Aspergians as politicians--who else?

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You're really clutching onto your notion of Aspergers. Can you feel how much you need it? That's you, not evidence from the world.

According to the DSM-IV, Asperger's Disorder is characterized by "qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:

• marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
• failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
• a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
• lack of social or emotional reciprocity."

It seems to me this would preclude the possibility of someone who's extremely socially comfortable having Asperger's Disorder.

Last edited by dmm1010 on 18 Dec 2011, 5:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm a realist and lover of facts and truths.

If you wish to delude yourself into thinking you have Asperger's, be my guest. But I'm not going to believe it for now until I understand from you perfectly why you would have Asperger's if you don't have the main common symptom of Asperger's - which is that we're not natural social players. We have to fake it in order to make it.

dmm: but did you understand my argument about how a narcissistic aspie would see things? Can you think for yourself for a moment? Fair bet that politician aspies would be more than usually narcissistic.

EDIT: Sorry, my mistake. Just checked the definition for "preclude".

Last edited by MCalavera on 18 Dec 2011, 5:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

Newt Gingrich isn't aspie. That's a red herring. Screw that. But the OP assertion about Thomas Jefferson, and mine about Kevin Rudd and narcissist aspies in general, hold a lot of water.

The DSM isn't written by autistics. You may as well ask a dog its opinion on human nature.

Ok, fine. if you have a good case for Kevin Rudd having Asperger's, give us a good link or YouTube video or whatever.

I've been referred to as "extremely narcissistic" by more than one person. If I am so, apparently it hasn't improved my ability to "win friends and influence people."

If people are calling you narcissistic you aren't doing it right.

Aspies can be narcissistic. So what?

This has nothing to do with what this topic is about.

It's about whether certain naturally socially comfortable people can be aspies or not.

I already explained. If you believe you're God, you're socially comfortable. You're also quite likely to want to become a politician.

So you build your case upon a non sequitur, and you expect me to take your case seriously?

You didn't know what the word 'precludes' meant. To be blunt, I don't expect much from you at all.

Given that you failed to provide a connection between me failing to know the meaning of a certain word and me not meeting your expectation of God-knows-what, and that you didn't really answer the question of what leads to a diagnosis of Asperger's, consider the feeling mutual.

hey, the tip about Kevin Rudd was helpful. The google search led me to other politician names who may likely have/had AS.

Some of the articles really detail the behaviors that NTs see as odd and that, say, Kevin Rudd, has had to intellectually work through. Warren Buffet is reported to have learned his social skills intellectually through Dale Carnegie's famous book "how to win friends and influence people."

Something to keep in mind. . .not all aspies are the same. thus, other aspies can use different logic to come to their conclusion on how to interact around people. Besides, many aspies have ADHD and sometimes can't help but throw themselves in front of people constantly.

Interesting articles re: kevin Rudd
- website for dailytelegraph (dot) com (dot) au/news/opinion/the-rudd-we-never-really-knew/story-e6frezz0-1225899480960
- website for theaustralian (dot) com (dot) au/news/features/rudd-undone-by-the-enemy-within/story-e6frg6z6-1225887059051
- website for incorrectpleasures.blogspot (dot) com/2008/08/is-pm-autistic-or-what-kevin-rudd-is.html

A list of famous probable aspies that includes politicians
- website for incorrectpleasures.blogspot (dot) com/2006/09/referenced-list-of-famous-or-important.html

so, I'm still wondering about Gingrich. he definitely seems like the 2 personas type as described in these articles. recall that his whole campaign staff quit en masse recently.

Look, I'm happy to accept the possibility of Kevin Rudd having Asperger's, but definitely not Newt.

Just bring me a good link or video making the case that Rudd does indeed have Asperger's.