The mainstream media journalists currently have two goals: promote Trump over DeSantis, and protect Biden from everyone and everything else.

The second goal gets harder when Biden takes bad falls, but the media is more than ready to pivot into “Republicans POUNCE” at any given moment.

But the first goal is a problem for the media. After all, they have spent years telling everyone that the BAD ORANGE MAN was “literally” the second coming of Hitler. Now we get think pieces about how “DeSantis is ackshually more dangerous than Trump,” which was totally predictable. DeSantis is currently the only primary candidate that is an actual challenger to Donald Trump, and the media wants a Trump-Biden 2024 rematch because they are convinced that Biden can beat Trump (and only Trump).

So, how to promote Trump while knocking on DeSantis, but also make Democrats look like caring and ethical people at the same time? Welcome to Politico, where senior editor Michael Schaffer is giving a master class in concern trolling. How? By laundering a rumor about Ron DeSantis being on the autism spectrum into the mainstream media, and allowing Democrats to express their “concern” that this rumor is even a thing. Just look at how this piece opens, and how the Democrat is presented as the sane, rational, and ethical voice.

Jessica Benham is a state legislator in Pennsylvania, representing a district that includes parts of Pittsburgh and its environs. A cofounder of the Pittsburgh Center for Autistic Advocacy, she’s one of the only openly autistic state legislators anywhere in the United States.”

As a Democrat and the first out LGBTQ woman in the state house, Benham’s politics aren’t exactly those of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Republican who signed the sunshine state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law.”

But she recently found herself in the somewhat surprising position of pushing back against an emerging line of attack against DeSantis, something that’s been trotted out by supporters of Donald Trump: The attempt to draw attention to DeSantis’ awkward public presence by claiming that the GOP presidential hopeful is “a little bit on the spectrum,” as Trump hatchet man Steve Bannon first put it last week.”

It’s not that Benham thinks such a diagnosis would be disqualifying. Rather, she’s troubled by the act of armchair diagnosis as a way of knocking someone. The implication is that the status of being on the spectrum is problematic or shameful or bad — and, at any rate, something intentionally kept secret.”

“It’s frankly none of our business until he tells us one way or the other,” she tells me. “But if you want to delegitimize someone as a politician, certainly leaning into those stereotypes that people have about autistic folks is one way to do it. And that’s what’s happening here.”

No kidding. In short order, Bannon’s comment, which used the pseudo-diagnosis to explain DeSantis’ disastrous Twitter campaign rollout alongside Elon Musk, was echoed across the MAGA ecosystem. “Ron DeSantis is 100% on the spectrum,” tweeted the pro-Trump activist Laura Loomer. “Can we finally talk about this?” Grace Chong, the CFO of Bannon’s War Room podcast, called him “DeSpectrum” in one tweet, and in another one contrasted him unfavorably with the former president: “Trump does it BIGGER, BETTER, and with HEART. Unlike that guy on the spectrum.”

Notice the framing. A bunch of nutcases who support Trump (yeah, Laura Loomer is not a stable person, and Bannon obviously has ulterior motives) claim that Ron DeSantis must be on the autism spectrum. This is a non-story. At least, until Politico decided that this would be a FANTASTIC WAY to discuss autism in public life, interview a Democrat who is on the spectrum, and launder the entire accusation into the media while keeping Democrats spotless.

This piece should never have been written. It shouldn't even have been conceived of. https://t.co/1aELghEJUo

— Jeff Blehar is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) June 2, 2023

A piece like this allows the media at large to begin an open discussion of “is Ron DeSantis autistic” while keeping their hands clean. After all, Michael Schaffer of Politico has now opened the door to the rumors, so now the media can talk about the coverage of the rumors, and let a hundred flowers bloom. Politico amplifies it, the media get their turn at concern trolling, the DeSantis camp now gets stupid questions about it in an attempt to derail and distract, the Trump camp gets smeared with the highlighting of their crazies, and The Experts™ get their moment in the Politico article to lecture the public about autism awareness and acceptance.

“My reaction is that, oh, here we go again, perpetuating false myths and negativity about the concept of autism and being on the spectrum,” says Barry Prizant, a University of Rhode Island professor and author of Uniquely Human, a bestselling book about autism. “It’s obviously trying to adhere a black mark to DeSantis. … I think there has to be major pushback against that, because it’s perpetuating the stigma.”

“God give me strength,” says Eric Garcia, Washington correspondent for the Independent and author of the 2021 book We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation. “It’s really fucking disgusting what Steve Bannon is doing.” Garcia says his group chat with fellow autistic writers lit up on the Bannon news. The refrain: “Are we really going to have to spend 18 months on this?”

“The speculation so far is being done completely in bad faith,” says Devon Price, an autism-focused social psychologist and author of Unmasking Autism, his own well-received book on “the power of embracing our hidden neurodiversity.” In the face of that sort of allegation, something like a categorical denial from the targeted candidate would come off as a further statement that a spectrum diagnosis is something bad (even if the denial happens to be entirely true).”

Yes, it is “f***ing disgusting what Steve Bannon is doing.” It’s also f***ing disgusting what Politico is doing.

The “is this person on the autism spectrum” speculation is meant to be a damaging one by association. Yes, people with autism have both unique challenges and unique gifts. Sometimes the gifts outweigh the challenges, sometimes the challenges outweigh the gifts. I know because I’m raising two children on the spectrum myself. (They might be brothers, but their autistic traits are nothing alike because they are two totally different people, and as a result, their challenges are completely different.) So yes, the Trump camp is trying to slap a label on DeSantis that they mean to damage him: “he’s on the autism spectrum!” But Politico, with their Experts™ and their chosen Democrat voice of reason, are concern trolling for the exact same result: “the Trump surrogates are saying DeSantis could be on the autism spectrum, but is that their bigotry talking? Let’s go to this Democrat and The Experts™ to discuss whether or not we should be discussing if DeSantis is on the spectrum.”

The Trump camp should know better, as there was open speculation about Barron Trump being on the autism spectrum until Melania began bringing lawyers into the conversation. This was doubly gross because Barron Trump was also a minor child at the time. But no, the Trump lackeys are bringing this up, and Politico is doing its best pearl-clutching while openly discussing the rumor and allowing Democrats to condemn it.

So what’s the line between perpetuating stereotypes on the one hand and, on the other, merely goofing on the foibles of a clearly smart and successful politician who, like Mitt Romney or Al Gore before him, happens not to have the schmoozing skills of a Bill Clinton (or possibly not even of the average local school board member)?”

To most people in the autism advocacy world, the ethical difference lies in pathologizing — connecting the mocked behavior to a specific condition that may or may not apply. But maybe it’s also a moment to think about what we look for in elected officials. “There’s a way in which it would be better for all people if the barrier to entry was a little less high in terms of how socially normative you have to be,” Gross tells me. “Or if we focused more on substantive issues, and less on how socially normative a politician is. But I also don’t think that it’s disability-related every time people are saying, ‘Oh, that politician acts weird.’”

It turns out that pressing the flesh in a diner is also not much of an indicator of anything.”

“I’m pretty good at working a room,” says Benham, the Pennsylvania legislator. “Because working a room follows a set of rules and social norms that you can learn. But there are plenty of my colleagues who are not good at that and who are not autistic. … Maybe they’re just introverted.”

Bannon and Loomer suck, but Politico is even worse for giving the rumor mill oxygen, exposure, and Expert Opinion™. In one article, Politico points out Team Trump’s allegations, gets the Democrats to decry the whole situation, but still speculates about Ron DeSantis and his personality. This was concern trolling at its finest, and senior editor Michael Schaffer should be excoriated for perpetuating the story.

Featured image via [F]oxymoron on Wikimedia Commons, cropped, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)