Thanks for that! (You’re right, if have never made it through YouTube and those transcripts are miserable to read.) So much of our experiences are similar (missing school, sensory overwhelm, changing careers, discovering my own autism through my kiddo’s dx, becoming a tx for autistic folks).

This is amazing. Thank you so much.

Exhibit 2: amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/07/...

Having lived in NYC for several years vs. my current smaller city, the big bonus for me was the lack of eye contact. In NY, no one walking down the street dared make eye contact with each other. Here, if you don’t look at and nod to everyone in your path, people think you’re a jerk.

I feel that so profoundly. I love your comparison to kintsugi.

I am absolutely autistic. It permeates everything I do. I don’t think of it as a “disorder,” though. It’s just my neurotype. It’s like being white or female. Saying someone “has autism” makes it sound like an illness or disease. I hope you’ll let your kiddo choose how they want to define themself.

Yes!!! That’s exactly my problem with them. Especially cherry tomatoes when they squish open in my mouth.

I just sat here for at least a minute trying to remember what it was every though I literally diagnosis it on a regular basis. (It’s “inattentive”)

I think he also might be a willing patsy for the push to abdicate the government’s responsibility to provide benefits for autistic and, eventually, all disabled people. This is just the tip of the iceberg and there’s already this BS narrative to get the ball rolling.