TheMandalore
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 45
Location: Kansas, United States
(I know there are more religions and more political stances than 2. For the sake of this, 2 of each works though)
Athiests and Christians. Democrats and Republicans. Aspies and Neurotypicals. I know where I fit in each of those opposites. You probably do too. This is, in it's most basic form, a good thing. Belonging to a group with similiar beliefs is something everyone, even we anti-social types, should experience at some point. However... there is also a problem with groups that have polar opposites. The more vocal of a group tend to attack the other side, either their beliefs or them as a person. They become so much a part of a group that they seem apply their belief system as to what defines "human", and of course the opposite would be vile.
I myself have this problem. I tend to lump christians and republicans together(though they try pretty hard to do that themselves), and view them as nothing more than the opposite of everything I am. With some cases, I'm right. More cases than I'd like to be, it would be easier if it were less. But I don't WANT to do this. If I don't know someone's beliefs, I view them as human. If they say they are opposite myself, I seem to instantly add all the traits I despise to them, and it then becomes harder to listen to their side. If they say they aren't either, I can respect that, and still think of them as human.
What I would like is for simple tolerance. If I have strong beliefs, I would like to you to shut up about your opposite ones, accept mine as different, and I'll do the same. The sad part about this? IT WORKS. It works so well. You can have so many friends of the opposite group, and guess what? They're human.
However, it only works if both people agree on this. People like Bill O'reilly, Ann Coulter, and the people who seek to find a "cure" for ASD(some are just misinformed, I don't include them) just spit hate. And that becomes another problem... people like that spread their hate. They speak it as though it was the ONLY truth, and then other people, some good people, accept this as truth. Then that makes it hard for me not to hate the opposite group. Hate and discrimination is infectious.
And as for Neurotypicals... I know. I... know. They're different. They treat you inferior. You AREN'T inferior. You're an Aspie! You're different from them, and I'm saying thats okay. I'm saying thats good. I'm saying that if a "cure" is ever found, I will go and stand with my fellow Aspies to stop this world from losing a people it can't afford to lose. But I'm also saying... Neurotypicals are different from us. There are jerks among them. There are evil ones. There are stupid ones. But you can't start lumping all of them together, and you shouldn't start hating them. I've seen that in several posts on this site... pure and outright hatred of them. I know the people who are saying this are probably somewhat justified by their life experiences... because like I said, some NTs are pricks. But when we start seeing them as something inferior, something less than us... then we gain a line of thought I don't want to follow. You'd see them as how the bad NTs see you, and that isn't fair to the NTs that aren't pricks, aren't stupid, and aren't evil. And there are alot.
So... in short... people are different. Some people have views so different from yours they can be opposite. Despite how strongly you feel in your convictions, lets have peace. If we, Aspies, Aspergians, or whatever you want to be called, give in to blind hate, then we lose ourselves. We would also give ammunition to those that seek a "cure". So, instead, lets be on the ASD, but lets do it without hate. If we can show them we can live without hate, maybe we can teach them to live without hate, to live without fear of what is different. I think there is no better first step to showing NTs the world over that there should never be a "cure" for who you are.
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"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." - Albert Einstein
I don't have a problem with NT's. Or rather, I don't hate them; just the distinct ones that prove themselves to be jerks. I'm sure I have a few NT friends as well, but they're my friends because they accept me for who I am. But this is precisely what makes us human--that we are all so different, believe different things, and even irrational. Although I must admit that I'm far attached from the concept of being human, and if I were actually alien (or robot), I wouldn't really be disturbed much. I concede and acknowledge humans for being who they are from what I have observed--I want to believe that humans were meant to be intelligent and possibly logical, but that doesn't always happen. Humanity will always be humanity, no matter how intelligent or stupid they may be.
It is true that I feel more at home with other Aspies because we have more in common and are more accepting of each other and can understand each other's problems. But the fact that we now call each other allies does not make everyone else "the enemy". This is not a condition of allying yourself with other groups. If other people don't understand you or aren't willing to, so let them live in ignorance. But I must warn them; they're missing out on a lot of fun.
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231st Anniversary Dedication to Carl Friedrich Gauss:
http://angelustenebrae.livejournal.com/15848.html
Arbitraris id veneficium quod te ludificat. Arbitror id formam quod intellego.
Ignorationi est non medicina.
Hi, I'm a Christian Democrat, not so rare a species as some might imagine given how the media like to simplify all sociological categories. I'm not sure what my opposite would be, but I would guess it's either nobody or everybody. I waver in my attitude about that, but most of the time nobody is my opposite/enemy.
Also, it seems that there are just as many jerks among AS type personalities as among NT type personalities. The only difference is that people with AS type personalities can write their jerkiness off as a symptom. ![]()
