Autism Gives Me Superpowers

As I’m writing this piece, two men are sitting next to me talking about how disabled people should be killed. Seriously. They’re going on and on about how vile it is that as some humans grow older, they begin to need diapers. In graphic detail, one of them is describing how he would shoot or poison himself if he were to become senile or physically incapacitated. His friend says it is a blessing that his mother died right after her stroke.

In the last half hour, they’ve discussed the necessity for mothers to abort disabled infants too. One of them mused that a life with a profound disability is not any kind of life. If you cannot speak, if you cannot go to the toilet by yourself, you must want to die.