me wrote:

some other guy wrote:

I think there's a kernel of truth in Savage's outrageous statement; that is, that many kids diagnosed with autism and asperger's today would in the past just have been told to straighten up and fly right, been forced to be more sociable, and told to stop throwing those ridiculous tantrums.

I can agree with some of that, but I don't even think that covers everything. I'd say just about every person "diagnosed" with Asperger's is pretty much a normal nerd or geek. They don't get along in school and they like reading? They decided to call this a syndrome when to me it just seems like a different personality type, and I don't think it was necessary to start claiming it's some form of autism if it's really just a form of a different human personality. I'm waiting for a diagnosis for workaholics, letter writers, pack rats, motivated people, nail biters, or children who enjoy sugar. Maybe if I come up with a syndrome for them I can name it after myself.

It seems most of the diagnoses come from people who just want to go around telling people they're autistic so they can get special treatment. I've seen it before, and it works. Parents know that if they get their children put down as "autistic" in any way they can use it as some kind of status symbol, and that's why they're so eager to blame vaccinations for this "epidemic," because they don't want to admit that they're just using autism as an excuse to act like their children are better or more special than others. If you can diagnose nerds as autistics, maybe we should diagnose their parents with the same.