"You need to use your common sense."

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WOW! Well, I come from a place that I guess doesn't exist anymore! The United States of America. The country that is now there, that has the same name, is just ENTIRELY different. By perhaps EVERY measure in the CIA fact book, it is TOTALLY different. English is not nearly so popular, and the meaning of many words is totally different. The term "Common Sense" refered to a set of prejudices alright, but they were generally correct! So what were they?

Don't put your hand in fire or near a very hot object
be careful with sharp objects
keep things clean
be somewhat organized
keep your way clear, to prevent trips
Limit the ability of strangers to hurt you
don't go in the path of another object going against you
don't eat old food.
don't eat food of unknown or unsure origin.

etc....

Some DUMB "common sense" things autistics don't like are:

wear warm clothes when it is cold
wear a raincoat or use an umbrella in the rain

I mean WHO determines it is cold? What if I LIKE the rain, etc?

As a former distance runner in high school who had to run miles and miles of practice sessions in rain and snow in a jogging suit, and was required to run races in shorts and a tank top no matter how cold it got ... I only like to use an umbrella when it's my beautiful purple Monet waterlily one, and then I have to be in the right mood.

As for the cold, my coach once yelled at me for wearing tube socks on my hands during a race when it was freezing cold ... He claimed it would slow me down aerodynamically. I figured I would be slowed down much more by being freaked out by painful cold, and so stubbornly kept the socks on.

We do what we gotta do for comfort, survival, and to reach our goals. And that, my friends, is common sense.

Spokane Girl, that second example you gave is using the phrase "common sense" in the same context as "blind instinct" - something that us Aspies always have issues with when it comes to matching NT's. In that context, that is NOT common sense. Instinct in that context actually LACKS common sense.

Common sense = logic.
Common sense <> instinct.

Common sense is what tells you the world is flat.
This is why it takes a smart aspie to get anything done, lawl.
(I'm joking)

Yes. People, my father in particular, do this to me all the time. I feel like hitting them, then calmly explaining that my brain is not their brain, and my experiences are not their experiences.

I don't have any common sense.

So could it be said that common sense is not common, and doesn't make much sense?

I usualy tell people "I don't have any commom sense." It works wonders.