My mother's kids: Zero were diagnosed as autistic.

My kids: Two are diagnosed as autistic.

Two ways to look at it. 1) An infinite increase in cases. 2) Diagnosis became a thing.

Of note, the most autistic-y of my siblings was more successful than the rest of us combined.

Not mentioned, but there also seems to be a lot less stigma associated with certain diagnoses these days than even 20 years ago. This leads to less resistance to seeking out a diagnosis in the first place which will also increase the apparent rate. This is good when it gets people a proper diagnosis and potential treatment or access to support.

The author is basically saying that autism is mo more prevalent than it was, say, 50 years ago -- it's just that we've gotten better at recognizing it.

The conspiracy theory mentality would lead one to simply assert that he is wrong. I am not a conspiracy theorist. On the other hand I AM skeptical wrt the author's assertion. It is rare for the intuition of an intelligent layman to be so significantly wrong.

also the definition of autism has been changing through all these years