• AVincentInSpace@pawb.social
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    2 months ago

    I almost certainly would have died to “pray the autism/ADHD away” evolving into “kill him, he’s a demon” related causes

    as for what age I’m not sure but I think saying I’d make it to 12 is optimistic

    VERY glad I was born to loving parents who knew I was autistic before I did, followed doctor’s advice, and fought to get me accommodations ij school

    • el_abuelo@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      There’s much less of that in medieval times than what TV would have you believe. Plenty of people were just labelled “crazy” or “weird” and few made a wide enough impact to attract the ire of people who actually cared enough to kill someone.

      The fact that ADHD is hereditary should tell us how few were killed for it.

      People forget that humans are social creatures, we don’t just up and kill anyone who is different (as a rule). We also have barely changed since medieval times, so sympathy and empathy are just as present now as they were back then - we just have a better understanding of things now and so we think we are labelling things a bit better than we were a few hundred years ago. And in another few hundred years we’ll be better at labelling still. But we’ll still be labelling.

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      nah, medieval europeans (that’s a very very very broad terms, just so we’re aware) seem to have mostly just viewed noticably neurodivergent people as “mentally challenged” and infantilized them more than anything.

      Apparently there was also a good chance that if you were autistic and decent at communicating, you could be taken on as a court jester and given quite free reign to criticize powerful people, because as it turns out having someone who isn’t a yes-man is pretty useful when you’re a ruler who wants their nation to not collapse under them.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f848ejfAFNM