• texture@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    i doubt VERY much that there is any real connection between autism and appreciating trains. much more likely that its just a “funny” stereotype that influential people made popular.

    in the last few years any remotely orderly and unique interests are equated to “autism”. i think its obnoxious and really wish it becomes less common.

    • Strider@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      It’s not about trains, it’s about hyperfixation on whatever. It just doesn’t let you go, possibly a life long.

    • Owl@mander.xyz
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      4 hours ago

      in the last few years any remotely orderly and unique interests are equated to “autism”. i think its obnoxious and really wish it becomes less common.

      🙏

    • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      The most autistic guy I know is a literal train conductor for a freight line lmao. He always gives us a huge blast of the train horn when he goes by our house.

      Other than that though, yeah autistic people rabbithole into anything and everything. The train stuff and related stereotypes, like “all autistic people are socially delayed and have photographic memory like rainman” are actually super harmful and contribute significantly to under diagnosis of autism. Especially for those who don’t present as “nerdy white guy who builds model trains all day and can only see the world through the lense of advanced maths”.

    • how_we_burned@lemmy.zip
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      10 hours ago

      What about non autistics who have crazy train spotting, junkie scale, addictions? I know one bloke who is definitely a normie and yet has a massive model train setup.

      Several in fact