[Referring to the prevalence of autism]
The prevalence in NH and a couple of other places is infinity. We had no autism in 1993. They must not have counted those oddball adults who diagnosed themselves when it became in vogue as an excuse for their eccentricities.
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Hmm. Well, I'm slightly autistic (we're talking a very light form of Asperger's, here), and yes, there certainly was autism before 1993. Those babies and children were just hidden from the world for a very long time and the diagnosis was only really formalized relatively recently.
To be fair, he's not saying that autism didn't exist prior to 1993. He's just saying that it didn't exist in New Hampshire back then. It is true that the statistics show no cases receiving treatment that year, but, you know, the three kinds of lies - lies, damn lies, and...
Ionakana has it right -- the major hole in this guy's logic is that he is assuming that because there are no diagnosed cases in the literature, that means that it didn't exist. Which, of course, is silly. By that criteria, any condition that is not recognized and diagnosed doesn't exist. So if you're sick and don't go to a doctor and get him to officially report what's wrong with you to the state statistic people, then you're not sick.
No, the really stupid thing is that he DOESN'T assume that - he recognises it, because he says "They must not have counted those oddball adults..."
That's funny. One of my students (I work with autistic children/young adults in a residence) is 21. I'm no mathematician, but I'm pretty sure she was born before 1993, and she was diagnosed well before that as well.
Autism has existed for decades; the reason why there's so much attention to it now is because there's so much more knowledge about it.
Actually, the term autism was first coined in 1912 by Dr. Hans Bleuler although the condition didn't come to be defined as we know it until some time in the 40's.
@Rosie
http://snipurl.com/qr23 him . This is another one who could fill their own site.
Yes, just like homosexuality didn't exist before the 1980's when the AIDS epidemic struck. Just because people don't recognize it, or talk about it that much, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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