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I have to agree with blueflow, here: this type of activism is really irksome. Honestly, I can't think of anything more counterproductive than Aspies trying to

I have to agree with blueflow, here: this type of activism is really irksome. Honestly, I can't think of anything more counterproductive than Aspies trying to create more rules and further complicate discourse... He hasn't been chosen by us, doesn't represent our views, and yet still feels like he can talk on our behalf. I've heard the same thing from trans people before. We need to stop listening to these people.

rhn_mk1 5y ago
After reading this, I'm even more confused about what autism is than before. Sure, my current knowledge may be wrong, but tearing down any generalizations "if you met one person with autism, you met one person with autism" just makes it impossible to define as a thing separate from non-autism. Yet the author tries to create generalizations later? Autistic people experience the world in a different way than non-autistic people. Okay, let's let this inconsistency slide. So to what extent? Are they trying to say that all non-autistic people perceive the world exactly the same way? Nonsense, so where's the line? From the article, there's no line: some are like this, some are the opposite. I feel the points about the form of communication are valid, but the ones describing the actual subject of communication are not helping.
- xmprt 5y ago
  > Autistic people experience the world in a different way than non-autistic people I don't think this is a generalization. In fact, it is the opposite of a generalization. > all non-autistic people perceive the world exactly the same way They aren't trying to say this. The first statement doesn't imply the second.
  - rhn_mk1 5y ago
    > I don't think this is a generalization. In fact, it is the opposite of a generalization. Maybe "generalization" is the wrong word, but it's still a way to carve out a niche, which was previously denied. > The first statement doesn't imply the second. True, but this leaves us with "where is the line?" as the crucial but unanswered question.
- AussieWog93 5y ago
  >I'm even more confused about what autism is than before. There's a full list of diagnostic criteria you can look up, but in short Autistic people lack the "hardware acceleration" that neurotypicals have to assist them with social interaction (and, in the more extreme cases, language). In childhood, this usually shows itself as a deficit in theory of mind (ie, the child will assume that the other people know what they know). In adulthood, it usually means that people struggle to maintain the types of cognitive dissonance that smooths over interpersonal interactions (I suspect this is because neurotypicals run multiple systems to simultaneously process the concrete reality and socially agreed-upon "ostensible reality", whereas Autistics rely on a single system to process both). Just like any other group, this does come with shared experiences. Just like any other group, though, just because there are some shared experiences it doesn't mean everybody is the same.
mbilokonsky 5y ago
1. I'm not an Aspie. I'm Autistic. The language choice matters. 2. I'm not talking on anyone's behalf and spend half the words in the text validating people who disagree with any of my claims. 3. Oh, I see, Autistic people are like Trans people in that we aren't worth listening to. I wish I'd seen that line before I started responding, but here you go!
- NylaTheWolf 5y ago
  why was this flagged...? This was a perfectly reasonable comment...Was it the snark in the 3rd point? I feel like that was completely justified...
- AussieWog93 5y ago
  - incangold 5y ago
    Setting aside the depressing tone of this sub-thread for a moment, I don’t understand where the author is “tone-deaf, self-aggrandising and utterly unproductive”? Is this just about the IFL/PFL stuff? Because it’s a tiny part of the piece and I don’t see how you could possibly write about that in a more careful way- do you have specific suggestions?
    - AussieWog93 5y ago
      It's less the specifics of the article itself (which, as the author himself notes, not everyone agrees with), and more the fact that he took it upon himself to write an article like this to begin with. It's tone-deaf in the sense that this type of activism is unbelievably unpopular amongst Autistics, self-aggrandising in the sense that he has declared himself a representative for the (loosely defined) Autistic community without actually earning the respect, and unproductive in the sense that he's making communication between Autistics and neurotypicals harder, not easier, which limits opportunities for the culture to actually develop and become accepted more broadly.
zozbot234 5y ago
> Honestly, I can't think of anything more counterproductive than Aspies trying to create more rules and further complicate discourse... Please do not blame Aspies for something that is clearly not their doing. This is just Twitter being Twitter, pretending that they can talk on anyone's behalf. Just ignore the noise.

rhn_mk1 5y ago

After reading this, I'm even more confused about what autism is than before. Sure, my current knowledge may be wrong, but tearing down any generalizations "if you met one person with autism, you met one person with autism" just makes it impossible to define as a thing separate from non-autism. Yet the author tries to create generalizations later? Autistic people experience the world in a different way than non-autistic people. Okay, let's let this inconsistency slide. So to what extent? Are they trying to say that all non-autistic people perceive the world exactly the same way? Nonsense, so where's the line? From the article, there's no line: some are like this, some are the opposite. I feel the points about the form of communication are valid, but the ones describing the actual subject of communication are not helping.

xmprt 5y ago
> Autistic people experience the world in a different way than non-autistic people I don't think this is a generalization. In fact, it is the opposite of a generalization. > all non-autistic people perceive the world exactly the same way They aren't trying to say this. The first statement doesn't imply the second.
- rhn_mk1 5y ago
  > I don't think this is a generalization. In fact, it is the opposite of a generalization. Maybe "generalization" is the wrong word, but it's still a way to carve out a niche, which was previously denied. > The first statement doesn't imply the second. True, but this leaves us with "where is the line?" as the crucial but unanswered question.
AussieWog93 5y ago
>I'm even more confused about what autism is than before. There's a full list of diagnostic criteria you can look up, but in short Autistic people lack the "hardware acceleration" that neurotypicals have to assist them with social interaction (and, in the more extreme cases, language). In childhood, this usually shows itself as a deficit in theory of mind (ie, the child will assume that the other people know what they know). In adulthood, it usually means that people struggle to maintain the types of cognitive dissonance that smooths over interpersonal interactions (I suspect this is because neurotypicals run multiple systems to simultaneously process the concrete reality and socially agreed-upon "ostensible reality", whereas Autistics rely on a single system to process both). Just like any other group, this does come with shared experiences. Just like any other group, though, just because there are some shared experiences it doesn't mean everybody is the same.

mbilokonsky 5y ago

1. I'm not an Aspie. I'm Autistic. The language choice matters. 2. I'm not talking on anyone's behalf and spend half the words in the text validating people who disagree with any of my claims. 3. Oh, I see, Autistic people are like Trans people in that we aren't worth listening to. I wish I'd seen that line before I started responding, but here you go!

NylaTheWolf 5y ago
why was this flagged...? This was a perfectly reasonable comment...Was it the snark in the 3rd point? I feel like that was completely justified...
AussieWog93 5y ago
- incangold 5y ago
  Setting aside the depressing tone of this sub-thread for a moment, I don’t understand where the author is “tone-deaf, self-aggrandising and utterly unproductive”? Is this just about the IFL/PFL stuff? Because it’s a tiny part of the piece and I don’t see how you could possibly write about that in a more careful way- do you have specific suggestions?
  - AussieWog93 5y ago
    It's less the specifics of the article itself (which, as the author himself notes, not everyone agrees with), and more the fact that he took it upon himself to write an article like this to begin with. It's tone-deaf in the sense that this type of activism is unbelievably unpopular amongst Autistics, self-aggrandising in the sense that he has declared himself a representative for the (loosely defined) Autistic community without actually earning the respect, and unproductive in the sense that he's making communication between Autistics and neurotypicals harder, not easier, which limits opportunities for the culture to actually develop and become accepted more broadly.

zozbot234 5y ago

> Honestly, I can't think of anything more counterproductive than Aspies trying to create more rules and further complicate discourse... Please do not blame Aspies for something that is clearly not their doing. This is just Twitter being Twitter, pretending that they can talk on anyone's behalf. Just ignore the noise.