Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has once again torn through the fabric of decency with all the tact of a bull in a children’s hospital. His latest grotesque proposal—a government-run “disease registry” to track Americans diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder—is not just misguided. It is a weaponized act of ignorance dressed up in the camouflage of concern. Make no mistake: this is not policy. This is profiling. This is not advocacy. This is authoritarianism with a health-and-human-suffering mask duct-taped to its face. And if you think that is hyperbole, you have clearly not been attentive to his long, toxic career. He has peddled conspiracy theories while pretending to fight for the vulnerable.

Let us start with the most egregious lie at the center of this nightmare: autism is not a disease. It is not something you “catch.” It is not something you “cure.” Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental and neurological difference, not a pathogen. To call it a disease is to resurrect the worst kinds of ableist tropes. These tropes blame the person for how they were born. They seek to isolate rather than integrate. They devalue a life lived outside neurotypical norms. Let us be clear about this. When the state begins tracking people based on their neurological makeup, we are no longer talking about public health. We are talking about state-sponsored stigma.

This proposal echoes the most shameful moments in human history. Registries—be they for race, religion, disability, or dissent—are tools of control, not care. From the tracking of Romani people and those with disabilities in Nazi Germany, to the forced sterilizations under U.S. eugenics programs. Japanese internment camps and COINTELPRO surveillance of civil rights leaders followed. Every registry begins with the same lie. The registry starts with, “We are only doing this to help.” That lie wears a new face every generation, and this time, it has found its mouthpiece in RFK Jr.

You can read more about how deep his delusions run in my earlier takedown, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: America’s Tragic Error at Health and Human Suffering,” which I posted here: Part One and Part Two. In those pieces, I dissected his disastrous ideas on vaccines, his manipulation of public fear, and his self-anointed martyr complex. But this registry scheme? It takes the cake, sets the cake on fire, and then tries to sell the ashes as “progress.”

Let us talk about privacy—remember that thing RFK Jr. pretends to care about when railing against government overreach? HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, was enacted to protect Americans from exactly this kind of intrusion. Health data is sacred. It is private. It does not belong in a federal database unless that data is willingly and knowingly offered by the individual. So who is going to report people to this registry? Will schools be required to hand over IEPs? Will employers be deputized to file diagnoses? Will healthcare providers be coerced into violating their oaths? And once reported, how will this data be used? Will it be weaponized to deny services, restrict freedoms, or impose “treatments” on people who never consented?

And let us not forget the real danger here: this registry is not being proposed in a vacuum. A man proposes it who has built his public persona on dangerous misinformation. His persona is also based on junk science and the calculated demonization of anyone who contradicts his messianic self-image. He has flirted with anti-vax disinformation for decades. He has spread conspiracy theories so corrosive they make InfoWars look tame. He also has the gall to present himself as a champion of the underdog. RFK Jr. does not care about autistic people. He cares about power. He cares about legacy. He cares about control. And that makes him not just ignorant—it makes him dangerous.

Autism, by contrast, is not a threat to be cataloged. It is a spectrum of human experience that includes engineers, artists, scientists, and children with dreams and dignity. Autistic people need accommodations, not registries. They need equity, not tracking numbers. They need allies, not inquisitors.

This registry proposal is the kind of bad idea that metastasizes if left unchecked. It will not end with autism. What next? A registry for people with bipolar disorder? A tracking system for those who experience psychosis? A federal list of people with intellectual disabilities? This is the slippery slope we are tumbling down when we normalize government surveillance under the guise of care. And it is not just autistic individuals who should be terrified. Every person with a disability should be sounding the alarm. Every ally should be organizing resistance. Every journalist worth their pen should be pressing Kennedy on the logistics, legality, and morality of this obscene plan.

To those still clinging to the idea that RFK Jr. is a misunderstood maverick—snap out of it. He is not fighting the system. He is the system, rebranded in fringe theories and silver spoon rebellion. His name may come with prestige. However, his ideas reek of paternalism, control, and 20th-century authoritarianism. They are dressed up in 21st-century language.

And if you are reading this and thinking, “Well, what harm could a registry really do?”—ask yourself this: When has a government registry of a marginalized group ever ended well? Think hard. I will wait.

Autistic people are not data points. They are not epidemiological experiments. They are not your public health scapegoat. They are human beings. It is shocking that this even has to be stated in 2025. This is a damning indictment of how far we have not come. RFK Jr. should retract this proposal immediately. He should offer not just clarification, but a full-throated apology. This apology should go to the autistic community and disability rights advocates. It should also go to every American. These Americans still believe in the right to exist without being tracked. They do not want to be categorized and surveilled.

And if he refuses, then let history remember him not as a crusader, but as a cautionary tale. Another Kennedy was drunk on ideology. He mistook his privilege for wisdom. He believed his platform gave him permission to violate the most sacred rights of the people he claimed to protect.