The post I had intended for today is simply not ready yet, and I’d rather not put half-finished work out for the public. If you want to see my stuff when it’s less refined and less coherent, you can give me money on Patreon.

For this week, I’m posting an important video essay from Ember Green on the Trump administration’s plans for autistic people. RFK Jr. is a eugenicist, who is following Thomas Malthus’ prescription of “courting the return of the plague” to kill off poor people, but sadly mass death isn’t enough for him; he also needs to torture people. He has filled HHS leadership with quacks of the highest order, and when it comes to the issue of autism, he and his people still think it is something that can be “cured”, rather than just a way of being human. This is a common response, among certain types of mind, to any deviation from their fantasy of an ordered world with everyone in their place. They have a similar response to trans people as well, and in both cases the proposed treatments basically amount to psychological and physical tortures devised in the 1800s and early 1900s.

Recommended “treatment” include things like electroconvulsive therapy/ECT (running electricity through the brain to induce a seizure), and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. As with Ivermectin, these are treatments that do have valid uses, when applied carefully and correctly.  ECT can be used in the treatment of severe depression, schizophrenia, catatonia, and some other conditions. It has been tried for autism, and there’s no reason to think it works.

That’s a theme with these people. They love to take treatments that were tried long ago, and ignore the reasons why they’re not used that way anymore. ECT can be safe, and can be helpful, but it can also fuck up your nervous system, and it’s not something to use without cause.

Hyperbaric oxygen treatment is basically used for certain kinds of problems involving gas in the bloodstream. It’s most commonly used for decompression sickness, when divers ascending too quickly get nitrogen gas bubbles in the blood and other parts of the body. It’s also used for carbon monoxide poisoning, necrosis, crushing injuries, and other conditions, all of which involve problems with tissues not in the nervous system. As with ECT, high-pressure therapies can be safe, and life-saving, but as with ECT, there are serious dangers to messing about with pressure, so it shouldn’t be done when it’s not needed, and once again, there is no evidence to suggest it can help in any way with autism.

It’s hard to say what, exactly, is wrong with RFK Jr., or other people who seem to think death is preferable to autism, but it honestly doesn’t matter. What matters is that they should not have the power they have been given, and people will be tortured, injured, and killed by their refusal to engage with reality.

Ember goes into more detail, so check out the video, and consider supporting her work.