Autistic Stereotypes In Raymond Babbitt's Rain Man

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If one were to ask the average person what they know about autism, they either know nothing about it or they have a very warped picture of it. They either think of an eternally innocent child or adult with the mind of a child who can’t speak or do simple tasks on their own, an insane sociopath who has no remorse for the atrocities they commit, or a socially inept but brilliant savant, like Raymond Babbitt from Rain Man, or some combination of the three. They might think of autism as a horrible disease that affects so many children, it has become an epidemic. They might think of autistic people as someone to pity or even as burdens on society. They may even think that they would be better off dead than with autism and “mercy kill” them. They

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