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Weight Of Memory
Deinonychus
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04 Jul 2023, 3:19 pm

Statistically-speaking, does ASD have any bearing on political alignment? In other words, amongst people with ASD does the statistical distribution of political alignments follow the general population with regard to left vs right alignment, or does it skew disproportionately to one side or the other? Or off in a third direction?

On the one hand, I can imagine the "be free to be yourself" mentality and the apparent above average number of ASD folks who are somewhere within the broad LGBT-etc community would statistically skew ASD people to the left.

On the other hand, ASD's tendency to like rules and order, dislike change, and like being left alone would seem more right-wing.

On the third, invisible hand: I don't fit with either of the two main American political parties, or even any of the third parties because many issues I consider important aren't considered important by any of them. Most of my life I've have conservatives tell me I'm liberal and liberals tell me I'm conservative. When I express honest political opinions online I'm often accused of trolling. I'm both anti-Trump and anti-woke. I'm pro-abortion and pro-death penalty. I'm a lifelong moral conservative but not religious. I'm anti-capitalist, anti-communist, and anti-fascist.

Does anyone else find they seem many political questions in unusual ways (or in unusual combinations) because they're autistic?



Tim_Tex
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04 Jul 2023, 3:27 pm

Normally I consider myself to be near the center, but people like Trump, DeSantis, Abbott, etc have pushed me further left.


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04 Jul 2023, 3:43 pm

Would be nice to have a valid strong third party...Am. somewhat republican in thought, I think Aspies in general might / should lean towards democrat if in the USA. ~~~But a more honest Altruistic , Left of Center Party might be a good thing . :D


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neilinmich
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05 Jul 2023, 11:49 am

I can't help you "statistically". I am a sample size of one.
I can only vouch for my own experience. I'm liberal. I'm Aspie. I was born Aspie in a conservative family. Being liberal is a choice (I think?) and being Aspie is not.

Now I'm beginning to look back at my youth and think maybe I feared conservatives because they were all NT's and I wasn't. I just knew I was different somehow. I used to think it was because I was gay but didn't know it yet, but now I think the difference was that I was Aspie but didn't know it yet.

So I think I'm Aspie, then gay, then liberal.



Nades
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05 Jul 2023, 1:35 pm

I think autistics overall lean towards the left. I think a combo of difficulty with employment and being more vulnerable to the general public pushes them more leftward than typical.



Honey69
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05 Jul 2023, 5:20 pm

I think that our lower-functioning brethren tend to be more on the conservative/radical/reactionary spectrum.

Low intelligence, rather than autism, is linked to right-wing beliefs.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/th ... cle543361/


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Weight Of Memory
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05 Jul 2023, 6:13 pm

Honey69 wrote:
I think that our lower-functioning brethren tend to be more on the conservative/radical/reactionary spectrum.

Low intelligence, rather than autism, is linked to right-wing beliefs.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/th ... cle543361/


I thought lower-functioning did not equate to lower intelligence?



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05 Jul 2023, 10:15 pm

Weight Of Memory wrote:
On the third, invisible hand: I don't fit with either of the two main American political parties, or even any of the third parties because many issues I consider important aren't considered important by any of them. Most of my life I've have conservatives tell me I'm liberal and liberals tell me I'm conservative. When I express honest political opinions online I'm often accused of trolling. I'm both anti-Trump and anti-woke. I'm pro-abortion and pro-death penalty. I'm a lifelong moral conservative but not religious. I'm anti-capitalist, anti-communist, and anti-fascist.

Does anyone else find they seem many political questions in unusual ways (or in unusual combinations) because they're autistic?

Feeling this way has been described as "politically homeless". I feel that way. I would imagine more autistics feel this way because in general, we don't fit in. But it is all speculation at this point because as far as I know, nobody has polled us.


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06 Jul 2023, 1:25 am

There are on-line tests that supposedly reveal your position on a 2-dimensinal political matrix.

 This is a link to one of them 


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GreenVelvetWorm
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06 Jul 2023, 7:13 am

I've noticed autistic people seem more likely to be politically "extreme", or to have political views that don't match our peers (although I do think we generally skew left).



Tim_Tex
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06 Jul 2023, 8:21 am

Fnord wrote:
There are on-line tests that supposedly reveal your position on a 2-dimensinal political matrix.

 This is a link to one of them 


I took it a while back, and I was almost at the exact center.


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ASPartOfMe
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06 Jul 2023, 10:32 am

We should not conflate the political views of WP members with political views of autistics as a whole.


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Weight Of Memory
Deinonychus
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06 Jul 2023, 3:57 pm

ASPartOfMe wrote:
We should not conflate the political views of WP members with political views of autistics as a whole.


Agreed. I was hoping some members might have been active on other ASD groups or otherwise know other autistics outside these forums as additional examples.



Honey69
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07 Jul 2023, 10:23 am

Given the list of unacceptable content on WrongPlanet

Wrong Planet's First Rule wrote:

Unacceptable content includes...racist, sexist, homophobic or transphobic language...violent or sexually demeaning content; sexual fetish; and discussion of excretory function...



and given that some "unacceptable content" overlaps with the general rubric of the attitudes of many people who self-identify as "conservative", one might expect to see an overall bias towards "liberalism" on this site.


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08 Jul 2023, 8:50 am

I'd expect perfectionists to be more left-wing because the right-wing ideology has this notion that equality of wealth and status can't be done or shouldn't be attempted.

Certainly I think there's more to politics than the usual set of concepts and principles that get all the air time. Although I like the Left, I don't hold with everything it tries to stand for. Some of them would have us all living in rented council houses. That would only make sense to me if we were living in a socialist utopia where the council could be trusted.

And there's more to the immigration debate than having the door open or closed. Some Lefties seem to think immigration never does any harm to the indigenous population, no matter how sudden or large that migration is. I don't blame the immigrants for the harm, I blame whoever imported them without doing the legwork of preparing the hosts and the newcomers for the change.

I'm probably better at seeing the flaws in a political system than I am at designing anything to replace it. But I guess that's natural enough when most of us get no say in how things are done. It would be easy to fall into the trap of thinking I had viable ideas for change, because nobody's ever going to let me test my ideas. I used to think I had more good answers than I think I have these days.



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08 Jul 2023, 9:02 am

Honey69 wrote:
Given the list of unacceptable content on WrongPlanet

Wrong Planet's First Rule wrote:

Unacceptable content includes...racist, sexist, homophobic or transphobic language...violent or sexually demeaning content; sexual fetish; and discussion of excretory function...



and given that some "unacceptable content" overlaps with the general rubric of the attitudes of many people who self-identify as "conservative", one might expect to see an overall bias towards "liberalism" on this site.



Does convervatism mean people should be free to make derogatory remarks toward those groups?
What if other members are part of those groups?
Wouldn't that seem like personal attacks, even if made indirectly?

How would you run a support site for socially-anxious people without that risk?


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