Many in the autism community say RFK Jr. is pushing harmful and regressive rhetoric about who they are

www.cnn.com /2025/04/19/health/autism-rfk-criticism/index.html

Summary

Kennedy described autism as an “individual tragedy” and “catastrophic,” claiming children with autism “will never pay taxes,” “never hold a job,” or “never go out on a date.”

Dr. Peter Hotez and other advocates pushed back, calling his comments harmful and reductive.

“He set up this litmus test of what it is to be a person,” said Zoe Gross.

“They deserve better than being a rhetorical prop,” she added.

12 comments

I'm married, make six figures, and pay more in taxes than Amazon and Tesla.

Many in the autism community ~~say RFK Jr. is pushing harmful and regressive rhetoric about who they are~~ are just pointing out reality

They're prepping us for concentration camps, just like they did with trans people. It's the Nazi playbook; they start with the smallest minority groups (disabled people, trans people) and work their way up to larger groups. The largest group that they will end up coming after (if it gets that far) will be anyone who voted against 47.

He’s projecting
- He wishes he was Autistic. Then he might have some redeemable feature for humanity to seize on, instead of being a worthless sack of shit that goes to work with other worthless sacks of shit who have tarnished their family name.

RFK, and the people that worship him, would rather have a dead child than a child with autism.
That's how fucked up they are.
This isn't about parental choice. This is about oppression.
- It's eugenics

I thought he was a crazy idiot, but he says I don't have to pay taxes anymore so I'm happy.
But I think he made a mistake. Just because Elon doesn't pay taxes doesn't mean other real autistic people don't pay taxes. I guess only people who claim to be autistic because they think it makes them more interesting don't pay taxes.