Hannah Gadsby on her autism diagnosis
Autism has become a catch-all for &quot;people who are weird&quot;. &quot;Neurotypical&quot; is the vaguely condescending opposite. Notice the sneer when she refers to &quot;neurotypical &#x27;experts&#x27;&quot;. The basic idea is that people who are weird are a subjugated minority, oppressed by people with boring, normal brains.<p>I don&#x27;t doubt that Hannah Gadsby is weird but I think life is hard for everyone, including normal people. I think the struggles she enumerates are common: most of us have crises of identity or meaning, many of us feel intense insecurity, cut off and isolated from others. This isn&#x27;t to minimize her suffering, it&#x27;s to say that suffering is normal.<p>I have a strong objection to people who freely talk about negative experiences. Some of the people I respect the most have had extremely negatives experiences but mention them only with great reluctance. There&#x27;s something about that that seems right. Columns like this debase the currency: by exalting empathy and understanding as the highest values, they devalue them.