Social Autism
By Kim Rossi
George Will recently said on Morning Joe that President Trump seems to suffer from a form of "social autism," referring to the President's paper towel hurling response to hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico.
From The Wrap:
On the second hour of “Morning Joe” Wednesday, George Will — the dean of conservative media — had some choice words for the president’s visit to Puerto Rico on Tuesday.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist said that many of Trump’s interactions with people on the island following the devastation of Hurricane Maria suggested the president was suffering from “a kind of social autism.”
He specifically zeroed in on viral footage of Trump throwing paper towels to hurricane victims in a kind of “Las Vegas lounge act” routine,as he put it.
The response to Will was swift. I'm not sure if folks are offended because they think President Trump having autism is an insult to our kids (possible, and I'm sure plenty do) or if they feel Will was being disrespectful of the diagnosis using it as a put-down, or if they are just plain sick of the diagnosis being handed out like Halloween candy. I'm reminded of when Jerry Seinfeld stepped in it claiming he had a form of autism because of some social anxiety and quirkiness. He retracted that statement very quickly after many of us expressed our utter dismay.
For the record, I don't think President Trump has any form of autism - a real, definable diagnosis that goes far beyond personality, and even beyond personality disorders like narcissism or arseholeism.
But autism is certainly in the news and in the media in general. Take the new TV show, The Good Doctor on abc. This new show features an incredibly unrealistic surgeon cute, young and autistic (cue the drama music.) He sounds like Rainman, looks like Doogie Howser and has the bedside manner of Spock.
I've watched George Will on TV for decades. I did not know that he has a son with Down Syndrome. Did you? He wrote a poignant column about his boy's 40th birthday a few years ago. I'm hoping he meant no ill will, pardon the pun.
From WaPo in 2012:
When Jonathan Frederick Will was born 40 years ago — on May 4, 1972, his father’s 31st birthday — the life expectancy for people with Down syndrome was about 20 years. That is understandable.
The day after Jon was born, a doctor told Jon’s parents that the first question for them was whether they intended to take Jon home from the hospital. Nonplussed, they said they thought that is what parents do with newborns. Not doing so was, however, still considered an acceptable choice for parents who might prefer to institutionalize or put up for adoption children thought to have necessarily bleak futures. Whether warehoused or just allowed to languish from lack of stimulation and attention, people with Down syndrome, not given early and continuing interventions, were generally thought to be incapable of living well, and hence usually did not live as long as they could have....
Part of better awareness for autism means that some will misunderstand what the diagnosis really is for so many families, and the word will become - has become - a symbol for a negative personality type.
Both Hump and Killary are psychopaths. Clear psychopaths. Don't compare them to autists.
Posted by: Dude | October 15, 2017 at 09:40 AM
Thank you for inventing a new word, arseholism!! Made my day! :-)
Posted by: Carolyn mcd | October 10, 2017 at 02:25 AM
John,
I drop my son off every morning at an 'autism school' and have been doing this for the past decade or so. Like you, I am not seeing the spinning, the hand-flapping, or the toe-walking in any of the kids who are younger than about 12-14. This is a significant observation, in my opinion, because so-called experts tend to claim that younger kids show fewer autism symptoms due to all the increased early intervention. (Ha!) But you can't really 'intervention' away flapping or toe-walking, so what gives? (rhetorical question...we know what gives.)
Posted by: Donna L. | October 09, 2017 at 08:49 PM
Barry
My thought on this - as the vaccine program expands it continues to cause encephalopathies and random neurological damage on ever larger scale. What I am not seeing which seems to go back about a decade in the UK, following the removal of thimerosal (c. October 2004) is the toddlers who used to spin and flap, and walk on their toes, and it was like you used to see them every time you went to the shops, and now I haven't seen this for a very long time, and I am guessing this was the specific indicator. I don't know whether I am out on limb in making this observation. I would be quite interested to know what others think.
Posted by: John Stone | October 09, 2017 at 05:24 PM
Autism is a manifestation of mercury poisoning.
********
Autism is just a name that invented, to describe the manifestations of vaccine injury.
And mercury is just one of the ways that vaccines injure.
Posted by: Barry | October 09, 2017 at 03:05 PM
Possibly if you hate Donald Trump connect it with autism and hate them all too!
Trump = Autism =Hate
Pharma For Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | October 09, 2017 at 01:30 PM
This had echoes of the Gordon Brown affair in 2006 when the Chancellor of Exchquer and future British Prime Minister was criticised for having "social autism" by author novelist Robert Harris - I think it was exactly the same phrase. When the shadow Chancellor of the time, George Osborne, was interviewed about this in the Telegraph he made some very mild remark, and was promptly censured by another author novelist and autism parent Nick Hornby, but the real joke was that Hornby was brother-in-law of Robert Harris who had started it all, and he had never said a work about that! Hornby and Harris were also close pals with New Labour magnate, Lord Mandelson (aka The Prince of Darkness), who was a big personal enemy of both Brown and Osborne.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1530416/Osborne-criticised-for-autistic-Chancellor-jibe.html
It is fascinating that the British media in its torpor and malice never picked up on Hornby's double standards, but we seem to be playing from the same script.
Posted by: John Stone | October 09, 2017 at 12:33 PM
I see George Will's "social autism" and raise him "historically unaware":
HBO is heralding Jon Stewart's "return to television" with a fund raiser for autism. I know nothing about Robert Smiegel's NEXT foundation, the organization that the "Night of Too Many Stars" is raising funds for, however I'm pretty sure that it (like too many organizations claiming to support families living with autism) is not concerned with the extradition of Poul Thorsen or the deposition of William Thompson. Perhaps if someone like Jon Stewart would promote the repeal of the NVICA and give American parents back the courts, there wouldn't have to be "so much begging" for money as the Pharmaceutical industry would be forced to pay for the damage it has caused.
Can y'all say drinking game! Three shots for every time we hear "no known cause, no known cure" throughout the special. Better hurry, I'm already six shots ahead. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGDoPmYji70
Posted by: annie | October 09, 2017 at 12:19 PM
Here's the real video of President Trump interacting with some people from Puerto Rico at a Calvary Chapel Church there. I see no evidence of "social autism" or even "social awkwardness." President Trump was very well received at Calvary Chapel in Puerto Rico, and many attendees were taking selfies with our President. I would even go so far as to state that our President was more patient and kind with the people of Puerto Rico than many of our narcissistic movie and TV star celebrites would have been-- you know-- the ones who refuse to be photographed with their fans, and who are even unkind to them, physically pushing them away and cussing at them. That the US media took this positive event, and turned it into something so bleak is unfathomable, unacceptable, and totally inaccurate. Such antagonism from the media directed at our President demonstrates the complete disrespect the media has for our new President as well as their desire and intent to discredit any positive thing that he does or may do in the future. The media will not permit even a nanosecond of kindness or respect toward our new President, even if it is merited.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?435085-1/president-first-lady-visit-calvary-chapel-puerto-rico
Posted by: Someone | October 09, 2017 at 10:12 AM
Autism is a manifestation of mercury poisoning. Mercury poisoning is a 'spectrum,' too. Everybody has some mercury in their body. How it affects them depends on how much they got, how sensitive they are and where it wound up. One person may get autism, while the next person has social anxiety and is weird. One person may have anxiety and depression, while the next person winds up with Multiple Sclerosis. Some people have no symptoms at all.
Perhaps Jerry Seinfeld is a little bit toxic with mercury. Perhaps he has a few of those 'erethism mercurialis' symptoms and feels kinship with people who are toxic enough to be frankly autistic.
Posted by: Rebecca Lee | October 09, 2017 at 09:26 AM