Treatment of High Functioning Vs Lower Functioning on W.P

Post Reply New Topic

Can I ask everyone for remaining civil in disagreement and avoiding personal insinuations?

Autistic people often suffer from being misinterpreted by NTs. The other way around, too.

We're not "angels with dirty faces" in need of a carefully managed sandbox. We're humans with experiences, opinions, preferences, triggers, struggles, talents, addictions, interests... It applies to all WP members of all neurologies and all "functioning levels".

Yes I can also tease and call people names in fun that's fine . I think the problem with online communication is the absence of facial expressions or intonation which help us determine if someone is being playful or nasty. It is easy to misinterpret people in written communication.

I don't mind being criticized, it is fine. Just be thankful I am not a moderator I am not thin skinned either. Feel free to continue.........

Last edited by Teach51 on 30 Sep 2020, 2:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I am guilty of online humor and it being taken seriously. That is why I try to use friendly emojis like this:

I used to not use any and someone told me I lack using smileys so that was maybe my problem here and my problem was I have no idea how my comments are going to be perceived so I wouldn't know to use emojis.

Of course there will always be someone out there who will ignore them or think you are trying to gaslight them when you explain your intentions. There will be someone out there who will think you are talking about them or making fun of others when you make a post about yourself talking about yourself. I have experienced all this online.

I think emojis are a good tool for "softening," sharonb (who I miss and hasn't been around for a while usually adds (sarcastic) or (humorous)
To her posts which makes it much clearer to understand.
My "soft skills" are apparently nauseating for some lol. I need to learn to toughen up my online personna

It is interesting that immediately after stating the I have CPTSD I received my first serious personal attack on WP. Serendipity? I wonder.
I actually can take being bullied, I am extremely resilient. What I can't stand is other people being bullied.

Sorry, if you think I was attacking you, it was not my intent. I was talking in general with my post when I was talking about sensitive people being bullies and when I responded to your post, I honestly thought I was showing better understanding of your perspective.

I did not mean you were a bully and that you are doing this stuff. I have read your posts and though I did attack you a couple weeks back, I apologize for that and I saw you apologized in my thread and issue was addressed by Fresoken (sp). I took your post personally because I have issues with false accusations and then I saw there were other users here who have been skeptical of other posts here and I think things have gotten crazy around here because it seems like no one can trust each other anymore. So yeah, I think I took your accusation too personal. But we're good now.

Not you LG. We are good. I have many autistic friends but I really have a lot to learn about the experience of being autistic. I am here because of the autistic people I love in my personal life and now the many good friends I have made here. I feel sometimes how autistics must feel in the NT world when they get it wrong, it can only do me good.

I'm exactly the same. If I do make someone feel bad, it makes me feel bad too, it does not make me feel better about myself at all. I don't know how some NTs can make others feel bad to make themselves feel good and not feel guilty or anything. Why would someone choose to be a horrible person? Who would want to be a horrible person? How do they sleep at night? I find bullying very selfish.
And I'm not talking about mild teasing or banter. I am talking bullying that destroys one's mental state. This is where I sometimes ask myself, are some NTs who bully really responsible for their actions? Because if you have enough emotional empathy surely you are capable of feeling how others are feeling, meaning that if you've made someone feel bad then it should make you feel bad too, which is guilt.

But, like I said before, the Aspie definition of empathy is "knowing exactly what to say when someone is crying", and the NT definition of empathy is "being kind, caring, thoughtful, understanding". Unless empathy has multiple meanings.

@Teach

I think your proposal has not been enthusiastically accepted (no criticism I think your heart was in the right place)

I take on board Starkid's comment that WP is a place for autistic people and not for the likes of us NTs so we should leave decisions like this to people who are stakeholders in this enterprise.

I did start a sticky thread for NT parents and it did garner a lot of attention and activity (although its dead nowadays) but I would let people on this forum decide how to be inclusive and accommodating for fellow autists.

There is an idiot on this website who constantly uses emojis to show intent/mindset.
He drives me nutz

Why did they ever create emojis in the first place?

Century after century, humanity struggled to decipher the intentions behind the ancient "plain text" found in books, magazines, newspapers, and other printed material. Then came the digital era, and behold! The glorious emoji, savior of language, was born.

There is at least a bit of Aspie in Cyberdad. At least about 33.3%

.

Last edited by cyberdad on 30 Sep 2020, 9:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

On the contrary, it has been a 9 page, robust discussion so far. As for not being involved and this not being my place, I was in fact extremely honoured and completely surprised to have been asked by all the old mods to moderate with them, and then personally by Alex once again (to his credit) so I feel honoured, legitimate and also privileged to join the think tank (anyone can) of how to improve WP, though I couldn't accept being a moderator at this present time unfortunately for personal reasons.I still would like to work to help bring the less dominant voices and the less listened to, to the forefront. Two discouraging posts, one of them rather personal, will not make me stop caring or trying. The efforts to discourage me only make me more determined to help curb the ill winds that are blowing through WP and making people leave. Some negative people, who enjoy sabotaging constructive ideas, who thrive on conflict and discord, will no doubt continue to find me a veritable thorn in the butt.

@ Cyber Of course you would take on board Starkid's view, I would not anticipate a different response from you.

You know, despite all the trolling and sockpuppets, all the attempts to invalidate and bully vulnerable members, drive good members away and hijack threads that are promoting change for the better, this forum has a great deal of excellent, decent, kind, wonderful people and I may not have a clue how to improve things but nobody ever achieved change without trial and error, and people do actually succeed eventually in making positive change when they manage to rise above all the discouraging voices of gloom and doom and the insults that are hurled at them on the way.

NT's are and should continue to be very welcome here. Starkid's attack was an act of personal, direct discrimination against me as an NT which no-one at all even objected to. I did not report her nor do I intend to because it would not solve any problems and I have no grievance with her. In retrospect I did say a few things that could be interpreted as dumb. It happens to the best of us.

Lower functioning folk have left or been banned and have complained about unfair treatment. That's the point of this thread, it is not a debate discussing whether an NT has the right or the ability to effectively address autistic issues.

Last edited by Teach51 on 01 Oct 2020, 12:40 am, edited 1 time in total.