I don't suppose Peter Huhne knows he doesn't know what autism is, and can't imagine he's about to google. He probably has the widespread vague general belief that autistic people lack empathy (and the link to the triad of impairments doesn't really help if you simply look at that; it does include 'difficulties with empathy'; if you think you know what those difficulties are, you aren't being told otherwise.
I have learned a lot about autism through MN, and as a result of some of what I have read on here, have looked into it further, . Every time it comes up though there is the same cry of 'it's not up to us to educate' - well, no, it isn't, but in reality, people are not going to go off and look up something without a trigger. I looked up Joubert syndrome because of a friend's little boy who has it; it wouldn't have occurred to me to go round researching syndromes otherwise. I wanted to understand better what they were facing; not to bug the family with uneducated questions, to try to understand what they were talking about when they described what X or Y piece of equipment was for.
Without knowingly having anyone with autism in my real life circle, I had no reason to think that my original understanding was as flawed as it was. However MN has stood in for that circle and various posters have led me to want to understand better, to try not to bug them with uneducated questions, and to try to figure out what they were talking about in their posts about family life.
I don't know if that does any good, overall; the only time I can think of it having affected anything was when a friend was having a moan about the behaviour of a child in her circle - "they just say he's autistic, but that's no reason for [whatever it was]" and I, hopefully gently, challenged the latter part of the sentence. Couldn't have done that without you, MN - would have probably just agreed with her. Yes in the ideal world I wouldn't have needed you to share your experiences on here, but I did, and thankfully for me, you did.
I don't know what I'm rambling on about, really, other than to say that the 'it isn't up to us to educate you' makes me slightly sad. I wouldn't want it to be an obligation, I know you have enough on your plates, but if you don't share your realities, there will be fewer people whose curiosity is triggered enough to look further. And when someone says 'lacking in empathy', referring to 'Dr Google' wouldn't make me look further - they aren't saying it to be insulting, or because they are stupid, they are saying it because that is what they have learned. I would feel crass jumping in, here, and saying 'well that's not actually it, blah blah' because I don't know quarter as much about it as those of you who live or work with autism.
Don't know what the answer is. But thanks to those who have been part of my education.