quarterly) l Autism Eye Newsletter (monthly, 10 times a year) lAutism Eye website managed to recruit a member of staff in this way." Content lIn-depth information "Being autism-specific, for parents and professionals who care for or work with children with autism. Topics covered include education .
AN AMERICAN EXPERIMENT IN ANARCHO-CAPITALISM 13 anarcho-capitalism might function. We qualify the test with "limited" be- cause a necessary feature of such a system is the absence of a monopoly on coercion.'o Various coercive agencies would exist hut none would have a legitimized monopoly on the use of such coercion.
Autism Speaks www.autismspeaks.org. Leading autism science and advocacy organization, dedicated to funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism, increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders, and ad-vocating for the needs of individuals with autism and their families.
Note - In this document 'autism' refers to 'autism spectrum disorders' encompassing autism, Asperger's syndrome and atypical autism (or pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified) in addition different individuals and groups prefer a variety of terms for autism including auti
