Musk and Autism

In The Politics of Autism, I write about the everyday struggles facing autistic people and their families -- including casual prejudice against disabled people.  

Trump has a long history of using the r-word, and Lordy, there are tapes.

Elon Musk has said that he is autistic, so it is odd that he uses the word, a term that bigots throw against autistic people.

Julia Metreaux at Mother Jones:

In September, Elon Musk amplified a post from Autism Capital—a pro-Trump X account that he often reposts—that read: “Only high T alpha males and aneurotypical people (hey autists!) are actually free to parse new information with an objective ‘is this true?’ filter. This is why a Republic of high status males is best for decision making. Democratic, but a democracy only for those who are free to think.” Musk called the claim, which originated on the infamous web forum 4chan, an “interesting observation.” His repost was viewed 20 million times.

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A society with too much empathy—the kind of society Musk claims we live in—wouldn’t be full of ostracized, bullied kids who grow into adults like him. A society that supported, or at least more thoughtfully approached, autistic traits wouldn’t produce 4chan boards full of his Aspie supremacist fans. It would allow people like Musk to speak openly about being autistic, without retreating from the word, and to engage with initiatives led by autistic people, not figures like Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who describe autism as an “injury” that renders people incapable of holding jobs, making art, or playing sports.

Aspie supremacists do real harm to autistic people in their embrace of gendered, racialized stereotypes, and in drawing spurious lines between themselves and anyone they consider “severely” autistic. Musk may simply be a jerk, but he’s a jerk with a tremendous platform—and one whose fans loudly, publicly connect his shitty personal behavior and fascistic policies to “mild” autism.

“It’s really frustrating to be caught in this place where we’re trying to be inclusive of all autistic people, and there are such polarizing opinions and perspectives about autism,” says Jules Edwards. “It causes this additional challenge when we’re advocating for inclusion and access, trying to educate people about what is autism versus the idea of ‘good autism’ or ‘bad autism.’”

DOGE Firings

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the employment of people on the autism spectrum.

KENYA HUNTER and FATIMA HUSSEIN at AP:

For decades, the federal government has positioned itself as being committed to inclusive hiring and long-term retention across agencies. But as mass layoffs ripple through the federal workforce under President Donald Trump’s Republican administration, disabled employees are among those being let go.

Amid the firings, rollbacks of accommodation guidance for businesses and skepticism of disability inclusion practices, advocates and experts wonder if the government’s status as a “model employer” will hold true.

Trump has said he ended diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the government because people should be hired based on work quality and merit alone.

However, under Schedule A, candidates already have to be qualified for the position with or without an accommodation. They don’t get a job solely because they have a disability.

Senators Oppose Scrapping the Education Department

In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 7.5 million children 3 to 21 years old received services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in AY 2022-23.

About 980,000 of them were autistic, up from 498,000 in 2012-13.

The Trump administration is halving the staff of the Department of Education.

Last week, Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, led 22 of her colleagues in sending a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, who is trying to scrap her own department.

It is essential to recognize the vital role the Department plays in safeguarding the rights of students with disabilities. We are concerned by President Trump’s effort to transfer implementation and oversight of special education to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a move which you indicated you support during your confirmation hearing. The Department of Education has the statutory authority to implement and enforce IDEA. Without an act of Congress giving authority to HHS, this administration’s attempts to shift IDEA responsibility to HHS will merely prevent the law from being enforced at all. The Senate report from 1979 on the creation of the Department of Education found that the “significant, but carefully restrained Federal role in education…is severely hampered by its burial in [The Department of Health, Education and Welfare]…its confusing lines of authority and administration, its fragmentation, and its obvious lack of direction.” In other words, the Senate’s findings in 1979 indicate that this department structure was inefficient and resulted in a lack of attention to public education. The Department of Education is the only agency with an existing institutional infrastructure and a staff of subject matter experts dedicated to ensuring equal educational opportunity for children and students with disabilities. More than this, disabled students deserve to be seen as and treated as the learners and scholars they are. Students with disabilities belong in classrooms alongside their nondisabled peers, and they deserve the accommodations and supports that enable them to thrive. Because of the Department of Education’s specific expertise, it is best positioned to do the job well and efficiently. Transferring these authorities to HHS will not only overburden an agency already confronting massive workforce cuts orchestrated by this administration, but it will also stretch HHS beyond its expertise as medical, rather than educational, professionals.

We are alarmed by the potential consequences your proposed reassignment will have on the larger framework of education for students with disabilities. Prior to the passage of IDEA, only one in five children with disabilities were educated in schools, and more than 1.8 million children were systemically excluded from public school in the United States. Disabilities were seen as medical conditions to be treated and as a result, many children with disabilities were institutionalized rather than educated. We cannot risk regression to an outdated and dehumanizing perspective on disability, which prevented millions of children from accessing the inclusive public education they deserve. Our entire nation benefits when disabled people have equal access to a high-quality education that enables them to use their gifts and talents.

Additionally, the Trump administration instituted a one-month freeze on investigating discrimination complaints, an unprecedented decision even during a presidential transition. The Office for Civil Rights currently faces a backlog of 12,000 investigations, half of which involve students with disabilities. While the freeze was lifted February 20th for disability discrimination claims, we are concerned that the Department will still not have the capacity to process the backlog of 6,000 disability claims, as well as any incoming additional claims—especially considering the unjustified termination of dedicated public servants across the 12 regional divisions of the Office for Civil Rights.

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In a speech on March 3rd, you called for the elimination of “unnecessary bureaucracy” at the Department. Yet, the Department has the smallest staff of any Cabinet-level agency while administering the third-largest discretionary budget. Prior to the recent firings, this number stood at 4,245 employees, including over 700 employees dedicated to addressing the needs of students with disabilities. More than 1,300 employees have since been fired, in addition to over 500 employees who have opted for separation packages. Indiscriminate firings of workers who are stewards of federal dollars appropriated by Congress with the mandate of ensuring equal access to education for all students does not eliminate “bureaucracy;” it merely impedes the Department’s ability to carry out its work on behalf of children. Indeed, following the recent reduction in force, a coalition of 20 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit arguing the layoffs are so severe the Department “can no longer function, and cannot comply with its statutory requirements.”

We are also concerned about the combined efforts from the Department and the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) to slash $900 million in education-related research and over $600 million in educator preparation grants. These cuts will negatively impact critical research into best practices to support students with disabilities who have the shared dream of graduating high school and contributing to our economy. The cuts also result in the suspension of highly successful programs designed to address the special education teacher shortage which has been consistent over decades and negatively impacts the educational outcomes of students with disabilities. We cannot effectively serve students with disabilities or make informed policy decisions without quality information and highly qualified teachers.

Musk and the R-Word

In The Politics of Autism, I write about the everyday struggles facing autistic people and their families -- including casual prejudice against disabled people.  

Trump has a long history of using the r-word, and Lordy, there are tapes.

Elon Musk has said that he is autistic, so it is odd that he would the word, a term that bigots throw against autistic people.

David Oliver at USA Today:

Elon Musk has the ear of one of the most powerful people in the world – President Donald Trump – making him one of the most powerful people in the world, too. He's been given unfettered access to adjust the federal government's budget and headcount

So what's he doing posting a slur multiple times targeting the disabled community on social media?

Musk – who boasts nearly 220 million followers on X, the social media platform he owns – has repeatedly used the "R" word to describe people with whom he disagrees. In the last week alone, he's included it in at least three tweets. The use of this language has sparked criticism from people with disabilities and their advocates, who were beginning to see a world where such terms were deemed unacceptable. USA TODAY has reached out to Musk for comment.

Trump's Threat to Students with Disabilities

In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 7.5 million children 3 to 21 years old received services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in AY 2022-23.

About 980,000 of them were autistic, up from 498,000 in 2012-13.

The only reason school districts comply with IDEA is that the state could lose federal funding if they don't.  But if you cut off federal funding, there is no enforcement mechanism.

Jessica Winter at The New Yorker:

Dan Stewart, the managing attorney for education and employment at the National Disability Rights Network, a legal-advocacy group, told me that, through these executive orders, “this Administration is engaging with education at the micro level as well as the macro level. It’s looking at curriculum, which is traditionally in the power of the local schools and the state, at the same time that it’s looking at different ways of moving public dollars out of the system.”

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“The vast majority of I.D.E.A. rights only apply to public-school students,” Jessica Levin, who is litigation director at the nonprofit Education Law Center, told me. I.D.E.A. mandates certification requirements for special-education teachers and shields students from being punished for manifestations of their disability. It also enshrines parents’ rights to be involved in developing their children’s education plans and to argue for more or different services, which can range from speech-language or occupational therapy to assistive technology. “These rights are all lost when a student goes to a private school,” Levin said.

Project 2025 proposes rolling federal Title I and special-education funding into block grants, which states can administer without extensive federal oversight. “The states would no longer have a check on how they are complying with I.D.E.A. or other federal laws,” Stewart said. The likely scenario for kids with special needs, he went on, is “fewer teachers, fewer funds, delayed funds, and less certainty.” Of course, according to the school-choice movement, parents who are dissatisfied with their child’s cash-strapped public school should have the opportunity to choose a private one in a thriving educational marketplace. In reality, Levin said, “private schools are legally allowed to not accept students with disabilities or serve them appropriately, and so you end up with a higher concentration of higher-needs students in schools that now have fewer resources.”
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Public and private schools alike, Stewart told me, are incentivized to view students with disabilities as “a drain on their resources.” Underfunded districts in red, blue, and purple states routinely fail these students, whether they are illegally capping the percentage of children who can receive services or willfully keeping parents in the dark about their constitutional rights. I.D.E.A. is perhaps a law too aptly named, as its protections often seem more theoretical than concrete.

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Trump and Musk’s public statements are instructive here. In 2023, Musk fired a longtime employee of his who has muscular dystrophy and then ridiculed him on Twitter, falsely claiming that he “did no actual work.” (Musk later apologized and indicated that the employee could remain at Twitter; he did not.) As for Trump, according to a memoir written by his nephew, the disability advocate Fred Trump III, the President once commented that some disabled people “should just die,” and said, of Fred’s own son, who is nonverbal and uses a wheelchair owing to a rare genetic disorder, “Maybe you should just let him die.”

Musk and Self-Diagnosis

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss autism history.  Some speculate that many famous innovators and scientists were on the spectrum.  Elon Musk identifies as autistic.

Stuart Vyse at Skeptical Inquirer:

On May 8, 2021, in an awkward opening monologue, Elon Musk created a small controversy when he claimed to be making history as the first person with Asperger’s to host Saturday Night Live. The next day, Marlow Stern of The Daily Beast pointed out that former cast member Dan Aykroyd has Asperger’s Syndrome and returned to host in 2003. As a secondary issue, the intelligencia were quick to point out that the Asperger’s diagnosis was eliminated in 2013 and blended into Autism Spectrum Disorder (American Psychiatric Association 2013), so more accurately Musk had autism or ASD. However, rarely mentioned in the aftermath was the origin of his diagnosis. According to his biographer Walter Isaacson (2023), Musk was never diagnosed by a qualified mental health professional. He diagnosed himself. And Musk is not alone. He is part of a growing do-it-yourself trend: self-diagnosis.

Musk, Aspie Supremacy, and Slurs

In The Politics of Autism, I write about the everyday struggles facing autistic people and their families -- including casual prejudice against disabled people.  

Elon Musk has said that he is autistic, so it is odd that he would use a variation of the r-word, a term that bigots throw against autistic people.

My tolerance for subtards is limited

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 27, 2024

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 Eric M. Garcia  at The Independent:

Back in September, an X/Twitter account known as Autism Capital posted a screenshot of a written theory that appeared to be taken from 4Chan. The theory postulated that only “high [testostrone] alpha males” and “aneurotypical people” can think freely and be trusted to know what is objectively true. That means “a Republic for high-status males is best for decision making,” the theory continued. Elon Musk, the X owner and Tesla executive, responded: “Interesting observation.”

Little wonder that Musk found such proclamations interesting. He has talked in public a number of times about having “Asperger’s syndrome” (a term that fell out of favor as researchers learned the extent of Hans Asperger’s collaboration with the Nazi regime’s child euthanasia program and one that hasn’t been used clinically since 2013.) The concept of “Aspie supremacy” — a term some disability rights advocates coined for the deeply problematic idea that people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who previously would be considered as having Asperger’s are superior to both neurotypical people and other autistic people — has been around for a while. But it’s gained traction in the past few years in some very online, very right-wing spaces.

UPDATE:

Elon Musk just agreed with a tweet calling MAGA followers the “retarded right” pic.twitter.com/h8BaHnn2I8

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) December 28, 2024

Elon Musk

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss autism history.  Some speculate that many famous innovators and scientists were on the spectrum.  

Last year, Kathleen Doheny wrote at WebMD:

When billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk revealed he has Asperger's syndrome on his recent Saturday Night Live hosting gig, many applauded his transparency and the ability to speak about a condition that's often stigmatized.

Others, while still appreciating the honesty, point out that Asperger's is outdated terminology. It is no longer viewed as a diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the "bible" used by mental health professionals to diagnose conditions. Instead, it falls under the umbrella of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The DSM was last updated in 2013.

ASD is now defined by the American Psychiatric Association as "a complex developmental condition that involves persistent challenges in social interaction, speech and nonverbal communication, and restricted/repetitive behaviors." The association emphasizes that there is a wide range of abilities and characteristics in those who have the condition.

 Charlotte Colombo at The Independent:

Tomorrow is Global Awareness Accessibility Day: an annual awareness day dedicated to improving access and inclusion in digital spaces for everyone out there who identifies as neurodivergent or having a disability. But today, a video is going viral of a senior Twitter exec calling Elon Musk a “looney tune”, “mentally handicapped” and “special needs” on account of him being autistic.

In a lot of ways, the leaking of this clip, rife with ableist slurs, isn’t even about Musk, but about how deep-rooted ableism remains even in 2022. It doesn’t matter that Autism Awareness Day was just last month, or how many people in the public eye share their diagnoses, or the number of books, movies and documentaries released about autism.

In Musk’s case, it doesn’t even matter if you’re quite literally one of the most powerful people in the world. The fact remains that for autistic people, we will still be seen as inherently “lesser” because we are neurodivergent.

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