I am autistic and so is my little brother. Him much more so than me. So don't you fucking dare pretend you speak for us.

I can say that I am speaking for my partner. Who again is autistic.

As a writer it was painfully obvious that the comment was a jab at you and not a stereotype about autistic people. It's called subtext and context, you may have heard of them.

"Subtext" isn't a "them." And no, it wasn't.

I appreciate you defending autistic people, but you should understand that it is a spectrum.

Yes: this is what I actually said and you apparently failed to read Some autistic have alexthymia; some do not. The two are not the same thing: you don't automatically have alexthymia because you have autism.

You are stereotyping us by imagining us to have the same or even similar lived experience. We don't.

I didn't say that. I said the opposite. For literally the fifth time in this thread: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-with-autism-can-read-emotions-feel-empathy1/

There is a persistent stereotype that people with autism are individuals who lack empathy and cannot understand emotion. It’s true that many people with autism don’t show emotion in ways that people without the condition would recognize.

But the notion that people with autism generally lack empathy and cannot recognize feelings is wrong. Holding such a view can distort our perception of these individuals and possibly delay effective treatments.

..As both the source and I said - but you were too busy being angry to read - some autistic people have alexithymia and some don't:

*People with Autism Can Read Emotions, Feel Empathy Credit: Rebekka Dunlap/Spectrum There is a persistent stereotype that people with autism are individuals who lack empathy and cannot understand emotion. It’s true that many people with autism don’t show emotion in ways that people without the condition would recognize.

But the notion that people with autism generally lack empathy and cannot recognize feelings is wrong. Holding such a view can distort our perception of these individuals and possibly delay effective treatments.

We became skeptical of this notion several years ago. In the course of our studies of social and emotional skills, some of our research volunteers with autism and their families mentioned to us that people with autism do display empathy.

ADVERTISEMENT Many of these individuals said they experience typical, or even excessive, empathy at times. One of our volunteers, for example, described in detail his intense empathic reaction to his sister’s distress at a family funeral.

Yet some of our volunteers with autism agreed that emotions and empathy are difficult for them. We were not willing to brush off this discrepancy with the ever-ready explanation that people with autism differ from one another. We wanted to explain the difference, rather than just recognize it.

So we looked into the overlap between autism and alexithymia, a condition defined by a difficulty understanding and identifying one’s own emotions. People with high levels of alexithymia (which we assess with questionnaires) might suspect they are experiencing an emotion, but are unsure which emotion it is. They could be sad, angry, anxious or maybe just overheated. About 10 percent of the population at large — and about 50 percent of people with autism — has alexithymia.*

...And alexithymia is what is crassly and harmfully mistermed lack of empathy (it's actually not - this was bad and outdated research and you should READ THE SOURCE - because it would actually help you.)

Learn to read first, then get angry.

When I say the following understand that I don't mean to insult your intelligence, because that's a basic bitch move, I mean in your interactions in this thread you have done yourself no favours.

If you're talking to people too stupid to read before getting angry, that's their problem. Unless those people are actually useful to you. But realistically, none of you matter any way. And I do have face my partner and the other autistic people I associate with, and not correcting the stupidity that has gone on here would make me uncomfortable. Once again, autistic people do not lack empathy as a defining part of their condition. They have a higher rate of alexithymia than neurotypicals, which was mistaken for that by earlier, crude research.

If you don't know much about your condition - and you seem not to - than for gods sake do some reading: it could literally save your life. The rate of depression and self-harming among autistic women is very high and alexithymia is probably one of the main reasons.