[Edited / Update: Didn't realize Thomas had already answered, when I wrote the post at hand.]
Maybe the term referred to differences in the sense of having differences among themselves, like problems to express themselves truly or difficulties to get along when people of more or less apparent "neurotypes" (or divergence, as Thomas put it) are involved?
Yet, I don't want to answer instead of Thomas. I only want to confirm a personal impression, that there is an interplay between individual people and this (sometimes strange and hard to get) "society" and their respective influences. Unfortunately and still far too often, im my opinion, that societal influence puts a lot of pressure on the individual - instead of encouraging to learn about each others perceptions and needs, first.
Now I'm definitely not saying that societies should tolerate every individual oddity. For from it. Yet it is far more easier to find dealings to get along with each other, when you learn the real background why someone acts and reacts their way. (And often, one has to find out for oneself as well, first. Besides, that certain foundations in our brains will probably stay hidden or at least unconscious forever… To weal or woe.)
It's a tragedy that IMHO many many people (including myself) -- perhaps because of that general "mood of pressure", feelings of being out of time, having to accomplish too many tasks whose necessity is sometimes completely questionable in too less time etc. or even fighting for bare existence -- feel even less compassionate, even less able to investigate those feelings (incl. our own), less able to learn about each other, and deal with our respective characteristics, ask for specific steps that might make our living together easier and so on.
It takes effort, sometimes seems like a waste of time to get really in touch with one another. And sometimes our affected minds just don't make it. It would be so valuable, still.
