What's going on and what diagnosis the psychiatric institution hands out are different things.
A lot of people got slapped with an autism label in the 90s because schools wanted to run them out of schooling and make sure they could never be employable, because of eugenics reasons. There is usually something going on, either neurological or social, but it just gets swept under the a-word and society is told to hate these people with such a fury. And then there are a lot of people with Kanner-type autism that often never learn to communicate at all, or can only do so with great difficulty (but don't expect the schools or professionals to help with that).
In every case the interventions I received actively worsened my condition and left me a traumatized wreck when I finally, effectively dropped out of school. It was only when I was out of that environment that I was able to live something like a life. I still can't really talk and public speaking is a total impossibility, and it's obvious even online that I'm a tard.
I don't have a problem with mental illness chairing disability committees, as long as they are aware of the wider situation. Being disabled, however much, is not a pass for being a wrecker asshole, and it's painfully obvious that this guy is fucking shit up either because of his own vanity, his own shortcomings as a person, or (most likely) because he's sent there to fuck shit up and derail the organization.
Still, the situation for anyone who is marked as an autist is rough and it is a dire social problem, especially when the disability runs out (and nowadays you don't even get disability any more, it was just a glut of people in the '90s and early aughts that got on until the definition was changed for obvious political reasons). There is a lot of shit people with physical disabilities have to put up with legally, too, for example work rules if people ever want to get off of disability are a fucking mess to the point where most people just say fuck it and work under the table. They really set it up so you can't work, then if you're on SSI you don't get enough to live off of. Back when I was on SSI I had to take a part time job that I shouldn't even be able to do (I had to get special accomodations to do it too, fortunately it was a night shift job).
