I wanted to make explicit why I am so deeply opposed to even someone as incompetent and unscientific as RFK Jr' investigating autism for its "cause".
It is because in my reading of history, no one has ever looked for a "cause" of some human condition without at least considering the possibility of finding an off switch.
Now when we're talking cancer, that's good and appropriate. It kills people. Greed, too, should be carefully fought. It kills way more people.
But autism doesn't generally kill. Not directtly, certainly. It's just a different way of thinking and perceiving and being present in the world. It's not a disease, and autistic people don't need to be "cured".
And more importantly, humanity needs not to look for, let alone find or develop, that off switch.
It's flat out eugenics. The elimination of undesirables. Doing it before we're born doesn't make it okay. Doesn't make it morally right. We contribute to the world in many ways. To society. Even if we don't always understand it.
But we uphold the social contract. Well, unless someone figures out that it's all based on BS, then it gets trickier, but as a rule, we do uphold the social contract.
So yes. If someone says they're looking for the "cause" of something that doesn't actually harm anyone, like transgender identity, or nonbinaryness, or asexuality, or autism, or anything else that's frankly harming almost no one, start asking them *why* they want to find that cause. What do they want to do once they find it?
Cause you turn over enough rocks, sometimes you get the bugs with the swastikas on them.