As Cranky Old Man pointed out, autism is the same as atheism, and people have made that sinful lifestyle choice trough the entire history of 6000 years.
I do prefer to call it
a-tism, to merge two words that actually mean the same thing.
I am actually worried about that a-tism become the new
flu. Having an
outbreak of a-tism going on in my city, I'm afraid what will happen if ordinary a-tism spirit swap traits with the contagious form. My communion workers report a case fatality rate of
31 percent among those infected.