Kudos to @chavisory for writing this. The reduction of any strong convictions an autistic person may have to "just rigidity" isn't just an oversimplification.
It's dangerous. It makes it far easier for others to dismiss us when we say "This is wrong."
(Also, something inside me died a little when I saw one autistic person refer to their own defense of a fellow student against a mean teacher as "displaying cognitive rigidity".)
Honestly? The 5th Doctor and Graham would make a great Doctor-companion duo. I can imagine Graham giving fatherly advice to Five, forgetting that although this Doctor looks young, he's actually very very old. Five would be so flustered by that... but he'd also appreciate the change from having a TARDIS full of moody teens.
Unable to take any more of 2025, the Gävle goat simply collapsed!
OK, actually she was blown over by strong winds from a storm called Johannes that also left 16,000 people without power. You can watch a video of the action here.
Many thanks to @librawritesstuff for her assistance with GoatWatch.
maybe growing up is just becoming who you were at 14 again but learning how to love her this time
pixel cats end in-universe media following the adventures of a snow cat and a patternless black cat called Null & Void
In-universe pop-up / lift-the-flap book about ghosts and Candlelight. One page folds like an accordion to make a loooooong noodly ghost. One page has present boxes you can open to reveal gifts (one box has a pea-sized ghost hiding in it). One page has a pull tab that can make the floaty ghost float.
I mentioned a book like this in a roleplay thread once.
people talk about how we need to bring back "don't feed the trolls" rhetoric for modern internet ragebait and I agree but also I think the most useful thing from the Old Internet that I miss is LURKING
be a lurker. just read things and think about them without feeling the need to weigh in or call out or disseminate everything you encounter. it's so nice and so freeing and it's a good way to learn things.
I have frequently regretted getting involved in shit that didn't involve me online but you know what I've never regretted doing? Lurking. literally lurk moar
This is why I miss being able to scroll facebook or tumblr without an account.
“People are fine with LSN autistics but once an HSN autistic shows up—” Let me stop you right there. Just because ableists treat HSN far worse than LSN does not mean that they actually love LSN people. LSN folks are “accepted”, yes—but that acceptance is conditional. The so-called Acceptable Autist is a narrowly-defined caricature.
To be an Acceptable Autist (TM) you must show a particular amount of symptoms. Too few symptoms and you are fakeclaimed, too many symptoms and you are “using your autism as an excuse.” Instead, your symptoms must be obviously autistic enough to “count” but not so autistic that they become “annoying” or “cringe” or “scary.” Being an Acceptable Autist means walking the narrow tightrope between “neurospicy self-diagnosed faker” and “gross weirdo freak.”
Acceptable Autists also must work effortlessly to mitigate their disability symptoms. They are required to mask constantly or else they are “using the autism as an excuse.” But they also should not mask completely, or they will be fakeclaimed (see above). Having bad social skills, in the eyes of ableists, is not “excused” by autism because it is the responsibility of the Acceptable Autist to fix themself to fit in.
Fictional characters may not be headcanoned as autistic if they seem too autistic because that is stereotyping. Fictional characters may not be headcanoned as autistic if they don’t fit the stereotype, either, though, because then the headcanon is “a reach” and “projection.” If a fictional character shows signs of a different disability, like PTSD, autism is also out of the question because, as we all know, disabilities are mutually exclusive. In fact, it is best not to headcanon characters as autistic at all because that is romanticizing autism. The Acceptable Autist sticks to canon autistic characters like the Rain Man.
The Acceptable Autist can pick and choose their special interests. A problematic special interest must be dropped entirely and replaced with a suitably “unproblematic” topic instead. Furthermore, the Acceptable Autist never allows their Unproblematic Special Interests to “take over their personality”, especially if that interest is regarded as childish.
Acceptable Autists are never allowed to say anything nice about their disability. Autists who do say nice things are accused of being fakers, regardless of their support needs level. On the flip side, an autistic person who complains about their disability is being whiny and making excuses. The Acceptable Autist must navigate this moral quandry.
One time I was leaving a friend's place and an older lady with basically no English came up to me and communicated that she was very cold and needed a ride. She pointed to tell me where to go.
I got there and her daughter or granddaughter came out and was like omg her phone died we were worried
And then the older lady said something and the younger lady translated.
"She knew she could trust you because you have pink hair"
I thought it was funny at the time. But when I think back on it I think she was basically saying "you had a visible sign of not vibing with the system I was afraid of"
Be weird. Be colorful. Help random people.
No joke, this is why I'm less afraid to open up to therapists if they look alternative in some way, or just wear a little something that expresses who they are (say, a tie with a dinosaur pattern on it if they love dinosaurs, or a pin of their favorite character).
It shows me that they're way less likely to try to "normalize" me, the way a past therapist (who was hyper-conventional in every way) did.
Dragging myself out of my sick hole to say, don’t come here the next 1,133 days.
This is a PROPOSAL available for public comment via email until February 9, 2026. Write in; don't just roll over and let it slide by unopposed.
"Written comments and suggestions from the public and affected agencies should address one or more of the following four points:
(1) whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility;
(2) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used;
(3) suggestions to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected;
and (4) suggestions to minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of responses."
This is truly awful, and I want to leave a comment, but even after reading the instructions on the website, I'm still pretty confused about how exactly to format the email. Can anyone help?
We are now open for registration until the end of the day on Saturday, December 13th (ET)!
Pixel Cat's End is a virtual pet site where you collect and manage a village of cat-like creatures. You can dress them up, give them jobs, build and decorate their homes, and take them on tabletop-rpg-style adventures.
Come down and get yourself some small, round little kitty not-cats! Features:
Some future features:
Find us at pixelcatsend dot com
Autistic in Talk Therapy: Did It Help You?
I don’t know if anyone else on the spectrum relates to this, but… I think talk therapy might have traumatized me more than it helped.
I spent 7 years in therapy with someone who was genuinely kind. She wasn’t mean. She wasn’t dismissive. She wasn’t doing anything “wrong” in the traditional sense.
But the whole experience felt excruciating.
The eye contact. The silence where I was expected to magically find words. The feeling of being watched while trying to process. The pressure to talk on demand, even when my brain just… wouldn’t. Masks inside masks.
After all that time, it never got easier. Not once.
I’m posting my short about it below, because I want to hear from other autistic people:
Did talk therapy actually help you? Did it hurt you? Did you feel misunderstood?
Or are there other types of support that worked better for you?
I’m trying to figure out if what I experienced is common, or if I was trying to force myself into something that wasn’t built for my brain in the first place.
My experiences were very similar.
And one was worsened by the fact that the therapist, who seemed kind at first, turned out to be quite ableist, and and thought she could tough-love the autism out of me by acting cold.
But even with truly kind therapists, the things you describe make me feel like an insect under a microscope. I wish some variant of play therapy were available for autistic adults.
