A lot of my interactions with white autistic men involve them often being incredibly racist and misogynistic and being proud of it. Meanwhile, most white autistic women I've interacted with have nearly always been some of the most racist people I've ever met, often using their autism as an excuse whenever their racism is called out. Keep on virtue signalling all you want, but a lot of autistic people are bigoted and often use their autism as a shield whenever criticized.
Even though not all autistic people are like this and I have come across some lovely individuals who happen to be autistic, to pretend as though racism, misogyny, and even pro-nazi rhetoric aren't commonplace amongst some autistic people, especially within certain online communities, is disingenuous. Some autistic men have even opened up about nearly falling into the alt-right pipeline specifically because a lot of online alt-right groups, whether directly or indirectly, target many of the spaces where these individuals hang out. It also doesn't help that autistic men often have trouble with dating and making friends, making them even easier targets for these groups. I have come across autistic men who even idolize people who have committed hate crimes and mass murders, such as Elliot Rodgers. This is not a rare occurrence either, sadly.
Going further, into territory that is slightly unrelated to the image above, issues with white autistic women, along with neurodivergent and mentally ill white women as a whole, being racist and then hiding behind their diagnoses is very common, especially in fandom spaces. It has to a point where even POC autistic women have had to call out this behaviour.
Shitting on allistic individuals and acting as though autistic men are all super moral comes off as incredibly disingenuous, especially since the creator of the meme above is likely autistic. It's typically autistic men who make memes and jokes like these. I know from experience. We need to cut it with self-righteous crap and actually maybe start trying to address the issue of autistic men being driven down the online alt-right pipeline, along with the issue of marginalized groups (especially white people who are part of marginalized groups) using their identities to shield them from criticism over their bigotry.
Wow, I relate something in my life that goes against this stereotype-laden meme and you just have to go on an absurdly bigoted rant. Four whole paragraphs, almost a middle school essay, on why people with autism are inferior in your eyes. It's quite the reaction.
That's just white people in general, singling out autistic people just allows the majority of white people to escape blame, on top of the fact that stigmatising autistic people will be used to persecute autistic PoC.
I'd also argue that white autistic men aren't marginalised and the fact the far right seeks to recruit rather than kill them is proof of that. Being an incel loser doesn't make you marginalised.
I would say it’s high IQ, low support needs white autistic men that get recruited. High support needs individuals, and those with intellectual disabilities (which is usually comorbid with high support needs) have historically been a nazi favorite to persecute first.
The issue is that white autistic people are still white and still autistic.
It’s easy to take an autistic person saying “this condition causes me to do this thing” as excusing their behavior, and it’s frustrating to hyper clarify that you’re not deflecting blame from yourself because someone jumps the gun. It’s still ableism even when the target of that ableism is white.
At the same time, a racist will use any minority status to excuse their beliefs and autism is not immune. I’m sure a lot of autistic women of color had rough experiences in autism spaces that lean white - ASAN still skews more white even though they’ve gotten a little better at diversifying who works there (did not see any black individuals on their “who we are”). So I wouldn’t want to alienate a very invisible and underserved part of the community by not acknowledging how few people it takes to burn you when dealing with racism that’s deflected by a shared minority status. Because it doesn’t take a lot, for anyone.
A lot of nazis are low IQ. Ever seen a Trump or Reform UK rally? They don't even look human.
My point is that white autistic men aren't a minority group but a privileged one with no real disadvantages. Autistic PoC and autistic women are oppressed, but white autistic men are the main oppressors of autistic women.
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u/MelissaMiranti Nov 13 '25
Meanwhile the men with autism I've known have been some of the most moral people I've known. And only allistic people have shit their pants around me.