Autism and anarchy: The importance of autistic anarchism

2 house cats on a couch. one is dark grey or black. the other is light grey with a white underside and white paws

From Freedom News

This is the fourth and final instalment of Loukas’ Autism and Anarchy series; read the first here, the second here, and the third here.

In the previous four articles, I’ve shown how self-diagnosis is important for autistic liberation, how that personal liberation is always part of a bigger autistic community, and how the autistic community, like other disabled communities, is best seen as a class struggle against a system of ableist supremacy.

Now, I’m going to say why anarchism is important for all of this. You might say – what’s the need to label things or relate them to anarchism? Can’t we just work for personal and collective liberation with everyone and not label things?

Well, I’m not a big fan of political labels, but I do think anarchism is essential for the work I’ve been talking about. Partly, this is for general reasons. All political theories and movements that claim to be about liberation eventually turn on the people they supposedly want to liberate because they want to create stable power structures, whether as their own separate states or as some kind of structure within an existing state. People’s constant personal need for liberation is messy and causes power structures to dissolve. That’s why liberal, socialist, and other movements have often seen major conflicts between leadership and grassroots. Thank you for getting us here, the leaders say to the movement members, but now we want to build something solid, and we can’t have you ruin it.

Anarchism, for me, is just the name for a kind of politics that never stops being messy and never stops listening to personal and collective desires, no matter how unreasonable they seem. The reason I respect anarchism more than other ideologies is because it doesn’t pretend to be a scientific insight that others should follow. Rather, it is about bringing the existing urges and dynamics that lead to liberation and making them the core of the politics instead of just using them until it’s time to pave over them when building that new concrete structure.

What does all this have to do with autism? Well, I think autistic (and ADHD) people generally live with less of a filter on life. We tend to work things out based on key principles of right and wrong rather than what is best for our careers or for our group to win power. That means we often tend towards being the local anarchists, whether we call ourselves that or not. Anarchism can exist as a separate movement but it also bubbles up constantly when people involved ask, why should we stop pushing? Why shouldn’t we demand it all? These kinds of conversations happen all the time when social movements are in conflict with supremacy. Many movements have been domesticated by being offered the chance to become the managers of a piece of the supremacy. Because discrimination and exploitation keep on happening anyway, this then leads to natural ruptures between the everyday experiences of the class and the way the organisations’ leadership respond.

Anarchism is the idea that there should never be any concrete paved over the movement; it should always be in touch with its most exploited, angry and sad experiences of class conflict.

At the same time, there are a lot of autistic fascists or followers of other kinds of authoritarian ideologies. This might seem to contradict what I said about a natural link with anarchism, but I think it’s just the reverse of the same coin. The autistic experience of no filter and no intuitive understanding of the group means many of us are attracted to systems that seem to explain everything. Just follow the books, follow the rituals, and you’ll be ‘right’. Maybe some element of this kind of structure is inevitable for us autistics. We all need to have simple rules of thumb to guide us when we can’t feel the vibes.

But I think autistic politics that is based on authoritarian ideas is always far more than a rule you might use as support – instead, it’s like choosing to wear a whole-body plaster cast that makes you pose as a ‘normal’ person. It may have its origins in someone trying to solve their confusion at how the world works or in being told these things are true as a young person, but it’s not a path towards personal or collective liberation. How do you know what you want when you’ve already decided that some leader, maybe dead, already knows better than you what you need?

So, I think autistic people who choose to submit in this way to find peace are suppressing part of themselves. This then seamlessly leads into movements that suppress other people- to being constantly on the attack to avoid having to face yourself and your own doubts. Based on my earlier articles, you can see how this kind of inauthentic behaviour is the opposite of real liberation and finding real autonomy.

This brings us back to anarchism. If you pursue real, messy, thoughtful, and caring liberation, you’ll probably find yourself acting like an anarchist, whether you call it that or not. The good news is there are millions of us who’ve found ourselves in the same kind of position, and we’ve written and talked about it so you can find your own unique way of understanding and dealing with it. Some of us may be dead by the time you read this. But you’re not alone.

~ Loukas Christodoulou


Image: Mary Austin

There are 37 Comments

Seriously though, the uptick in self diagnosed autism is so infuriating to me. As someone who taught special Ed for years and has engaged with people on the spectrum closely for a long time…I can call bullshit on all this. I do think obviously some of it makes sense, but a lot of it is people glomming onto an identity that relieves them of accountability. Also to say that autistic or as adhd people have a natural link to anarchy and fascism any more than any other person is completely fucking absurd at best and offensive at worst. Fuck, just be yourself. Be your fucking self and whatever the fuck that is, is cool. Also, you are functional enough to write this whole essay so I think you can edit it a bit to make this trash a bit more readable. Or have a non ableist friend help you edit it. Fuck this

Ugh. "Special ed" teachers always love to flip shit about self diagnosis and the "uptick" in autism diagnoses. Same line of thinking where people freak out about the oh so scary, super alarming "uptick" in trans and queer self identification of the youths. Bro. Try telling people in general society you have self diagnosed as autistic. Go ahead. I guarantee you the overwhelming response won't be positive, affirming, or "absolving", especially if you "don't look autistic" as so frequently stated by randos with a single dimensional idea of what being autisitc is like. Also your use of the word "functional" is extremely telling. How did you even stumble onto an anarchist website with this shit?

"Same line of thinking where people freak out about the oh so scary, super alarming "uptick" in trans and queer self identification of the youths. "

Indeed, these are analog tendencies... riding off social media trends as well as official institutional leverage, for a new wave of complete social integration, through some shallow adherence to identity representations. By people who didn't yet had the time and space to grow into persons, with a mind, conscience and sensibility of their own.

Identification is part of representation which is not the domain of the self(which doesn’t even really exist). It’s fucking annoying how IDtarians try to marry ID with radical difference and self subjectivity.

The issue(for me at least) is not the uptick in queer expression(which was inevitable due to medical access, non judgmental diagnosis and social acknowledgement) The issue might well be that part of the uptick is due to identitarian driven performative virtue and victim politics which attracts certain cluster B types. Also the rise of what has been called the profile self.

IDtarian autism might well be part of this medley of identity alienation creating more alienation.

I agree but in left and radical social groupings there is cache to an autism self diagnosis. If you don’t interact w general society much and only care about your little in group(likely mostly online) then you are able to be relieved of accountability for bad behavior and flakiness and a host of things that actually have nothing at all to do w autism. This self diagnosis group has also managed to mix autism w adhd even tho no psychologist is willing to. The reason they do imo is because you can’t prove they don’t have it. I’m fucking sick of it . It’s offensive to severely autistic people and their parents. Proper autism doesn’t fit in society which is why it is so heartbreaking and telling. Either way there is cache to identity grabbing in radical circles that doesn’t exist in the general public. I don’t think that’s a “good” thing. This person also just doesn’t know what the fuck they are talking about in a host of different ways. Likely they have social anxiety, which most of us have because we are monkeys living in massive groups mediated by endless technology. However, instead of working on that they self diagnose to make excuses. I was medicated for add my whole
Childhood and sent to therapists for it relentlessly but I refuse to identity w that or make it an excuse for being a shitty friend or shitty person

cachet = specialness

cache = storage

as you were

Also: there is an uptick around 400 percent and I don’t see what the need is to conflate queerness with autism. Everything isn’t the same and if it was then we are all just one(which is possible ) but that would make communication and websites and anarchy and an individual live meaningless. I admit that’s a possibility but on a macro not a micro level. You got it twisted my brah

Yeah definitely, we're seeing an explosion of lame IdPol ideology demeaning and dissolving the essential quality and values of individualism. Those downgraded by a structure of authoritarion unawareness of their inner being have zero comprehension of social thinking constructs!

"Anarchism is the idea that there should never be any concrete paved over the movement; it should always be in touch with its most exploited, angry and sad experiences of class conflict."

So yea, another super-arbitrary definition that just sprang out of nowhere. Anarchism is soooo many things!

I refuse to read this. I already know it's gonna be bad but like, did the author really claim autism somehow makes people naturally more anarchist? At least they say the dumb part out loud unlike other identities and categories. This way of thinking is a huge part of why anarchy is so fucked these days.

Anarchy is doing kinda good these days... especially in neolib dumbocracies. Anarchists tho, aren't doing quite well in general. Only individualists kinda have it their ways. But according to some tools they aren't relevant... only small bands of ultraliberal brainwashed cultists are.

If you mean anarchy as a general trend toward anti authoritarianism among the right people yeah I can agree.

The level of ignorant shit being said about autism here is truly fucking embarrassing. The first person to be diagnosed with autism in 1934, Donald Triplett, was a fucking banker with a degree in French. He traveled frequently and navigated a range of social settings. Autism has literally always been a spectrum. The diagnostic manual has also described autism as a spectrum since 1994. 30 years, so yeah, not a new Hot Internent Trend. However, the people diagnosed as autistic for the first 75ish years have been exceedingly white men. Old school texts frequently describe autism as a developmental condition that specifically affected white boys. Only in very recent decades have psycholgists started acknowledging autistic people/autistic traits in ppl who aren't white boys/men or people perceived as such. It's still extremely common for girls and women, and people perceived as such, to be diagnosed with a mood disorder, general anxiety, and psychiatric conditions when they're actually autistic. And this misdiagnosis often increases anxiety and depression. (https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/11/7/912). I mean, fuck, someone on this comment section proposed the author has social anxiety instead of being autistic. A tad bit off isnt it, to feel more comfortable diagnosing someone else, especially someone you've never met and based off one post, than giving any credibility to their own understanding of themself? And by the way, as the author has noted on a previous post, they were diagnosed with bi polar and prescribed lithium which only made their symptoms much worse, while applying coping strategies for sensory sensitivities and other common issues associated with autism helped them significantly. But yeah, feel free to diagnose them with a lil teensy weensy social anxiety. I mean, you worked in special Ed and use words like "functional" so you must know what you're talking about right? Additionally, your claim of psycholgists not combining autism and adhd diagnoses is also wrong and outdated by about 10 years. (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2...). But again, feel free to just, you know, *say things*. And no, no it does not diminish the struggle of high support needs autistic people when folks with less visibly present traits or autistic ppl without comorbid learning disabilities, etc. talk about their experiences as being autistic. Being a piece of shit and claiming you know more about someone's own life and understanding of their brain than they do, however, is harmful, but go off I guess. Lots of ppl weaponize their identities to be controlling or try to gain social power, but that doesn't mean self diagnosis isn't valid or that autistic people who don't fit your shitty, uninformed, narrow-minded definition of autism don't exist. This comment thread is a snapshot of how autistic adults who don't fit certain stereotypes are treated, so it's mind blowing to me that people really truly think self diagnosing as autistic is rooted in social clout when you are typically ridiculed and shit on. There's a shlew of barriers to people obtaining a formal diagnosis. (https://www.occuplaytional.com/2023/01/08/autism-self-diagnosis-is-valid/). That some ppl may mis-diagnose themselves isn't nearly as central of an issue as the hate directed toward ppl trying to understand their brain without formal medical approval is. Fuck.

Well, I'm just going to say anything, it's my prerogative, and I say let natural selection take its course, If rich autistic banker wants to speak French then let's just drop him in the middle of a war zone. I prefer the autistic folk who are capable of screaming and charging at nasty authoritarians wielding a tomahawk, mmmkay! Autism is a survival mechanism which enabled homo sapiens to survive and prosper as a species, They are the real heroes, not the sane meak sheeple who try to confine and exclude their brilliant minds by labelling them as "autistic"

Please tell me this is sarcastic. Who are you, an "ancap"?!

Like I said There is no fault in the autistic, THEY ARE UNIQUE and exciting to be with, all our heroic ancestors in their diverse and eccentric glory made life entertaining whilst seated around a fire in a boring cave. Autists are the life of the party brah, enjoy ;)

I quote from Ride the Cyclone, "This goes to show that with enough up-tempo shine, you can make any odious idea palatable- even Social Darwinism"

This isn't about hierarchy which Social Darwinism argues in favour of, this is about the labeling of socially induced behavioral constructs.

Anon 10:38, my point with talking about the first diagnosed autistic person as a banker with a degree in French was not to celebrate him but to directly respond to another poster's claim of what autism "used to mean", and that now it's watered down. I, too, am much more inclined to scream and charge around. I have no interests in banks, bankers, or degrees. I'm a degree-less forest gremlin who can barely hold a job. But claiming that autism as a label was historically reserved for people experiencing psychosis or with much more pronounced traits or comorbidities is extremely false.

Oookay, but be aware that if there is no brain damage cellularly, then the psychosis is psychosomatic and a societal construct. There are a whole lotta categories devised by the capitalists to describe people who are unable to work 9-5 in their industrial complex.

Thank you. I can't believe we are supposed to be in a more open space and yet people take the freedom to diminish others and what they feel like saying while insulting them. Dang, we are not in an Anarchist world yet...

Wow, this article was odd. I certaintly disagree with the sentiment that being autistic makes people more likely to become anarchist, or authoritarian for that matter. I do see more left-libertarian leaning autists in my life but I have an alternative explanation for that than blanket stereotyping. I think that being part of an oppressed and marginalized group makes you hate the oppressors.

Even further, this comment section is incredibly ignorant. Self-diagnosis is valid, important, and real. I thought we [anarchists] were supposed to be anti-hierarchy? [1] So why are all y'all suddenly jumping on the opportunity to be pro-psychology/psychiatry? Obtaining a diagnosis is incredibly difficult [4], especially if you also have ADHD as the general procedure in psychiatry is to disregard symptoms caused by two "disorders" [eugh] when diagnosing the second one [5]. Autistic spectra are present throughout all of history [6, 7], and it takes two seconds of evolutionary psychology's first principles to figure out why. Autistic people have/had an evolutionary advantage over neurotypicals in hunter/gatherer societies. Even though there are also disabilities that come along with it, we can expect some portion of the population to retain the genes for the trait because it does *have* positives.
"Special-ed teachers" are institutionally authoritarian, as they are the beginning of the mentally insane tube of the school-to-prison pipeline [3].

Debunking some claims in the comment section:
> Also: there is an uptick around 400 percent and I don’t see what the need is to conflate queerness with autism.
Fucking Wikipedia, the neoliberal bullshit website even admits you're wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism_and_LGBT_identities
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9014767/
https://lgbtqia.wiki/wiki/Autigender

> This self diagnosis group has also managed to mix autism w adhd even tho no psychologist is willing to.
Wrong. Autism and ADHD are linked as comorbid traits. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8918663/#:~:text=According%....

> Autistic used to meaning a specific mental condition. Of a psychotic person living in a kind of psychological bubble world, mostly unable to communicate with others and using some obsessive linguistic and physical routines, apparently as a coping device with the world around them.
Yoinking this from another anon, "The first person to be diagnosed with autism in 1934, Donald Triplett, was a fucking banker with a degree in French. He traveled frequently and navigated a range of social settings. Autism has literally always been a spectrum."
Furthermore, psychotic symptoms in autism are rare and "atypical" [8]

> today they're [self-diagnosed] talking about an "austism spectrum", that just with " LGBTQ+", includes a bunch of characters and traits that got nothing to do with each other...
Actually the term spectrum comes straight from the Bible of Oppressing Insane People, the DSM-V.

Sources:
(1) https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/campaign-for-psychiatric-aboliti...
(2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3277413/
(3) https://hechingerreport.org/pipeline-prison-special-education-often-lead...
(4) https://childmind.org/article/why-autism-diagnoses-are-often-delayed/
(5) https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/hcp-dsm.html
(6) https://kirstykendall.com/alice-in-wonderland-autism/#:~:text=It%20is%20....
(7) https://beyondthespectrummovie.com/a-history-of-autism/#:~:text=Experts%....
(8) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5376719/

> It’s offensive to severely autistic people and their parents. Proper autism doesn’t fit in society which is why it is so heartbreaking and telling.
The idea that some autists are offensive to other autists simply because of the nature of their realization is absurd and incredibly ableist.

> The issue might well be that part of the uptick is due to identitarian driven performative virtue and victim politics which attracts certain cluster B types.
This one isn't a debunk, it's just me calling out internalized ableism.

> riding off social media trends as well as official institutional leverage, for a new wave of complete social integration, through some shallow adherence to identity representations. By people who didn't yet had the time and space to grow into persons, with a mind, conscience and sensibility of their own.
Funny how that works. https://sadbrowngirl.substack.com/p/the-left-hand-of-the-law

There's nothin really at fault here, you have nothing to compare with, you are you, unique, and autism means unique we cannot all be the same uniform clones all the same thousands of years ago everyone was autistic melancholy ecstatic highly strung or torpid, IT DOESN'T MATTER, just be yourself fuck idpol!

I never said anything about fault-- simply that many people in the comments section were saying incredibly hurtful and objectively false things :)

I know you didn't brah, the fault is with societal judgement semantics, conforming or not conforming, they make you feel at fault when they label you an autistic. You were just there, caught in the middle, innocent, unique, non-conforming to normality.

> Autistic people have/had an evolutionary advantage over neurotypicals in hunter/gatherer societies.

Along the same vein, there is a theory that in Ancient times a majority of people, if diagnosed by todays customs and subjectivised behavior-based psychological presumptions rather than by an environmental/social relational interpretation, would have Tourette's Syndrome, which is really just freely expressing inner emotional feelings unhindered by cultural rituals and etiquette.

"So why are all y'all suddenly jumping on the opportunity to be pro-psychology/psychiatry?"

the very concept of autism was created and is enforced by the psychology/psychiatry industry. you're not anti-psychology/psychiatry by self-diagnosing, you're just stealing what they're selling instead of buying it. the product is consumed nonetheless.

Fuck yeah, GiggyMantis. I'm really glad other autists have entered the chat and are calling bullshit on the fucked shit being spewed in this comment section. I have a pit in my stomach reading these comments.

This post has definitely brought out some trolls and wack comments. The post too has some nonsense. But I'm gonna tell you something a whole lot of anarchists won't say that you're not gonna like;

Some of the most unhinged discussions and forced arguments have come from the "disabled community" with almost zero attempt from other disabled anarchists to stop it from happening.

Unfortunately this leads to resentment and trolling.

accusations without specific references and preferably links to examples seems a lot like concern trolling to me.

At least it's only petty resentment and nOt tEh mOnstrOsity oF sEEthing ReSSEntImEnt!

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