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Autism and empathy - a thread... /1
The commonly held view about autistic people (by neurotypical people anyhow) is that they have no sense of empathy, that they are incapable of feeling emotions based on another's experience. /2
In some extreme cases, neurotypical people seem to believe that #autistic people feel no emotion, that we're cold robots, unfeeling, merciless...
This is such a widely held myth that it can hold people back from being diagnosed: as they feel stuff, they don't believe they could be autistic. At its worst, this myth can lead to the misconception that #autistic people are more prone to acts of senseless violence /4
It's common to hear speculation that the latest (and Joe sad it is I have to use that adjective) school shooter was #autistic, often based on no evidence other than the misunderstanding that autistic people are in some way psychotic. /5
*typo there - 'joe' should be 'how'... Who's Joe?
