No, it is not real, because it is not rigorously defined. If it meant getting a certain score on a certain test that has high test-retest reliability, I would believe in it, but doctors diagnose literally anyone who meets a few criteria as being autistic. I could be diagnosed by some asshole doctor if I wanted to, but every doctor knows not to play with me like that because I would give them a clean right hook for such an insult.
"High functioning autists" are quickly becoming the most narcissistic group in society, even more than Black people. I regret any part I played in the "Nordic Autism" meme. Autism is bad for those afflicted by it and those around the afflicted. But now people who are just neurotics without enough autism symptoms to really be classified as such are thinking of themselves as autists, which is also annoying.
my mom drank liquor
and smoked weed
when she was pregnant with me
my forehead bulges out
and i have a cleft palate
i feel really confused
all the time
with everything
i think i have down's syndrome
i don't have the brains to have anything
resembling an intelligent conversation
i don't have the motivation
to do anything but watch television
because i wasn't fully toilet trained
until i was 17 years old
when i try to read a book
i just end up staring at a block of text
without understanding it at all
my perception is so limited and small
that i go into detail
about the tiniest bit of knowledge
that i have in my brain
then when i die
i'll go to heaven retarded
and they'll laugh at me there too
i don't know how to walk normal
because i can't stop thinking
about my mechanical legs
that suspend my disgusting abdomen
up off the ground
like a sack of filthy potatoes
on display
for everyone to laugh at
a sack of ugly potatoes
on stilts
and i know i have autism
and i'm legally blind too
and i have that weird fat puffy face
and people joke that i'm "mentally challenged"
mentally challenged? fuck off
i'm a retard!
a total retard that needs lethal injection
they should sterilize my entire family tree
nordic behavior?