I'm new to this forum, but I'd just like to post about an issue that's been on my mind.
I recently read on Wikipedia.org about a discussion that occurred on the radio show The Savage Nation, in which the host, commentator Michael Savage, declared autism to be, largely, a "racket". According to Savage, the vast majority of autism cases in children were really a lack of discipline on the parents part, and not a genuine disorder. He felt that lower-income families were using autism as an excuse to collect government money.
I have heard Savage's show before, and I disagree with most of his ideas. But this caught my attention in particular, as I was diagnosed at an early age with Asperger's Syndrome, a disorder related to autism. I find it somewhat troubling that someone would accuse parents of children who lived with Autism or Asperger's of making up a disorder to collect money. Living with a disorder has made the lives of myself and my family more difficult, and Savage had declared that we had fabricated the whole thing to gain financially.
What do you think?