Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has a plan to undermine the autism registry RFK Jr. keeps talking about.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has a plan to protect autism-related data from RFK Jr.’s absurd plans to create a disease registry tracking autistic people.
Pritzker plans to sign an executive order Wednesday that will prevent state agencies from obtaining or disclosing data that personally identifies people with autism, unless it’s required for medical care or legal matters, according to a copy of the order obtained by the Chicago-Sun Times.
Autism is a spectrum. Legally define it as such and when asked for known people with autism provide the name of every person known to the state of Illinois.
If the goal of a list is to categorize people, a list with everyone on it is just as useless as a list with no one on it.
They’ll just go after the people who can recite the names of every person in the state of Illinois.
Brilliant.
RFK Jr. has long dehumanized people with autism and spread unbacked claims about the disorder. “These are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use the toilet unassisted,” Kennedy said at a press conference in April.
Has this guy ever actually met someone with autism? I’ve known autistic kids who weren’t verbal or even seemingly aware of their surroundings, but I have also known autistic kids that were extremely high functioning, and you would never know they were autistic unless they told you.
And then of course there are those in the middle, at every point on the SPECTRUM. We’ve all met that Aspy kid who is obsessed with a subject, and could talk about it endlessly. I once had a long, very enjoyable discussion with a Cub Scout in my son’s pack about Star Wars, before his mother rushed up and said “Are you talking about Star Wars again? What did I tell you about bothering people? He doesn’t want to hear about that.” Then she apologized to me. That’s when I said, “It’s okay, I love Star Wars. I started the conversation when I saw his Star Wars T-Shirt. I could talk about Star Wars all day.”
The other day, I had a long discussion with an awkward young guy about my favorite obsession, Music, and it was his as well. Eventually we parted, and I wondered if he was autistic, and Music was his obsession. Then I thought about how obsessed I am about music, and wondered if I don’t have a touch of autism myself.
Putting all autistics into the same bucket does them and society a disservice. Many are perfectly capable of holding jobs and living fulfilling lives. If the government declares all neurodivergents to be a drain on society, then it opens them up to vicious discrimination in every corner of society. That would be a terrible shame, because I often find those obsessive awkward people to be very interesting and endearing. You want to know about a subject? Find an autistic person who loves it, and they’ll share everything they know. I love that.
JB Pritzker and Tim Walz are really standing up for us, and at least trying to fight back. I almost want to move to IL or MN if I could afford it. Feels like a safer place to be than PA right now.
Our property taxes suck ass in IL. My house and property looks worse or doesn’t change year after year, yet my taxes never seem to somehow increase YOU. Gonna keep saying it, but for being wealthy, I didn’t have high hopes for Pritzker, but he’s been great!
I lived most of my life in Illinois and you’re right, the property taxes suck. But keep in mind that you get what you pay for. Move to a state with low property taxes like I did, and enjoy shitty roads, crumbling infrastructure, and lack of assorted services that you now take for granted.
I also miss having a Governor who gives a shit about people. I held my nose and voted for Pritzker when he ran against Rauner, thinking that it wouldn’t make a difference. Turned out to be the best choice I ever made. I’m really hoping he runs for President in '28.
I just hope one day we can replace austerity with taxes on the rich. Also, I had the same thought voting for Pritzker, the first time.
Oh, the choice is a shitty republican that sucks or a billionaire. Yippy!
I was so glad my defeatism and low expectations turned out to be wrong.
Every state gets their cut somehow. Illinois’ property tax is just Missouri’s personal property tax or Florida’s sale tax. There’s fluctuations that encourage certain economic activity or attracts people with certain financial situations, but for the most part any variance in the total tax burden is probably weighed out by the benefits of those taxes. In Illinois roads are (somehow) much better than in Missouri despite having probably tens of thousands miles more, education is better, public health is way better, etc. The big one is welfare for farmers down state when crops fail due to flooding or drought.They’re ungrateful little bitches about it(I know because I grew up there) but everyone should have a sense of financial stability if they’re contributing to society.
I think you are commenting in a different discussion than autism
A good move from Pritzker. Good for the people with autism.
This guy is fucking great, makes me wish I could vote for him but I’m in another state.
You may well have a chance. I think he would be a great presidential candidate, but there is a sticking point. I fear that a nonsignificant amount of people who haven’t been hearing about his actions would vote against him or abstain based on his billionaire status.
yeah, but i was kinda hoping the article was about him forming his own task force of autists to take on the plan.
Didn’t Nazis already experiment on mentally challenged people? Yeah… it’s about time for the revolution
Elon got tired of killing monkeys with his brain implants and wants to move on to killing humans.
I’m sure his legal team would prefer if you mention elon didnt kill the monkeys, instead the monkeys with his implant killed themselves when they checks notes repeatedly bashed their own head against the floor.
Jesus Christ, what bleak times we inhabit.
I feel like he’s trying to make “nerve stapling” from Sid Meyer’s Alpha Centauri a thing.
unless it’s required for medical care or legal matters
Isn’t everything those fascists do “legal” now?
Wait, why the fuck does RFK even want one…? I guess I’m totally out of the loop on this…
Its a fear tactic to make the number of people diagnosed with autism go down significantly in the coming years. We all know what the Nazis did with the disabled people on their list and so people are going to stop getting officially diagnosed to avoid going on that list, and then RFK can say that he reduced the autism rate.
So in otherwaords, for genuinely evil shit.
I’m guessing he’s trying to link autism to vaccines to prove himself right. The man has no education in health or medicine. Idiocracy.
Same reason they are building lists of immigrants, trans people, and people on food stamps; same reason any fascist government makes lists. Not for anything good.
The disabled were the first targets in Nazi Germany.
Ostensibly, some bullshit reason I don’t care enough about to look up. In reality, because he’s a republican and wants to murder them in camps.
Another aspect is that trans people are known to be more likely to be autistic. The UK is now forcing children at gender clinics to be screened for it.
The idea is going to be that being autistic makes you too disabled to transition.
