Typically outliers

As a thought experiment: consider ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). As we keep learning anew that the prevalence is in fact higher than what we previously thought—what if, what if at some point the prevalence reaches 50% or more? That may happen; we simply don’t know. That is entirely possible. If that happens are we going to switch definitions around, that those without ADHD become the outliers needing a full battery of medical tests and, upon positive diagnoses become a ‘burden for families and communities’? Are we going to reengineer and redesign our entire living space differently, such that the lack of ADHD becomes a special need requiring special accommodation?

Copernicus’ heliocentrism encountered grave opposition during his time. Authorities of his day silenced him. The opposition was perverting the course of scientific understanding. We do just that today: we pervert the course of scientific understanding when we block objective head-counting of gender identifications and sexual orientations. We have no clue, we don’t even have ballpark numbers, because data collection has so far been suppressed.

The next thought experiment would be: what if, what if at some point data collection reveals that we in fact misunderstood genders and orientations altogether, that we got the wrong end of the stick? Are we going to switch our terms around, that what used to be straight becomes bent and what used to bent becomes straight?

If we listen to Copernicus and Einstein, we should just let go of our mainstream definition of what’s mainstream and what’s offstream. We should simply stop finding others an aberration or an anomaly.