The autism quacks

Reported rates of autism have been skyrocketing. Textbooks in the 1980s said that it affected less than 5 out of 10,000 kids. Today, a new report says this:

CHICAGO/SEOUL (Reuters) – One out of every 38 children in South Korea may have autism, a surprisingly high number based on a new research approach that suggests autism is a global problem that is significantly underdiagnosed, researchers said on Monday.

The estimate, which translates into 2.64 percent of children, is far higher than the estimated 1 percent rate seen in studies in the United States and Europe. ...

"The high prevalence comes from this new population we included in our study -- the kids without any previous developmental delays or mental health issues," Kim said. ...

In Asia, parents are largely ignorant about the disorder, which has no cure, and are reluctant to face it. ...

"One problem that seems to pop up frequently is that parents do not want to acknowledge that their child/children may be autistic," said the woman, who asked not to be named.

If I were a Korean parent of a kid with no developmental delays or mental health issues, and some Chicago shrink told me that my kid was born with an incurable mental disease, then I would be skeptical also.

Why is it that the only one to admit this obvious fact is a woman who refuses to be identified? I smell a rat.

There is a movement today among psychologists and other quacks to stigmatize as many kids as possible as having autism, attention deficit disorder, or some other malady. There is no science to this, other than the fact that different people have different personality characteristics.