The Dangerous Comfort of "Autistic Predator-Radar"
Yesterday, I made a TikTok addressing a pervasive narrative in autistic spaces: the idea that autistic people are immune to manipulation because of our pattern recognition skills. My core argument was simple:
Harm occurs because of abusers - not because survivors failed to detect patterns.
Predictably, responses rolled in: "But we are more resistant to certain kinds of manipulation!"
This misses the forest for the trees in ways that matter. Let’s dissect why.
1. The Data Says the Opposite: Autistic People Are More Vulnerable
Research consistently shows that autistic people - like all disabled people - experience higher rates of abuse, coercion, and exploitation than allistic peers. This isn’t a failure of perception; it’s the predictable outcome of:
Social isolation (fewer allies to intercept harm)
Communication differences (gaslighting lands differently)
Systemic dehumanization (our boundaries are routinely violated)
The idea of innate "predator-radar" isn’t just false - it’s fundamentally incompatible with reality. Vulnerability to abuse isn’t a personal failing. It’s a systemic condition.
2. Pattern Recognition Has Limits: You Can’t Detect What You Haven’t Learned Yet
The "immune" narrative assumes:
All harmful patterns are universally recognizable (they’re not)
Abuse always looks the same across contexts (it doesn’t)
Trauma doesn’t reshape perception (it does)
Truth: Pattern recognition only helps if:
You’ve seen this specific pattern before
It isn’t disguised as care/support (common in abuse)
Your nervous system isn’t in survival mode
Otherwise, it’s like expecting someone to spot a landmine in a field they’ve never walked and were told was safe.
3. The Aspie-Supremacy Subtext
When we claim blanket resistance, the implicit message is:
"High-masking autistics are better at this" (false)
"If you were manipulated, you weren’t ‘autistic enough’" (violent)
This creates a hierarchy of survivorship where:
The "immune" reap social capital
The abused harvest silence and shame
It’s respectability politics with a neurodivergent gloss.
4. Why This Narrative Persists (Despite the Harm)
It’s comforting to believe:
We can cognitively outsmart abuse
Safety is earned through vigilance
Those who were harmed "missed signs" (so it won’t happen to us)
But comfort isn’t truth. And survivor-blaming always serves abusers.
What Actually Reduces Harm?
Name abuse as abuse - without auditing the survivor’s neurology
Teach red flags communally - as hard-won shared wisdom
Demand accountability upstream - from systems enabling harm
Accountability isn’t a spectrum. Abusers are responsible.