Alright, so this is an interesting development. I feel like this post could go in either this thread or the Politics thread, so for now I'm going to post this here because A. I want to avoid double posting, and B. it's a bit of a sudden topic change to what we've been talking about over there. I'll keep this brief in an effort to avoid accidentally merging the two threads too much, but long story short, something regarding diversity that was absolutely news to me just came to my attention for the first time in the Politics thread. You're welcome to go read those posts if you'd like, but while I come to terms with the fact that the people I've been listening too are apparently noticeably more offensive than I thought, I have a second question that popped into my head that I wasn't planning on posting about for a while. Here's the scoop- basically, what happened is that, during my conversation(s), I referenced neurodiversity as part of an example to try and explain something to myself. My thought process in the example was that neurodiverse students being called "special ed" (or any other similar terms) might come off as offensive in a similar way to how... certain derogatory acronyms may be disrespectful to those people.
That got me thinking about something again, and this is the part I wasn't planning on posting until much later on, when I had more knowledge and did more of my own research. Is there any correlation between neurodiversity and politics? Particularly among bipartisan lines between Republicans and Democrats? Again, in an effort to avoid merging the threads too much, I can't say that I have much of an ability to speak on some of that thread's topics because of my lack of knowledge and research. The idea that at least one of the United States's main political parties may seem more favorable to neurodiverse individuals has always fascinated me, though, ever since I became old enough to vote in 2020. The admittedly limited extent of my knowledge on this so far is that many neurodiverse individuals around the world are also a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, and that said community has received noticeably more hate from one party than the other, let's put it that way.
Other than that, though? Nothing. At least, nothing in the political world that I as someone who wants to be a neurodiversity specialist when I'm older can look at and say "this is an issue I'm passionate about". On the contrary, most of the research I have actually done so far seems to suggest that neurodiversity and its role in the United States is a "non-partisan" conversation, meaning that it's not a particular point of focus for Republicans or Democrats (or other parties, for that matter.) On one hand, this is a very good thing. I would like to keep neurodiversity and politics as far away from each other as possible. But on the other hand... I don't know, there is a part of me that wants to be recognized as a neurodiverse voter, if that line of thinking makes sense. I'm proud of who I am, and I'm proud of the fact that I've made a lot of important, successful progress in my life because I worked hard to get to where I am. What am I supposed to think? I long for the day when I can look at a political discussion, or heck, any adult discussions, and feel passionate about issues that speak to me personally, preferably to the point where I actually have some form of credibility. I don't know. I guess I just wanted to share how this whole diversity thing is making me feel. I have always advocated in public and in private for the idea that diversity isn't just talking about ethnicity and cultural background. It's talking about the brain, too. To me, neurodiversity is just as important to recognize- and respect- as any other form of diversity.