Autism awareness advocates are hitting back at political commentators for suggesting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is “on the spectrum,” stating it is “frankly none of our business until he tells us one way or the other.”
After what most described as a “disastrous Twitter campaign rollout“, DeSantis was teased as “a little bit on the spectrum” by War Room host and former Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannon, with his colleague Grace Chong also ribbing the Floridian with the nickname Ron “DeSpectrum”.
POLITICO spoke to autism awareness advocates on the matter, with the underlying suggestion that DeSantis may be “neurodiverse”.
“It’s frankly none of our business until he tells us one way or the other… But if you want to delegitimize someone as a politician, certainly leaning into those stereotypes that people have about autistic folks is one way to do it. And that’s what’s happening here.”
– Jessica Benham, cofounder of the Pittsburgh Center for Autistic Advocacy
Perhaps trying to be helpful, POLITICO noted that “making fun of DeSantis’ social awkwardness is a widely shared pastime” in Washington’s “smart-set media-and-politics circles”.
The insider outlet said that “videos of the candidate robotically working a room or laughing in strange ways” are circulated “gleefully”, and that his “baffling emotional miscues” do line up with “stereotypes about people on the spectrum.”
They suggest it may be unhelpful to “pathologize” the Floridian, however, speculating that he may simply be a man whose “schmoozing skills” are somewhat below those of “the average local school board member”.