Subject: Re: "I think somebody has to find out"

“If you go back 25 years ago,you had very little autism. Now you have it.”- PrezElectFucknutz

Etymology SNIP

autism (n.)

1912, from German Autismus, coined 1912 by Swiss psychiatrist Paul Bleuler from Greek autos "self" (see auto-) + -ismos suffix of action or of state (see -ism). The notion is of "morbid self-absorption."
also from 1912 SNIP
https://www.etymonline.com/wor...

Scroll down a little and you will see a trend in usage chart that shows a minor rise in 1960 and a steep rise since ~1990. Now we have the autistic spectrum which includes a range of behavior that used to have different names and now are in that autism spectrum.

That's why we didn't hear much about it 25-35 years ago.