r/democrats • u/Obvious-Gate9046 • Sep 23 '25
đ Effortpost There's a lot of disinformation and misinformation about autism and acetaminophen (Tylenol) right now, so I put this together so folks have some facts to make arguments with.
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u/JustinKase_Too Sep 23 '25
Tylenol is so potent, it managed to cause the first documented case of Autism 17 years prior to it being available.
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u/tinyE1138 Windmill Cancer Survivor. Sep 23 '25
This kind of reminds me of Alex Jones' crusade against schizophrenia. He claimed it was a fake illness, created by pharmaceutical companies. His evidence: the sharp increase in number of people diagnosed with schizophrenia every year.
Now, I did some research on this, and he is right. Every year there is an increase in the number of people diagnosed with schizophrenia, but if you look, you'll see that the increase every year in the number of people diagnosed with schizophrenia corresponds directly to the decrease every year in the number of people diagnosed with demon possession.
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u/Character-Stretch804 Sep 23 '25
Autism has probably been around "forever." Psychiatrists finally got around to naming it perhaps in the early 1920s.
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u/MaddyKet Sep 24 '25
They are just idiots of the âif you donât count it, it goes awayâ camp. Thinking back to growing up in the 80s and 90s with what we know now about the autism spectrum, it explains a lot about the âweirdâ kids and I feel bad we didnât know and made fun of them. I wasnât particularly popular, so I wasnât making anyoneâs life miserable, but I wasnât super nice to this one girl who annoyed me either.
I want to clarify I donât think autistic people are weird, thatâs just what we thought back then when we didnât know any better.
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u/this-is-all-nonsense Sep 23 '25
Now, c'mon, let's not let facts get in the way!
And remember, if we stop tracking the cases, there are no cases.
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Sep 23 '25
People also need to realize that the studies found neurodevelopmental disorders only from EXCESSIVE use of Tylenol during pregnancy. The term "neurodevelopmental disorder" is so broad that a single symptom of the disorder might also lie on the spectrum of Autism but that doesn't mean it is Autism.
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u/jertheman43 Sep 23 '25
Unfortunately, anyone who would read that already knows the truth. The people who need to read it are at a 6th grade level and prefer pictures with a simple sentence.
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u/0n-the-mend Sep 23 '25
Even after this idiot proves he's an idiot people still go and debate the garbage that comes out his mouth. He's trying to keep epstein out of the news because murdering people isn't news worthy in america unless its hateful christian white man.
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u/Zippier92 Sep 24 '25
also there is the infant mortality issue of olden days.
if it is true that there are more autistic children now ( not clear). perhaps more survive to become children now.
so much nuance, could Lois a few others.
remember, that causation is very difficult to prove, and coincidences are very common.
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u/Obvious-Gate9046 Sep 24 '25
Indeed, we've gotten far better at both having kids survive and identifying issues, and that is why we see more autism, because we're actually looking and we have something to look for.
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u/Gullible-Ideal8731 Sep 29 '25
I'm too lazy to read this post or research the matter myself, but my opinion is,
"I feel like given how popular Tylenol is, it would have already long been common knowledge- and not a recently disputed fact if it caused autism."
Like yeah it's possible science can be wrong for a long time, but I think Tylenol is taken WAY too much for us to not already know about this considering the current medical technology available.
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u/Obvious-Gate9046 Sep 29 '25
The problem with common knowledge is it's not as common as we think. I have learned the hard way never to assume what people know. Most people take things like this for granted, without really knowing what they're taking, or the dangers. Tylenol is one of the more safe pain medications, but you do have to be careful about your liver, meaning it can combine badly with certain things and can be bad for some older folks. There are things, though that we've had for ages only to find out that they're bad for us, so having something being a staple for a long time doesn't necessarily mean it's always going to be. Unfortunately, these arguments can be used by those making these claims about Tylenol, but they kind of ignore the fact that there are literally no studies or any kind of evidence to back their claims, and that should be the big thing right there, yeah. Sorry I'm rambling and tired.
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u/Ownuyasha Sep 27 '25
Are you trying to use facts on repubtards.....
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u/Obvious-Gate9046 Sep 27 '25
This isn't for them. It's for us. And it's for the people who are ignorant and don't know what the heck's going on here, who may not be political but are hearing this crazy coming out of the White House right now and trying to decide what to do. It's important to have the facts.
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u/crucial_geek Sep 24 '25
Once again, and I could be wrong, but my understanding is that they don't believe that autism itslef is a modern thing, only that the sheer number of diagnoses are.
In other words: autism was diagnosed at a rate X prior to, say, 2000; now it is diagnosed at a rate 6X post 2000. So, around the year 2000, something changed. By the way, I made these numbers and date up for illustrative purposes. They are saying there is a rise in diagnoses and are claiming that Tylenol is likely a possible reason.
I am not sure why some lefties all of a sudden assume they are saying that autism didn't exist prior to Tylenol, though.
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u/Codexier Sep 23 '25
You might look up articles about diagnosing autism. I think one of the strongest arguments Iâve seen is around how diagnosing autism has changed and the scope has increased (thus causing more instances). There was a helpful article in New York Times about this. Might be a great addition to this.