Editing Openai/69177fbb-14c4-800f-bc57-ccb5a1d88c95 (section)

=== There’s a predictable set of dynamics that make theories like RDOS’s attractive even when they lack scientific support. These don’t reflect gullibility; they reflect natural human meaning-making under specific conditions. ===

==== Many autistic people grow up feeling: ====
* alienated
* different
* mislabeled as defective

A lineage theory offers:
* dignity (“my traits have deep roots”)
* identity coherence (“this fits into a bigger pattern”)
* a shared mythos (“people like me have always existed”)

Anthropologically, this mirrors how minority groups build narratives of origin to reinforce identity and cohesion.

==== The mainstream narrative often pathologizes autism. ====
An evolutionary-origin story suggests:
* These traits were adaptive.
* They’re not errors but specializations.
* They served a purpose in ancestral contexts.

Even if speculative, it’s emotionally restorative.

==== Many autistic adults feel harmed or misunderstood by medical and educational systems. ====

A fringe theory acts as:
* resistance to pathologizing models
* a mythic reclaiming of autonomy
* a way to “tell the story differently”

It functions similarly to alternative medicine narratives among communities dissatisfied with credentialed systems.

==== Autistic cognition tends toward: ====
* systemizing
* categorizing
* constructing explanatory models

The Neanderthal hypothesis is appealingly pattern-rich:
* two human lineages
* two cognitive styles
* two evolutionary niches It feels orderly—even elegant.

==== Online autistic spaces often develop: ====
* inside jokes
* shared symbols
* community-specific lore

The Neanderthal idea becomes a kind of folklore:
* not believed literally by all
* but meaningful as a cultural motif
* part of group identity performance

Like astrology in queer communities or clan myths in tribal societies, it builds cohesion.

==== The theory frames difference as ancient and natural rather than: ====
* personal failure
* parental fault
* modern environmental damage

It externalizes difference in a way that feels protective.

==== Neanderthal DNA in humans overwhelmingly affects skin, immunity, metabolism, and circadian rhythms, not cognition or autism. ====
But as a cultural myth, the idea persists because it provides:
* identity,
* dignity,
* explanatory elegance, and
* emotional counterweight to pathologizing models.

If you want, I can go through the strongest scientific argument against Neanderthal–autism correlation, or the most charitable version of RDOS’s idea that could survive contact with real data.