Why do so many of you call everyone "NT's"

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It seems like most of the time many people on WP go on about NT's and the problems they have with them. When it seems unlikely they have spent much if any time around a lot of autistic people to know the difference. Or if there is a difference. Or what the difference is.

It seems like they have only themselves to go by and those who are not like them or are simply people they dislike, those people are "NT's".


There are at least a hundred neurological disorders. So how does one go about diagnosing everyone as not having one of them? Especially since they don't even know what most of them are?

It's like many just have a sci fi fantasy type depiction of themselves vs everyone else, where everyone else is some seperate, and often repugnant, species called "NT's".

That's a good point, there are a few people I know in real life with ASD diagnoses and I was really surprised when I found out.

I have a blended family. Pretty much 50/50 ND/NT. I don't mind the differentiation between ND and NT, I just wish people would realise NT is a spectrum too. My NT Mother-in-law has a ferocious intellect. My NT sister, is so slow it's painful. Watching her process ideas is like watching tectonic plates move.
I have two ND Uncles and had one NT one. My NT Uncle was my favorite. He was funny, like Robin Williams funny. One of my ND Uncles I can't stand being around because all he does is complain about how hard his life is. They are all just people. Some nice, some not nice.
I try to judge people on who they are, not how they are classified.

Because almost all of people in my life are... The good, the bad, the ugly, and the uglier. And, none of them truly understands my case, nor would I would towards them.
But that doesn't mean I'm against them.
However, I don't like humans... And that doesn't equate to not liking NTs. There's a difference.

Meeting an ND in my case would be uncommon. I only met a very few, and I know the difference between a healthy mentally NT from an unhealthy one -- so I don't mistook NTs with mental health issues or neurological diseases as NDs. They, too, don't understand me, and I don't understand them the same.

As for autistics -- I never met another aspie. So I had yet to make judgment on this one. However, I met a lot of autistics -- most of them are nonverbal and about half of them are intellectually disabled. I spent time with plenty of them -- of course, like any humans, there are those I like and do not like.
In case within this forum, I don't talk about them like I don't talk about other people. And I won't speak for them or claim that I'm their proxy or some sort simply because I'm on the spectrum myself.
Then, a very, very few yet significant difference is, that, somehow, I could relate to them -- unlike NTs and other NDs -- or allistic in general.

NTs are the majority of humans, and just as vulnerable. They're only 'protected' by their social instincts that any social creature would take for granted. And, not all of them had been protected in a sense, whatever the circumstances might be.


I don't equate NTs' neurology as 'only qualified human'. I found the differences -- where the NT ends, and being human only there at such part.

I wonder how many people here realized that the cruel parts of human nature does not equate all NT traits, or that the human traits are all-NT exclusive. And how many here ever takes account of their current cultures and another, and realize that the culture NTs follow doesn't define what NT is.

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I don't see an issue with NT. It's a neutral term. We can believe there are no significant differences between autistics and NTs or we can be realistic. I don't see NTs as enemies. I don't click with them on a meaningful level and that's not from lack of trying.

Are they cruel? Yes and mostly to each other while us autistics are left alone unless we push our way in. Then we are often quietly shunned. They don't know why we are different nor do most have the time to figure it out. They are too busy jockeying for position amongst their own ranks.

I find it a bit childish personally.

Everyone's human albeit with different elements of the human condition.

This constant labelling just seems like a way of passing the buck in regards to any sense of accountability or acknowledgement of failing to adhere to social norms and please those we want to please around us.

There are times in the conversation we do need to make the reader aware of a diagnosis or needs. Yes, I get that.
Though "NT" is about as overused here as the term "normies" on troll boards.

I try to use it in a neutral way, as shorthand for 'not autistic, or having any other neurological difference'.

I dislike the constant generalizing about NTs as well, but I consider it more a misuse of the term. Most of my family are NT, and I love them. I do recognize, though, that there are things that are hard to communicate to them, which people on WP understand instinctively. So there is a real divide, but trying to decide what is better or worse is absurd.

I'd say that there are a lot of young autistic people who are struggling with their emotions and who express their pain by labelling NTs.

It's just, almost everyone is NT.
I'd get tired of referring to everyone in my immediate life as NT.
Add to that, there are plenty of times where them being NT has no bearing on their decisions or whether or not they are good or bad people, a bit like ASD.

I think I have difficulty with the concept because I operate in a differnt environment than most.

There's the online autism community and then there's the irl autism community.

By irl autistic community, I mean those of us who have spent a lot of time our whole lives in clinics with other autistics and spent our entire time in school with other autistics and even in psyche wards with other autistics. And I don't mean just those with severe autism. Plenty have are classified hfa.

Those who are of the online autism community have this whole "NT's" ideology that I don't really observe existing in the irl autism community. That's why I have trouble getting it.

Ah right. Would you say you've been in a bubble of sorts or do you regularly hang out with the other crowds from different schools and stuff?

I used to attend a group irl but sadly it falls on nights I shoot pool so now I don't. In that environment they rarely spoke of NT's as people who were different. The levels of Autism varied though this seemed to have no bearing on it. Perhaps it's a case of people reading stuff online and beginning to obsess about it?

It's interesting to me, being new here and new to the concept of having an asd, to see the dynamic and see the term being used.
I'm still trying to adjust to the idea that there is this whole group of people who are "different" in a way that I can relate to.
NT and ND both seem like less loaded terms than some of the other possibilities.
That's about all I can say about it right now.

I agree. I prefer to use the term "allistic" for non-autistic people, and NT for those without any mental disorders. I also don't like the us vs. them attitude. Like you said in another thread, autistics are capable of being arrogant, judgmental, mean, bigoted; basically any negative characteristic NTs can have. And NTs are not a hive mind. They are all different.

I have to be honest - laziness (in both the reasoning and the writing.)

I am certainly aware that the word does not connotate "person without any problems/impairments/..." - in my "NT life" pre-diagnosis, I suffered plenty of mental illness, and know many other people who do, so that is very clear. However, when I stop to think, I realise that usually I really mean something more like "people who don't experience the trait or behaviour that I'm talking about" (and the trait itself may not have a neurological cause for some people who do experience it.) And with all of those traits it is a matter of degree, not all-or-nothing.

So yes, it is a label that is used very lazily, and I'm as guilty as anybody. All of Ezra's recent posts regarding this "NT/ASD question" have been very insightful and have made me question my own habit of drawing lines between people of differing abilities. The temptation to just "[SHIFT][n][t]" when scribbling out a post is strong though, and I have no doubt I will slip up again, so it is good to be "kept honest" by being reminded once in a while.