So if you see me speaking as if there's an authority that comes with autistic experience, that's nothing to do with "autistic superpowers" or "Aspie Supremacy."

It's about having survived a brutal culling process. Not unlike several other cohorts I could mention. Or did already.

It's about having faced events beyond our control, and made it through. Not all of us. Just the ones who are still here to talk about it.

We have been places others are heading into.

That's all.

[fin]

#traumapants

Meanwhile, we put on our trauma pants just like everybody else, one leg at a time.

When we beat everyone's pants *off* at Pandemic Lockdown, it was due only to them having made so very sure we'd had such a long head start on them in the self-isolation event.

Again, their problem.

And, being traumatized at a population level for generations has given us a head-start on the sort of community trauma survival knowledge and perspective that it looks like most everybody is gonna need.

#traumapants

Here's the thing. I'm well-enough steeped in details of differences, strengths and weaknesses, between autistic and non-autistic cognitive styles that I could talk about them.

I just don't see, given this account's focus, how that discussion has much place here. And I believe the #Spring2020AutisticLockdown posts prove that point.

True, autistics may draw fear, anger, and resentment where we outperform neurotypicals. That's primarily their problem.

#traumapants

Hold on, making a quick query of my bookmarks for the word "resilience," before anyone makes the mistake of using it in a reply.

Because my people have opinions about that word.

"I hate when anyone uses it. It just means being quiet through trauma."

Alright. I got more, but that'll do.

#traumapants

The thread though (#Spring2020AutisticLockdown) wasn't about autism or autistics at all.

It was about the trauma of isolation. How a pre-isolated group A views a group B undergoing a limited version of their own isolation. Wherein group B remains the enforcer of group A's permanent isolation.

Seems worth saying, I had a lot of engagement on these posts. Heavy emphasis on favorites rather than boosts or replies.

So I saw yall have been along for the ride, albeit quietly.

#traumapants

A caveat here. Someone once described a sobering epiphany they had when marveling at all the strength and toughness they saw in their trans friends.

A happy reverie broken when they realized how many suicides of trans people they knew of. Trans people aren't any tougher than anybody else. It was just the ones who weren't so strong were gone.

Same with autistics. High suicide rates. Withdrawal from public social media chat. The tweets I saved were obv only the talkative ones.

#traumapants

Did anyone notice, over nearly 3 weeks of #Spring2020AutisticLockdown, that no one was "using their autism" to so easily survive the whole ordeal?

What they did say was, "Been here, been doing this already. And yes, it's traumatizing. So we do 'get' what the neurotypicals are going through."

And then opinions were divided as to whether the neurotypicals deserve empathy, or doth protest too much.

Given, you know, the givens.

Of everyone shunning autistics, as standard procedure.

#traumapants

Beginning to round out the autism threads now, bringing them back home as to why this all belongs on Global Dark Theme.

Hashtags that've brought matters along to this point :

#Spring2020AutisticLockdown (~18)
#LatN (5)
#GDTautismIntro (8)
#WhoTalks (13)
#LivingInFear (2)
#DPSO! (7)
#traumapants (next)
#pantrauma (later)

Spoiler: none of this, it turns out, has anything to do with autism.

It has everything to do with trauma.

An experience not at all limited to autistics.