Keeping Culture Wars Out of the Neurodiversity Movement

The neurodiversity online magazine The Aspergian recently published a lengthy article about the so-called Autistic Dark Web, which consists of people on the spectrum who are hostile to the neurodiversity movement. Unfortunately it fell into the trap of ideological polarization that is probably part of the reason the ADW exists in the first place. I posted this comment below the article:

Since the Guardian piece was closed for comments, I posted mine here: https://dissenter.com/discussion/begin?url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/26/autism-neurodiversity-severe

The article above does a service by exposing the bigotry and vested interests behind opposition to the neurodiversity movement. But it's marred by tangling this issue up with the ideological culture wars between the "Alt-Right" and "SJWs."
Naturally the genuinely alt-right have contempt for those of us who aren't "normal" and refuse to consider ourselves inferior. But their efforts to influence critically thinking people are aided when they're able to portray the ND movement as "infiltrated" by SJWs or the "Ctl-Left" as some have called it. This is not merely a pejorative term for anyone who is progressive or cares about social justice -- although, naturally, the alt-right will use it that way since it's in their interest to conflate all who are opposed to them.

Rather, these terms refer to a specific kind of ideology that is rooted in postmodernism and derogates open inquiry and critical thinking because it's based on a subjectivist epistemology. This is an ideology that is in fact anti-science and objectively constitutes an obstacle to progressive social change, notwithstanding that many of its adherents may consider themselves "radical" or even "anticapitalist." You can read a Marxist critique of it here: "Adolph Reed Jr: Identity Politics Is Neoliberalism" https://bennorton.com/adolph-reed-identity-politics-is-neoliberalism/ And here's one from a left-liberal or social-democratic perspective: "Identity Politics Does Not Continue the Work of the Civil Rights Movements" https://areomagazine.com/2018/09/25/identity-politics-does-not-continue-the-work-of-the-civil-rights-movements/

Because it falls into the trap of the Alt-Right/Ctl-Left dichotomy, the article perpetuates a good bit of misinformation. For instance, most of the Intellectual Dark Web is not Alt-Right but, rather, various shades of liberal. And #Gamergate was, in fact, about opposing corruption and political authoritarianism in videogame journalism, which is why it included considerable numbers of women, POCs, LGBTs, and people with disabilities: "Giving Voice to the Voiceless: The #NotYourShield Project" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzwGIHUCtjU&t=2s "3 Women of Gamergate Fight Back!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtzrUsi6Y1s&t=1s Liberal vlogger PSA Sitch has a good short allegorical explanation of what it was really about here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STl7-_f4_eA Oh, and one more thing: it actually won victories for ethics, as with this regulation that came out of the FTC: https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/38gocf/ethics_major_ftc_update_the_ftc_has_updated_their/ (Elsewhere, I saw actual acknowledgment from that agency that the #Gamergate-affiliated UV campaign was the reason for this reg, but unfortunately I didn't save the link.)