‘Something’s wrong.’ So said Donald Trump, about the rising prevalence of autism in children. It was in an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, on the 17th of December.
It is not an implausible statement. Conservative estimates are that there has been a one-thousand-fold increase in diagnoses of autism in children since the turn of the millenium, in the UK and US at least.
1 in 100,000 children with autism to 1 in 100 children with autism. In 25 years.
Yet Trump’s statement is controversial. So much so that the like of it is rarely made.
Welker’s eyes widened when she heard it. Their whites became clearly visible. We associate the look with a kind of madness.
And indeed a kind of madness ensued, as Welker eagerly parrotted the party-line: ‘Scientists say they’ve gotten better at identifying it.’
As if autism could go undetected. As if autism must be winkled out. As if autism can ‘mask.’
Hellbound and Down 