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It's tragic, that the whole "superhero" narrative around neurodiversity was probably meant to be hopeful, but yeah, it's almost the opposite nowadays. Plenty of people with autism e.g. don't have special skills, they just have it harder really.

Even despite that, I still find the idea hopeful and worth discussing. Whether something should be considered a strength or a weakness _does_ depend, at least in some cases and to some degree, on your perspective and actions.

Some superhero fiction even covers this aspect. A quite interesting example would be One Piece, where a number of people ate a special fruit that gave them superpowers, but they lose the ability to swim. Since the world is mostly ocean, that's a huge deal, and the main character is initially depressed about having made that trade, until he learns to appreciate his new powers.

So I guess this neurodiversity-is-a-super-power narrative can be both be bad (proper help and understanding is denied) and good (e.g. increased self confidence).




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