Yes, RFK Jr. said autistic children will never pay taxes, hold a job, play baseball or write a poem

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

In April 2025, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, said autistic children "will never pay taxes. They'll never hold a job. They'll never play baseball. They'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted."

Rating: Correct Attribution


In mid-April 2025, a rumor spread online that U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said autistic children would not go on to pay taxes, hold a job, play baseball or do other everyday things.

For example, Gillian Branstetter, a communications strategist at the American Civil Liberties Union, claimed on Bluesky that Kennedy said autistic children would never pay taxes, hold down a job or contribute anything to society.

In the same post, which had amassed more than 5,900 likes as of this writing, she included a video of Talking Heads musician David Byrne — who has previously discussed recognizing in himself characteristics of autism — dancing freely on stage in an oversize suit.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/quote-rfk-jr-autistic-kids/

[Lovie777]

1. UGH.............

fuck him.............

[C_U_L8R]

2. RFK is autistic?

Doesn't seem like he does any of those things either

[Thunderbeast]

3. Elon Musk?

Now there's an autistic freeloader if I ever saw one!

[neeksgeek]

4. There's a strong whiff of ableism here

I’m not autistic, but I hear an unpleasant undertone in these kinds of statements.

I was a premie and suffered a stroke before I had been in the world two weeks. My vision is not good, and I have no depth perception. I’m also bipolar. But, I’m a success story: I luckily had no cognitive impairment, and my biggest challenges have been motor reflex problems and a minor speech impediment. Not only can’t I play baseball, I have no interest in it. I’ve been lucky, my parents got me various therapies and I learned to drive, went to college, then taught college, and by any rational standard, I’m a contributing member of society. I’m atypical but I’m not defective. I’ve even written some (bad) poetry.

When I hear people like RFK Jr. speaking like this, it chills me. I worry about how far they’ll go to make everyone “normal.”

[synni]

8. We're just illustrating how insane RFK's comments were

This isn't ableism, but a SATIRE of ableism.

And, as a disabled person myself, I support this satire 100%. Humor is one of many ways to expose evil.

[neeksgeek]

14. He still scares me nt

[ShazzieB]

20. He scares you because he IS scary.

Dude gives me the creeps!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. That is certainly true of severely autistic people.

Most are not that severely affected.

My Son The Astronomer is on the spectrum, and while he does not write poetry, he did briefly play baseball when a little kid. He does hold a job and pay taxes. RFKjr's ignorance is appalling.

[womanofthehills]

7. The criteria for autism keeps changing in DSM

Autism Diagnostic Criteria: DSM-4 vs DSM-5 Key changes.

Autism in DSM-5: The Current Diagnostic Criteria

“The release of DSM-5 brought about significant changes in the conceptualization and diagnosis of autism. The most notable change was the introduction of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as a single, comprehensive diagnosis, replacing the previously separate subtypes of autism.”

https://neurolaunch.com/autism-dsm-4-vs-5/

[Initech]

6. What a truly miserable, psychopathic POS!

[hardluck]

9. He's right, my son never played baseball

He was a AAA hockey goalie, graduated high school with honors, and we just did his first tax returns.

What an asshole….

[Xavier Breath]

10. Yes, but in fairness to RFK, I imagine David Byrne is a shit baseball player.

[jmowreader]

12. One of my best employees is autistic

Not only does he hold a job and pay taxes, every Tuesday morning we put him in a van full of newspapers and have him drive, all by himself, over 300 miles. He's always done it successfully.

[GP6971]

19. No. Ready for another week?

[Bad Thoughts]

13. Where do parents get the tax exemption?

I'm sure they want to be at least lessen the financial burden.

(Yes, I know what he says is BS.)

[alarimer]

15. That's a very narrow definition

I'm told it's actually a spectrum.

And there are always people in every society who have different degrees of capability. People have accidents or strokes or whatever. Are they supposed to just die? Get put out on an ice floe, if you can find one?

Perhaps autism is just part of natural human variation, at every point in the spectrum.

All I know is that Kennedy sounds like a Nazi.

[ShazzieB]

22. It's all tied in with his antivaxx obsession.

He has been convinced for years that childhood vaccinations cause autism in some children, and that this is a major public health issue. His theories have been thoroughly debunked and discredited, but he seems to be unshakably convinced of this.

Now that he's Secretary of HHS, i think he is determined to find a way to "prove" that vaccines cause autism. I'm not sure what his end goal is, but I don't think it's about euthanasia. He wants to find a "cure" for autism, which to him seems to mean the most extreme levels of severity. I doubt that he's kept up with the correct definition of autism as a spectrum; when he uses the term, he describes only the most severe cases.

He is a hero to a certain subset of parents in the autism community who believe that their children were born "normal" and became autistic due to being "damaged" by vaccines. He validates their belief, and I think he gets off on the adulation he gets from them in return. Those parents believe that he wants to help their children and protect others from vaccine "damage." I think he believes that, too.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

16. This asshole is on the spectrum

[LetMyPeopleVote]

17. Autism is NOT a disease but Measles are

[TommieMommy]

21. What an idiot he is. There is an autistic girl on Survivor and she's doing amazing.