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Austim, Tylenol & Fascism

They are scared of you.

I am autistic. I know, shock horror! I am also staunchly anti-fascist because I am not a wildly insecure white man who refuses to go to therapy. So, when Trump blamed autism on Tylenol use during pregnancy, my ears pricked up. It’s not just that this is an undoubtedly false and dangerous piece of misinformation — I am curious as to why RFK Jr and Trump chose this specific talking point. They could have gone in a different direction, one that is even more damaging, but that would have concentrated power in them infinitely more. And the fact that they didn’t take this route is telling, to say the least. Let me explain.

Let’s start off with the fact that neither Trump nor RFK Jr provided any evidence to support this dramatic shift in policy. Not even a rushed, hastily written report by ChatGPT with fake citations. That alone is pretty insane, and under normal circumstances would lead to resignations, firings, investigations and impeachments. This shows we have truly entered the post-scientific era.

Let’s also point out that autism was officially defined in 1943, with the term first being coined in 1911, and there are medical reports about autism-like symptoms that date back to the 1800s. Meanwhile, Tylenol, also known as paracetamol or acetaminophen, was first synthesised in 1893 but wasn’t used as a painkiller…