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Autism is a spectrum of many different traits, which means that there are people in both groups - extremely empathetic autistics, as well as autistics that have lots of trouble with naturally feeling empathy. There are also plenty of people in-between. I think with advocating for ourselves, a lot of times, we focus too much on pushing only one idea, when we should be making sure everyone is represented - not just one group (the empaths, for example).

If we keep pushing just one idea, sure, we will definitely change peoples' views. However, we're leaving out the autistic people who don't experience empathy, and we need to make sure they feel seen, too. We need to make sure neurotypical people understand that autism is a spectrum, with every single trait varying from one person to the next. We are not all the same. We don't want to create a new stereotype in place of an old one, right? That would cause plenty of new issues.

This is the same with pushing that we are all filled with emotions, all the time. I am on the hyper-empathetic, hyper-emotional side, but there are so many people who are not. Many autistic people have something called alexithymia, which affects their ability to recognize their emotions. This is common in people who have low introception (the ability to detect physical needs). There's a misconception that it means they don't have feelings, which is not true at all. It just means they have trouble recognizing what physical feelings mean in relation to emotions, causing them to have trouble identifying which emotion they're experiencing. Someone with alexithymia might be really sad or really angry, but aren't able to tell. They just know they don't feel good.

If you want to read more about this, @pixiesbigwhy on Instagram recently made a great post about autistic people and empathy. Pixie does lack empathy, and has trouble with introception, so they are more qualified to speak on that than I am. They also have many more very informative posts on many different subjects.