alt Hacker News>Genetics does not explain steep raise in last a few decades.
as we built better telescopes, we found more stars
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A) There are more autistic people because something noxious causes autism.
B) Nope. There are more autistic people because tests improved.
This common discourse annoys me a little, frankly. The problem is that "B" does not imply "not A". Both explanations can be true at the same time.
But people people will automatically discard "A" because "A is problematic". It implies a cause, and we may not like it, so is removed from the discussion ASAP.
The same kind of "problematic" that was to observe in 1960's that "smokers develop lung cancer frequently, maybe tobacco causes cancer". Companies will fight teeth and nails to dismiss it and say "look at the cute squirrel over there".
But is true that we started to notice much more autistic people after the use of some particular pesticide became widespread in the entire planet. May be related. May be not. May be a common result triggered by many causes, but we should not jump to bring home the "nice" B just because is nice (and politically convenient)
Quick and cheap explanation many use, but not the case. Severe autism is also on the rise, and that doesn't need special telescopes, it's just evident.