it's a mixture of a bunch of things. the biggest rise came because schools and hospitals, etc started getting a bunch of money for every "autism spectrum" label they could slap on kids. this labeled all the run of the mill, typical weirdos into "autism spectrum" and they started treating them the same, which is why they act the same.  some autism also comes from chemicals, food additives, and vaccines especially when mixed with certain dna.  most of my family could be diagnosed "on the spectrum", but we're just intelligent, which makes us all a little weird when compared to a world of npcs.  npc bitches gained attention from having a "spectrum kid", which made them all push for the label. same reason most trannies are "on the spectrum". it's about attention.
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