Peter Crosbie
petercrosbie.bsky.social
Peter Crosbie
@petercrosbie.bsky.social
Setting understanding and acceptance of autism back half a century. It's going to be a long way back.

Autistic people are being used as fodder in the culture walls, irrespective of the damage.
In which RFK Jr. replaces autism pseudoscience proponent Dr. Sylvia Fogel with even more hardcore autism pseudoscience booster and leucovorin grifter, Dr. John Gaitanis, as the head of the IACC Federal committee advising on autism research priorities.

kfgo.com/2026/09/18/e... #autism #IACC
Exclusive-Kennedy names new chair for US autism advisory panel
By Ahmed Aboulenein WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named an ally, Dr. John Gaitanis, to lead a key federal advisory panel on autism on Friday, replacing a ch...
kfgo.com
September 19, 2026 at 1:33 PM
"as the National Autistic Society said, people are born autistic and remain autistic for life."
September 16, 2026 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Peter Crosbie
CN: Suicide

"Autistic people face enough suicidal ideation without being asked to think of themselves as nothing more than burdens to their loved ones, & I can’t support or contribute to any conversation that increases that risk." @fodderfigure.bsky.social:

thinkingautismguide.com/2025/03/auti...
Pushing Back on The Autism Tragedy Narrative While Autistic
Autistic people face enough suicidal ideation outside the tragedy narrative, and I can’t support any conversation that increases that risk.
thinkingautismguide.com
September 16, 2026 at 1:09 AM
"We confirm that autism is genetic. Most autistic people are autistic because of genes they got from their parents. This is why autism often runs in families. Less commonly, there can be other genetic factors."

www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-g...
What causes autism?
Find out more about the possible causes of autism, why autism doesnt need a cure, and hear stories from autistic people.
www.autism.org.uk
September 15, 2026 at 7:38 PM
Reposted by Peter Crosbie
A precious and much needed book by Chantelle Jessica Lewis and Jason Arday - "We'll see things they'll never see. Love, hope and neurodiversity."
Prof. Arday died so recently, after a barrage of hate.
Anyone who holds up a light against the evil in this world may wish to buy it.
September 13, 2026 at 5:37 PM
Autism starts in the womb, long before a child is born.

You cannot become autistic, any more than you can become left-handed (if you aren't). It's how your brain is wired and how your mother made you.

Vaccines don't cause autism because they can't. Born autistic, die autistic.
September 12, 2026 at 7:49 AM
Reposted by Peter Crosbie
We are running an Autistic Language preference survey. If you would like to take part, find out more here forms.gle/rqsFpXVdzbXL...

#ActuallyAutistic #autism #Autistic #AuDHD #AutisticLanguagePreference
Autistic Language Preference Survey 2025/26
The aim of this survey is to gather the preferences of both Autistic and non-Autistic people for language when talking about autism. The aim follow up on the data collection conducted during 2024…
forms.gle
August 28, 2026 at 1:07 PM
For anyone interested in the tragedy around Jason Arday, deep dive here challenging many of the accusations.
Parents Magazine has "an unexpectedly respectful, thorough, & accurate explainer" re: the increase in autism diagnoses, noting "Autism is not a tragedy…But the lack of understanding, acceptance, & accommodations can be." @ejwillingham.bsky.social in TPGA's newsletter:

buttondown.com/TPGA/archive...
Jason Arday: breaking a butterfly upon a wheel
Arday was a Black man and thus was not allowed a second act in American, or any, life.
buttondown.com
August 23, 2026 at 5:02 AM
Reposted by Peter Crosbie
"If you see a disabled person online and they seem happy, remember that you are seeing one moment of their life. You don’t know what happened before they opened the app. You don’t know what will happen after they close it." @ayannasanaa.bsky.social:

phenomenallyautistic.substack.com/p/the-loneli...
The Loneliness No One Sees
What Disability Isolation Feels Like For Me
phenomenallyautistic.substack.com
August 22, 2026 at 9:43 PM
There can never be too many people diagnosed autistic. There can only be too many autistic people left undiagnosed.
August 22, 2026 at 4:12 PM
Amongst the pearl-clutching in regards to the numbers of people being diagnosied autistic, it's clear that much of the world has failed to grasp just how many autistic people there really are. Diagnosed autistics are only the tip of the iceberg.

1% of the human pop. 81 million of us.
August 22, 2026 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Peter Crosbie
Jason Arday was black, and he was autistic. Both of those matter.

Both matter because that is a prime example of intersectionality.

Both matter because it was a racist *and ableist* witch hunt.
On July 31, Simon Baron-Cohen urged people to tone down the rhetoric on twitter re Jason Arday, and pointed to his own research on autism and suicide.
Alexander Kustov responded with "Shame"
Elon Musk with "Evil," and a wide variety of people came out jeering.
The kind of cruelty on display here.
August 15, 2026 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by Peter Crosbie
Jason Arday's friend, the Cambridge University Professor of Clinical Psychology, Simon Baron Cohen, posted on X on 31 July 2026
August 15, 2026 at 8:19 PM
Reposted by Peter Crosbie
On July 31, Simon Baron-Cohen urged people to tone down the rhetoric on twitter re Jason Arday, and pointed to his own research on autism and suicide.
Alexander Kustov responded with "Shame"
Elon Musk with "Evil," and a wide variety of people came out jeering.
The kind of cruelty on display here.
August 14, 2026 at 10:32 PM
Anti-vaxers go on an on about how the multitude of vax/autism studies on millions of kids which show no link are invalid because they don't use a placebo. (Not strictly true, but heh ...)

Yet they're all in on the discredited Wakefield study. Which didn't use a placebo or control group of any kind.
August 15, 2026 at 7:07 AM
For as long as there have been humans there have been autistic humans.

We’ve always been here.
August 15, 2026 at 3:07 AM
Reposted by Peter Crosbie
To be regarded as “not autistic enough” is to face a double whammy, to be erased twice – first by the invisible disability, then by disbelief. -Peggy Lee

www.straitstimes.com/opinion/when...

#autism #autistic #neurodiversity
When you’re told you’re ‘not autistic enough’
We are far more willing to accommodate the disabilities we can see than those we can’t. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.
www.straitstimes.com
August 14, 2026 at 4:42 AM
Reposted by Peter Crosbie
Aha!
So, to recap, Prof. Uta Frith reckons autistic people might be imagining it/catching it off TikTok, etc (paraphrased) and it's not science.🤔
Her old pupil, SBC, has ventured forth with a research team who've said, "Oh yes it is!" And for ADHD.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6... /ctd
Adults who suspect they may be autistic or have ADHD show corresponding neurodevelopmental polygenic effects
Background Thousands of adults suspect they are autistic or have Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) without a formal diagnosis. Whether this reflects the polygenic effects of the correspond...
www.medrxiv.org
August 13, 2026 at 7:38 AM
There is no known biological mechanism whereby a vaccine can cause you to become autistic.

Just as there's no known biological mechanism which can change your handedness.

Both are hard-wired into your brain from birth.
August 12, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Alongside Silberman’s Neurotribes, this is compulsory reading. Expands on Chapman’s Empire of Normality
August 10, 2026 at 5:20 AM
Reposted by Peter Crosbie
Autistic people are under attack from every direction in public discourse.
August 9, 2026 at 12:55 AM
Reposted by Peter Crosbie
Dear journalists:

Please stop featuring parents who obviously resent their autistic children, belittle things their children love, and catastrophize their disabilities.

Dunking on kids is a shitty thing for any parent to do. That includes autistic children (kids or adults). 1/2
August 9, 2026 at 2:08 AM
Reposted by Peter Crosbie
"It takes more work to communicate with someone whose native language isn't the same as yours. And autism goes deeper than language and culture; autistic people are 'foreigners' in any society." -Jim Sinclair, from the foundational essay Don't Mourn For Us:

www.autreat.com/dont_mourn.h... #autism
Don't Mourn For Us
www.autreat.com
August 5, 2026 at 11:12 PM
Reposted by Peter Crosbie
"Autistic children only get one childhood, & they deserve properly qualified & properly experienced professional teams. Teams that consider autistic ways of communication, ethics, human rights & potential harms very carefully indeed." @annmemmott.bsky.social:

thinkingautismguide.com/2023/05/aba-...
Therapists Are Traumatizing Autistic Children By Speech Demands
Therapists that do not consider autistic ways of communication, ethics, human rights, and potential harms are traumatizing autistic children.
thinkingautismguide.com
July 16, 2026 at 3:40 AM