NT-Bashing Foolishness: An Open Letter To The Abusers

Post Reply New Topic

I think that human diversity is based on a lot of things from neurodiversity to race to sex to character to everything you want. I don't know if a male-white-USA-Aspie has more in common with a female-black-central_africa-Aspie than with a male-white-USA-NT, it could be an interesting study, to see how different race/gender/environment change some trait or not of the Aspie-mind, actually it change a lot of the NT behaviour but it's mainly due to NT being "social-addicted" actually it's possible that AS from different region and background will be "more similar" than the relative NT, but I can't know.

NTs only exist as a group because you are defining them that way. The vast majority of NTs don't consider themselves as belonging to a "neurotypical" group becuase they haven't been educated that way and they are far too superficial. That is, most NTs identify their "group" based on visual/cultural differences such as ethnicity, skin color, political affiliation, and favorite sports teams. When I recently asked a group of friends about their experience with AS, half of them admitted they didn't even know what it was! There is not a conspiracy of NTs versus Aspies. There is basic human nature, which as many point out, includes the strong taking advantage of the weak, a behavior I detest to my core, but it exists nonetheless.

I whole-heartedly agree with the poster who wrote: "There's no 'we' or 'them', just us. Let all human beings get along, we are all one in this cosmic universe = )" If we continue to emphasize our differences, then we will be divided. It makes far more sense to me to focus on our similarities, because we are more similar than different. As Ben Franklin said, "We must all hang together or, surely, we will all hang separately."

I cant figure out if you are referring to rdos or me when you say 'NT's only exist as a group because YOU are defining them that way' cause I have AS AND I may not have made myself clear but...........

I was trying to make the point that the I disagreed completely with the statement that human diversity is basically defined by Aspie/NT diversity.

To be more Aspie, that statement is ludicrous, most NT havent even heard of it and neither had I until recently.............

I am really confused now

Blindspot, sorry for the confusion. My "NTs only exist..." statement was referring to rdos' previous statement. I was trying to agree with you when you stated "I can't think of a single conflict in (modern) history that involved Aspies vs NT's." We're on the same page, but I'm just not communicating too effectively today. Hope this clears up the confusion.

Thanks for clearing that up, a real act of kindness I was beginning to wonder if I was having an 'episode'

Agreed too... I do use the term NT to refer to people on the spectrum, but don't care for it a whole lot. I've finally just started using it because there is a difference in the social networking, but not really in how the mind works... that and to try to describe a situation without using it on this forum can be quite hard at times, lol.

But when I do use it, I have a hard time not thinking in the back of my mind things like "well, how can everyone else be considered 'NT'? What about depression, chemical imbalances, personality disorders, anxiety, etc... we have no clue what someone might or might not have and how it could influence their responses to things or how they do things."

There is definitely a difference between how we think and how "they" think, but not all of them respond the same way to things, so it's really hard to call them "them" when they are just as diverse as we are. It's also hard when we ask a question and find out they think about it the same way we do... just for some reason they come to completely different conclusions. That, to me, is mind boggling at times.

Last edited by anxiety25 on 14 Oct 2009, 12:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

What about the idea of emphasizing our differences, but in a positive way? Take a NT/AS team for example. Take an NT that is very social and verbal, combine that with an Aspie who is logical and pragmatic and see how that problem would be solved differently than if each person was on their own. I don't know how many times I have made an emotional decision, only to regret that decision wishing that I was able to be objective enough to see a bigger picture and make a better choice.

We all bring something to this world. It's diversity that enriches our lives, brings fantastic things to the world and makes life interesting and worth living. I would hate to live in a world where everyone is the same. How boring is that?

Conflict mostly arise because of a few percent of human diversity. This is the part I call "neurotypical complusions". Neurotypical compulsions are for instance, status seeking, following fashions, body ornaments for social reasons, organising things in social hierarchy, grouping people in in-group/out-group, mostly socializing with one's peer group and things like that. These are the traits that are behind most cultural phenomena, and it is also the traits that are behind conflicts and war, but they are a small percentage of human diversity.

ummm.........what

Not at all. NTs exist as a group because factor-analysis says so. Just as there exists a neurodiversity-group (that I usually call "Aspie"). OTOH, Autism, HFA, ADD, ADHD, AS, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Tourette, Schizotypal do NOT exist as groups. They exist as a part of the neurodiversity spectrum.



Yes, NTs define "culture" in terms of their own obsessions. Just think about how culture would be defined if it instead was defined based on Aspie compulsions?



It is a nice idea, but it unfortunately does not stand up to further scrutiny.

What?

Perhaps I should clarify. These traits are a small percentage of inherited diversity, but a big part of human culture. I have for instance my self no interest in fashions, I have no interest in which sports-teams are ther best, and I do not single out out-groups on all kind of levels. Therefore, I find much of culture rather uninteresting. I listen to the music I like, I wear comfortable cloths, and I don't like to socialize with strangers.

I count 9 'I's

[/quote]


I disagree. Most conflict between groups arises from competition for resources. What is behind the conflicts of war is groups competing for control of land, water, other natural resources such as oil and minerals, human labour and money through control of an economy. It's the rare war or large scale conflict that doesn't involve a conflict over who gets to control something on that list.

Many small scale conflicts and conflicts between individuals also involve competition for resources. Conflicts that are actually over resources can masquerade as conflicts over cultural differences. Racial conflict in the US is more about who gets to control labour, access to education, access to desirable real estate. On the surface it looks like fights about skin color but when you scratch the surface you see how the fights really boil down to money- who gets it and who gets shut out- who gets good jobs, who gets good places to live, who gets good schools.

There are conflicts between groups and individuals which is what will be most obvious to Aspies since that's such an overwhelming experience: being an individual in conflict with the group. So that conflict will feel most prominent: the group shuts out somebody who doesn't fit in- the conflict starts as soon as people are old enough to have a concept of group identity- sometime in elementary school. It may look like a lot of in-group/out group conflicts are just this on a somewhat larger scale, but if you look more closely you will see that they aren't really about how the minority X group doesn't mesh with the larger Y group but rather about how the X group is using resources that the Y group doesn't want to share. It's a conflict over resources.

Culture isn't about sports teams, music and fashion. It's about how a group organizes itself and how the members of the group interact with each other and with those outside the group. It's about communication style, hierarchical style and acceptable interaction style. You participate whether you want to or not, unless you remove youirself from culture entirely by living away from all people.

AKH! Too much sciency stuff!! !

I don't look into it too much. Bashing NTs is pointless, but I tend to use the term to loosly (and easily) describe anyone who doesn't have a neurological condition or in other words, people who don't get shunned by society...