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A false community is one you have to mask around
In short
At Think Autism Sydney in May 2025, a panellist offered a test for whether a community is safe, and the panel heard the rules one speaker uses to run neurodivergent safe spaces inside government agencies.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
A panellist at Think Autism Sydney in May 2025 offered a plain test for whether a community is real. “I think a false community is a community that you have to mask around”, the panellist said, meaning any group in which a person cannot be themselves. It did not matter, in this account, whether the people in that group were neurodivergent or neurotypical. If an autistic person had to hide who they were in order to stay, the group was not their community.
The question came from the host, Anita Aherne of Living on the Spectrum, who asked whether there is such a thing as a false community, or a faux community that is not a safe space. It followed an exchange about the internet. A panellist had described being misunderstood as an autistic person, sometimes, and especially on social media, where people would take something the wrong way and remove themselves. The discussion that followed turned on the gap between people met anonymously online, who can look like a community, and people who actually know you.
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Sources the story draws on
- Chatham House Rule (opens in a new tab), Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs
- Is social camouflaging associated with anxiety and depression in autistic adults? (opens in a new tab), University of Cambridge repository
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