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Interpreting things differently (long)

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marshall
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14 Jan 2009, 3:09 pm

Hovis wrote:
All perfectly true. For all that we're supposed to be the ones trapped inside our own minds and largely unable to understand other individuals, I believe that I've come to understand many things about NTs quite well - the only difference being that the understanding has come from analytical logic rather than intuition.

I don't believe that I lack intuition at all. Maybe I'm just being arrogant but I sometimes enjoy psychoanalyzing NT personalities. Without awareness many of them hold inaccurate but self-serving beliefs about things outside their experience. When it comes to things they cannot possibly know of they just fill in the blanks with whatever suits them best. I know why they do this because I still get niggling impulses to do it myself – it's just that I've matured enough to try and self-edit my irrational urges.

The only intuition I lack is when I'm injected directly into a social situation. I can see it all from the outside looking in but once I’m put directly in the middle of the action I become all discombobulated and lose some sense of self-awareness. I can't always see a situation from the inside out and from the outside in at the same time (if that makes any sense). That's what this so-called lack of empathy / theory of mind really is – at least for me (can't speak for everyone though).
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On their part, though, any different thought pattern they encounter is immediately dismissed as beyond comprehension with a kneejerk, "Weird!" and the majority of them make no effort to truly understand, only to hastily try and obliterate the 'incorrect' thought by literally or metaphorically shouting it down.

It's all about thought convergence / groupthink. These days consensus determines the 'correct' way of thinking - in the past it was simply might makes right. Under the thin veneer of 'enlightenment' humanity still consists primarily of people with caveman mentalities. Physically our brains haven't evolved since then, everyone just likes to think they're smarter.



Tahitiii
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15 Jan 2009, 5:19 pm

marshall wrote:
When I explain something people often remark "that's a creative way of putting it, I never thought of it that way". The funny thing is that I'm not purposely trying to be clever or novel - my explanations seem very plain and logical to me. I like making my arguments from scratch, not using some canned saying from a famous author / intellectual figure. Other aspies are not like me either. Many like using quotes and aphorisms from other sources. I always put things in my own words.
So true. Some things are so obvious I want to tear my hair. How can you not know ___? It's not humanly possible to be that stupid...
On the other hand, some things are known. A good quote is a short-cut to a concept that is already commonly understood. They are useful because they save you the trouble of telling a really long story.

UnusualSuspect wrote:
...and no matter what angle I approach it from, they just don't get it. Maybe sometimes it's a neurological thing, but I also think there's often psychological resistance to having your view of things changed.
Absolutely. One social fiction supports another, and if you disturb that first domino, the person would have to change his whole world view. You would have better luck asking a heroin adict to give up his favorite consolation than asking the average person to accept a new thought.

PhaethonH wrote:
(why?!?!? :wall:)
That's how I feel, more often than not. I won't quote your rant. Too long (thermonuclear holocaust and CNG refuel points). But I know that feeling. If they had any idea of the quantum leaps we take while they're just putting along, believing that what they see is all there is...

marshall wrote:
I don't believe that I lack intuition at all. Maybe I'm just being arrogant but I sometimes enjoy psychoanalyzing NT personalities. Without awareness many of them hold inaccurate but self-serving beliefs about things outside their experience. When it comes to things they cannot possibly know of they just fill in the blanks with whatever suits them best.
I know this because I inspire people to hallucinate. It's amazing what they come up with then you don't help them to fill in the blanks.