3 ms·

Anecdotaly people I know who are on the spectrum are more likley to take extreme viewpoints. It seems to be a symptom of black and white thinking.

by Neil44 2y ago

rbanffy 2y ago
Could also be the ability to see (or the perception of seeing) further and understand where a given path leads.
pgsandstrom 2y ago
The article mentions a few points that I consider more likely explanations: 1. Being autistic makes you not consider what is "normal" as important. 2. Autistic people are more likely to spend a very large amount of time online.
- tivert 2y ago
  > 2. Autistic people are more likely to spend a very large amount of time online. And I think that's a poorly-acknowledged asset to whatever political ideology that adopt (or are more likely to adopt), given our extremely online culture. Wikipedia is where a lot of people get their factual knowledge (because it's cheap), so it's a very valuable space for propaganda. However, few normal, well-adjusted people are going to put in the massive amount of effort it takes to edit in some controversial area. So whatever side can muster the more online obsessives who will just bash their heads against it forever will win that ground. I have the impression that's may have been a big factor in the trans movement. IIRC, many years ago when it wasn't so much in the spotlight, on reddit, it seemed like there was always someone there to pop up and argue the trans POV forever whenever it came up or someone expressed some skepticism.
al_borland 2y ago
The article was very focused on the alt-right, but almost everything it said could be applied to the alt-left as well. Many people on the alt-left seem to wear a diagnosis on their sleeve. Like was bright up in the article, it’s questionable how much of that is real vs proclaiming it for attention, acceptance, or validation. Maybe that’s mentioned somewhere else in the full book, but I didn’t like that the article left it out. There also seems to be a lot of confirmation bias mixed in. Hopefully this doesn’t give people the impression that everyone with ASD is a political extremist, or even cares about politics… it felt like ASD == alt-right was the idea that was being pushed. There are infinite rabbit holes a person could go down online. Reddit has a a sub where people obsessively talk about drinking water. It seems a much broader approach could be taken.
- wasteduniverse 2y ago
  [dead]

Anecdotaly people I know who are on the spectrum are more likley to take extreme viewpoints. It seems to be a symptom of black and white thinking.

by Neil44 2y ago

Anecdotaly people I know who are on the spectrum are more likley to take extreme viewpoints. It seems to be a symptom of black and white thinking.

rbanffy 2y ago

Could also be the ability to see (or the perception of seeing) further and understand where a given path leads.

pgsandstrom 2y ago

The article mentions a few points that I consider more likely explanations: 1. Being autistic makes you not consider what is "normal" as important. 2. Autistic people are more likely to spend a very large amount of time online.

tivert 2y ago
> 2. Autistic people are more likely to spend a very large amount of time online. And I think that's a poorly-acknowledged asset to whatever political ideology that adopt (or are more likely to adopt), given our extremely online culture. Wikipedia is where a lot of people get their factual knowledge (because it's cheap), so it's a very valuable space for propaganda. However, few normal, well-adjusted people are going to put in the massive amount of effort it takes to edit in some controversial area. So whatever side can muster the more online obsessives who will just bash their heads against it forever will win that ground. I have the impression that's may have been a big factor in the trans movement. IIRC, many years ago when it wasn't so much in the spotlight, on reddit, it seemed like there was always someone there to pop up and argue the trans POV forever whenever it came up or someone expressed some skepticism.

al_borland 2y ago

The article was very focused on the alt-right, but almost everything it said could be applied to the alt-left as well. Many people on the alt-left seem to wear a diagnosis on their sleeve. Like was bright up in the article, it’s questionable how much of that is real vs proclaiming it for attention, acceptance, or validation. Maybe that’s mentioned somewhere else in the full book, but I didn’t like that the article left it out. There also seems to be a lot of confirmation bias mixed in. Hopefully this doesn’t give people the impression that everyone with ASD is a political extremist, or even cares about politics… it felt like ASD == alt-right was the idea that was being pushed. There are infinite rabbit holes a person could go down online. Reddit has a a sub where people obsessively talk about drinking water. It seems a much broader approach could be taken.

wasteduniverse 2y ago
[dead]