Podcast Episode Details
Back to Podcast Episodes
Why is the Pro-Natalist Movement Disproportionally Autistic?
My wife Simone and I discuss why the pro-natalist movement seems to be drawing many people on the autism spectrum. We share our thoughts on why autistic people may be attracted to intense affiliation and dedication to causes they believe in.
We also talk about the future of the movement, keeping relationships healthy in the public eye, managing our mental health as quasi-public figures, and more with our usual sense of humor.
https://manifold.love/
Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Next time we're talked to by a reporter or something like this, we need to have you subtly drop that you want to replace the rest of the population with autistic people. Um, We need to have you.
Simone Collins: What do we call it? The greater replacement. The greater replacement The complete solution.
Malcolm Collins: No, no, you gotta say it's the greater replacement theory.
Simone Collins: I really like that, the greater I have a greater replacement theory.
Malcolm Collins: I'm a greater replacement theorist, where the autists are trying to replace us, and Simone here, you affirm, you as an autist are trying to replace them now, right?
Like, that's what the pronatalist movement's really about. Yeah, we need some progressive to freak out about this.
Would you like to know more?
Simone Collins: Yes.
Malcolm Collins: Great. By the way, one thing you would've loved is when the repair guy came, you know, because I was managing the call, so I wasn't able to stand next to the repair guy, and I couldn't keep Octavian away. He wanted to watch the whole time. Oh boy. So he got his iPad and he sat down right next to the repair guy with his back leaning against the repair guy.
You know, like he know and I'm like, on the bat or something. Oh my. So the guy standing there doing stuff and Octa and this kids like coddling with him, like [00:01:00] leaning against him? Yeah. . Oh,
Simone Collins: no. Octavian is, has zero fear of any strangers. One
Malcolm Collins: of my favorites as a, yeah, he, there were like guys out working by our place.
And Octavian goes, Hey, can I go up and give him a hug? And I was like, Oh no, Octavian, I don't think like the random guy wants a hug. And Octavian goes, Everybody likes hugs.
Simone Collins: This guy was like, he clearly wasn't a morning person. He was smoking a cigarette and like, drinking a Dunkin coffee and like, just looking like he wanted to die.
Malcolm Collins: Octavian was like, I want to go give him a hug. Even when
Simone Collins: he was really, really little, we'd like go hiking and walk past a group of people. And he would just like veer off from us and follow them because, you know, they looked like more
Malcolm Collins: fun, I guess. The new family's more fun. So Speaking of all of this, one thing that was really interesting at the pronatalist conference, because we got a better understanding of like what the base of the movement is actually like.
And at one point I was like, this [00:02:00] really feels a lot like the early effective altruist movement. You know, lots of really competent entrepreneurs disproportionately highly educated, disproportionately entrepreneurs, disproportionately tech people, disproportionately successful. And somebody was like, and we were like, how can we move this in the direction of the EA movement?
Not like in the corrupted direction, but in the direction of actually having tons of societal influence instead of just being a subculture that is four people of a subculture are seen as like a weirdo thing, right? Somebody goes, well, the reason why that culture works so well was because, it appealed to disproportionately autistic people.
Published on 2 years ago