a city/community to where people like us flock to?

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Well, we just do like Israel does, and stockpile enough nukes (or even just dirty bomb materials) that we can render the entire planet uninhabitable. Then we make it real clear that if the normies don't play nice with us, we'll take our bat and our ball and go home, i.e. turn the Earth into a dead, radioactive rock.

Haha, somehow I am not sure that that would be entirely convincing.
I don't know if we would make it that far initially!

I read Neurotribes by Steve Silberman and he seemed to focus a lot on silicon valley, people in general seem to focus on tech for aspies. I've never gotten into it before although it seems very interesting!

That would indeed be an interesting idea. Like the rest, I feel most comfortable with vast tracts of land, some place fertile where I could garden and grow crops and flowers. It would be heaven!

We are closing on another house in Pueblo on the 22nd. Thought we had one last month but it fell through. It is less than a block from the first one. We should have our chicken coop next month [ the chicks are 2 weeks old] and bees in the spring. We will be renting out until we are ready to start building community.

There's a thread asking about you, sexy Vicky

It would be really interesting to have an entire state of autistic people. Would such a society would be more rational, peaceful, and/or compassionate than neuro-typical society?

I think it would be an unholy mess.

How so?

Because a diverse society is a healthy society. Look at all societies and cultures since the dawn of time. The exclusive ones, the ones that have only one viewpoint, have been ultimate failures. We need NTs, and they need us.

We are diverse from one another. There are just some neurological qualities that we share.

I think the formation of such a community would be interesting from the standpoint of understanding our differences better, for a few reasons. For one, it would make a good test of the sentiment that (to paraphrase Dr. Tony Attwood) "We don't suffer from Autism, we suffer from other people". Given enough time away from the societal pressure to communicate in "NT-friendly" ways, I suspect a group of people on the spectrum might develop a subculture or manner of communication that is far more compatible with the way we're wired, perhaps allowing for people to come out of their shell a bit more.

Furthermore, this hypothetical subculture would better illuminate how certain traits work for us, socially speaking. If I had to hazard a guess, I would think such a subculture would be nearly devoid of power games, manipulation or double-talk; everything would be straightforward and laid bare. However, it might not be the most cohesive group, as we tend to be somewhat individualistic in our thinking; that is, it's not in our nature to accept an idea based on popularity.

In addition, lately I've come to think of being on the spectrum as something that is as much a gift as it is a curse (of course, I can't claim to speak for others - I realize that some may struggle to be self-sufficient). Moreover, I feel that the positive aspects are not as well documented as the negative aspects are, for the simple reason that psychologists generally don't go out of their way to try and treat advantages. Such a community could very intentionally study some of the subtler advantages, as well as try to find strategies for coping with the downsides. I have begun to suspect that mindfulness meditation might be helpful for dealing with meltdowns and deficits in executive function, though I lately have had trouble sticking to doing any one thing with any regularity (see:executive functioning) so I have yet to establish a set routine of meditating... That said I have picked up several techniques for calming down, which have helped immensely in stressful situations I've recently found myself in.

The CIA believes Putin is autistic

What about Portland? "Keep Portland Weird!" and all that jazz.

Portland would be a good area to keep in mind, though I wonder how much of Portlandia is close to reality. Austin, Texas would be another city like that.

Then again, more isolated areas like Montana or Nevada might be good to keep in mind.

Yep, Austin has a "Keep Austin Weird!" slogan too; it's a good place for all kinds of people who don't belong other places. Austin is full of loose groupings of "different" people who come together for better support as a collective -- artists, musicians, LGBT, left leaners from right leaning places, and just generally people who zig where general society zags. There's also a big high-tech industry in Austin and greater Austin -- Dell computers started from there -- and game designing is also a big deal there.

It's a place where people who don't normally fit in anywhere else find that they can fit in more easily there. Only trouble is, because it's a good place to be, and has consistently been featured on those lists of "best places to live," it's becoming rapidly overcrowded and land value and property values are sky high; even apartment rents there are almost getting into east or west coast rent levels, unfortunately. You'd have to be rich to get a large tract of land and live in isolation there these days. But culturally it's a better city than many, for people who feel different.

My dream living situation is if I had several acres of my own land, and built my own house bang in the middle of it, no near-neighbors, can do what I want and be left alone. I'd have to win the lottery though.

Isn't that just typical though... A place becomes a nice place to live, and people flock to it, ruining the niceness.

As for getting several acres of land, I wouldn't give up quite so soon. There's a lot of untouched land out there that's not in high demand for a variety of reasons, especially once you leave "civilization" so to speak.