Cure by September? A Tonal Deconstruction of Empty Promises

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When U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently claimed that a cure for autism could be found by September, the words didn’t just land—they reverberated. Not as hope, but as dissonance.

An example article can be found here:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj0z9nmzvdlo.amp

For the neurodivergent community, statements like these aren’t neutral. They’re emotionally charged—carrying the weight of erasure, the echo of past harms, and the persistent framing of autistic lives as problems to be solved.

What may sound like progress to some, lands to others as a broadcast distortion: a loud signal with no real depth.

This piece doesn’t just interrogate the claim—it listens for the frequencies beneath it. Because beneath every promise lies a tone. And this one is ringing off-key.

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Here’s ToneThreads Analysis of the hyperbole!

The question “Can autism be cured?” arrives with a deceptively clinical ring.

But inside it hums something deeper: a mix of fear, hope, cultural pressure, and personal pain.

The word cure itself carries a low-frequency charge—often masked by science-speak or parental concern.

And yet, for many autistic people, the question doesn’t sound like curiosity.

It sounds like erasure.

This article doesn’t set out to prove or disprove anything. Instead, it tunes in—to language, tone, and emotional architecture. What follows is not a binary answer, but a resonant spectrum.

Part I: The Medical Model – Framed in Formulas, Echoing Doubt

Certainty on the Surface, Unspoken Desperation Below

Primary axis: Rationalism ↔ Relational Detachment

Frequency band: 0.40–0.67 (suspended inquiry, structured constraint)

Academic and diagnostic texts—particularly those anchored in the DSM-5—describe autism with clinical precision:

“Autism Spectrum Disorder is a persistent neurodevelopmental condition characterised by deficits in social communication and interaction, and the presence of restricted, repetitive behaviours.”

(DSM-5, paraphrased)

This language reads as clear-cut. But its clarity is cold.

• It names deficits and disorders, but not differences.

• It defines autism by what it isn’t—rather than what it is.

• It seeks causality, prediction, intervention… not understanding.

Many studies conclude by stating that “more research is needed.” This is code for uncertainty, but rarely named as such.

Instead, the tone is measured—sometimes too measured—and that’s where the emotional leakage shows.

There’s a buried pulse in this literature:

• A quiet panic in phrases like “high burden on caregivers”.

• A desire to locate the problem—and solve it quickly.

• And a persistent longing to simplify what is, by nature, complex.

  
  

Part II: The Neurodivergent Community – Voices in Full Spectrum

Woundedness Transmuted into Sovereignty

Primary axis: Misunderstood ↔ Reclaimed

Frequency range: 0.17–0.96 (grief, insight, resistance, liberation)

Autistic writers, artists, and thinkers speak from the inside. Their tone is far from clinical—it’s vivid, fierce, and often poetic:

“You want to cure me? You haven’t even asked what it’s like to be me.”

— Autistic blogger, Australia (2023)

“I don’t want to be less autistic. I want to be less traumatised.”

— Disability advocate, Sydney

In these communities, “cure” is often a code word—for conformity, erasure, or compliance. It carries historical weight:

• From forced institutionalisation to ABA therapy that rewarded “normal” behaviour.

• From meltdowns misunderstood as tantrums, to diagnoses weaponised in family court or education.

Autistic tone does not apologise for being intense.

In fact, it often leans into the intensity—embracing the sharp corners of truth, even if it burns.

There’s a musicality in the writing: nonlinear, full of ruptures and resonance.

Think post-rock, not pop. Think drone, not melody. Think feeling, not formatting.

This isn’t because autistic people lack structure—it’s because they hear a different one.

They communicate not only in words, but in frequencies:

• A pause means more than a paragraph.

• A lowercase “i” might be a soft grief, not a grammar error.

• The sentence “I’m fine.” might carry twenty meanings depending on the sender’s state.

Part III: Cultural Drift – Australia’s Frequency Field

Australia’s cultural approach to autism is evolving, but remains patchy.

What’s changing:

• Neurodiversity frameworks now appear in NDIS documentation, educational training, and mental health policy.

• Autistic-led organisations (e.g. Yellow Ladybugs, Reframing Autism) are shifting the narrative from “fix” to “flourish”.

What’s not:

• Many schools still centre compliance over connection.

• Therapies focus on “life skills” but often lack emotional literacy.

• Rural and regional areas face a gap not just in services—but in attunement.

The tonal drift in Australia is interesting:

• There’s a national tendency toward understatement, which often silences emotional nuance.

• Yet, in First Nations and migrant communities, communication may be more embodied, relational, and rhythmic—a closer match to spectral fluency than academic speech.

In this way, the neurodivergent community in Australia isn’t just redefining autism—it’s helping redefine what communication itself means.

Spectral Cross-Section: Cure vs. Care

Dimension	Cure Framing	Care-Centric Framing
Dominant Tone	Rational urgency	Compassionate adaptation
Unspoken Frequency	Anxiety masked as efficiency	Mourning transformed into expression
Identity Framing	“Something wrong with the brain”	“Another way the brain can be”
Desired Outcome	Normalisation	Resonant living
Underlying Fear	Unpredictability, isolation	Disconnection, dismissal
Relational Signal	“I want you to behave”	“I want to understand how you relate”

Final Frequency: From Fixing to Tuning

In Spectral Binary terms, trying to cure autism is like trying to make a minor chord sound major by deleting a note.

You don’t get harmony—you get disruption.

You lose what made it haunting. What made it whole.

The question isn’t: Can autism be cured?

The question is: What kind of world are we building when we keep asking that?

A world of signal, or of silence?

A world of suppression, or tuning?

To be autistic isn’t to be broken.

It’s to be vibrating on a different wavelength.

If we learn to listen with resonance instead of resistance,

we might not only hear them—we might start hearing each other.

Next Steps: For Educators, Therapists, Parents, and Systems Designers

1. Ditch the deficit lens – Language matters. “Support needs” is not the same as “low functioning.”

2. Practice tonal listening – What is the emotional waveform beneath the sentence?

3. Build environments, not protocols – Neurodivergent people thrive where expectations bend, not where people do.

4. Join the translation effort – Meaning is co-created. Let autistic voices shape the conversation, not just react to it.