Public Responses to RFK Jr. Show How Americans’ Attitudes Toward Autism Have Transformed Since 2009
Americans Now See Autistic Humans as People. Don’t let RFK Jr turn back the clock.
America’s attitudes towards autism have drastically improved in the past 15 years. Case in point: the media’s coverage of Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s dire prognostications about autism.
“Kennedy has said autism ‘destroys families.’ He said children with autism ‘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 a toilet unassisted.’”
Reading these words, I felt like I was back in 2009.
RFK said almost word for word what the biggest autism advocacy organizations, like Autism Speaks, put in their ads.
For example, Autism Speaks’ 2013 Call to Action says:
"think about an America where three million Americans and counting largely cannot take care of themselves without help. Imagine three million of our own--unable to dress, or eat independently, unable to use the toilet, unable to cross the street, unable to judge danger or the temperature, unable to pick up the phone and call for help." (Three million was the estimated number of all Americans with autism at the time).
This was just 4 years after Autism Speaks released a video called “I Am Autism" (video and transcript), which described autism as a malicious invader:
"I am autism. I have no interest in right or wrong. I derive great pleasure out of your loneliness. I will fight to take away your hope. I will plot to rob you of your children and your dreams.”
This was a time when the media "sympathized with” and even agreed with parents who killed their autistic children (WARNING: linked post documents a lot of filicide and public justifications thereof).
By contrast, in 2025, an Associated Press reporter starts an article about RFK Jr with a photo of a happy family on a swing set. Two of the children and their mother are diagnosed.
The article is titled: “RFK Jr. says autism ‘destroys’ families. Here’s what those families want you to know”. Indeed, the AP actually interviewed autistic people – treating them as real people capable of voicing opinions.
Furthermore, the article presents, overall, a critical attitude towards RFK Jr’s atavistic statements.
In less than a generation, autism researchers, the media, and much of the public reconceptualized autism, from a public health threat to a group of real people with a future. Meanwhile, researchers have moved from focusing solely on biological causes of autism in young children to understanding and helping autistic people across the lifespan.
The proof: in 2025, RFK Jr now stands out from mainstream public opinion.
We’ve witnessed a social transformation. I would go so far as to liken it to the Civil Rights movement. People sometimes speak with despair and frustration about all the social problems and suffering people in the world. Can society really get better? It can over time, and it has.
(By the way, legislation didn’t contribute much – to my knowledge, no major autism-related legislation exists. What changed people’s minds was autistic people and their loved ones speaking up – to the media, to public officials, to schools, coworkers, friends, and neighbors. Those who were then coming of age grew up and got jobs, proving people like RFK Jr wrong. Some took jobs as reporters and researchers, further changing the conversation. In short, many committed people used their freedom of speech to defend their rights).
We must never return to the culture where autistic people were seen as less than human and reasonably feared for their lives.
RFK Jr seems to want to reverse research priorities to cause exactly that. Don’t listen to him.
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Do you also remember the “bad old days"? What changes have you seen?
Have you seen or joined any interesting efforts to counter RFK’s messages and tell better ones?
What do you hope the next positive change will be?
Let’s talk about it in the comments.