I recently replied to a Facebook post a friend made about the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Kennedy had claimed that people who eat donuts, drink soft drinks or smoke should not receive government health insurance.
I laughed at the post and put in my $0.02 that I do not consume donuts or soft drinks, nor do I smoke, but I’m also not in the habit of taking health advice from a recovering heroin addict.
Kennedy, who is an avowed anti-science proponent and conspiracy theorist, has made some laughable pronouncements, but his most recent canard is false and dangerous. Last Wednesday, he made the boneheaded statement that autistic children would never grow up to pay taxes, hold a job, play baseball, write a poem, go on a date, etc., etc., even going so far as to state that many of those on the spectrum would never use a toilet unassisted.
What a crock. To say that Kennedy’s rhetoric angers me would be like saying a great deal of British cuisine lacks flavor. Kennedy’s comments, of course, are to back up his quixotic quest to find a cause for autism, which many of the conspiranoid mind seem to demonize as a serious public health concern.
Kennedy, Jr., has publicly claimed autism is a “preventable disease,” and his comments make a case for all people with autism as a burden to their families.
Neurodivergence, in its many guises, is not a disease, as Kennedy put it, nor is it preventable. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Autism Spectrum Disorder is exactly that, a wide-ranging spectrum, and the symptoms vary person to person. So, while some folks on that spectrum might not need any support in their daily lives, others might need a degree of assistance.
To say that all autistic children will never grow up to pay taxes (and notice how Kennedy put that task in pole position in his idiotic remarks) or that they will never hold down a job is pure nonsense. It’s also evil, because it will impact autistic children, mark my words, and Kennedy needs to be held accountable.
A lot of folks who gobble up every word from the Trump-Musk administration as gospel will believe this, ergo it will have an impact on children.
What NEEDS to happen, and if the Trump-Musk administration had the best interests of the people at heart, would be to find ways to make society more accepting of those who are on the spectrum. Some of the brightest minds and hardest working folks I know are on the spectrum, and while I could go on about them, let’s look at a pre-eminent example on the world stage: Co-President Elon Musk, the richest man in the world.
Musk has admitted to having Asperger’s Syndrome, a diagnostic label that is used to describe behaviors that fall on the spectrum. Look at all Musk has achieved with his neurodivergent mind, and on the other hand, every time one of his strange public behaviors veers into widespread criticism (think back to his much-ballyhooed “Roman salute”), a chorus of his fanboys use his Asperger’s as an excuse.
Kennedy’s false comments are dangerous and discriminatory through and through. The CDC does cite an increase in autism diagnoses, but there is no evidence that this is an epidemic. On the other hand, neurological research has come a long way since the ‘50s when those with autism were, by and large, not seen and not heard, if you catch my drift.
To have the head of HHS make such comments is extremely irresponsible and should result in his termination. HHS is responsible for public health policy, as well as medical research and disability services, and the idea that autistic people are a burden echoes philosophies on eugenics. Such dangerous, ableist rhetoric sets the stage for something sinister, and that’s not me conceding to conspiracy theories or paranoia.
Those on the spectrum are not burdens. They contribute just as much, and more often than not, more, than the neurotypicals in our society. Such pronouncements as Kennedy’s demonizes autism under the banner of presenting a societal concern.
While autistic people are no more of a burden on society than McDonald’s burgers are nutritious, one dangerous behavior that does present burdensome qualities on society, one which Kennedy, Jr. knows quite a bit about first-hand, is the abuse and addiction to hard drugs.
For 14 years, Kennedy was addicted to heroin, which he initially turned to to cope with the tragic assassination death of his father. Although an arrest for possession turned his life around, and he’s been clean for 40 years, that trajectory could have just as easily gone the other direction.
I don’t personally see drug addicts as a burden on society, themselves, but burdensome and vile behavior is a by-product of addiction, more often than not, and our law enforcement and courts have their hands full because of it, even in rural Deep East Texas.
Drug addiction is an actual scourge, as well as a disease. Autism is not. Kennedy and HHS would do well to focus on the former, and given his history, he is posed to actually make a difference as an advocate for harm reduction favoring policies and an overall humane approach at cutting the massive drug problem this country faces.
