Why do people in these aspergers videos all look ret*d?

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I think people have a good idea of what he's trying to say. I don't think he's really been condemned. At worst, his word choice was criticized.

His perceptions of those people in those videos are based on his prejudices about cognitive and intellectual disabilities*, not on anything factual. If he didn't hold those prejudices, he probably would not come to such a conclusion.

* "Intellectual disability" is a semantically accurate alternative to the word he used.

Since I was diagnosed at 8 years old, I've never been told that AS was a form of retardation, which I know for a fact it isn't anyway. For the first time in my life I have met another person with Autism, and he is good-looking and if you didn't know any better you'd think he is a confident NT. I don't look ret*d either. I've been through all of my class photos, and I don't look any different to any of the other children.

because they want to be normal? i've seen plently of NTs that look pretty ret*d on the internet. listen being ret*d isnt biased, anyone can do it.

Additionally, I get the sense that people don't know what people with intellectual disabilities look like. OTOH, I know a lot of such people, and they can look anything from very obviously "different" to identical to any other person. People have so many myths about IQ out there too... I've known people with IQs in the 40s who could pass for NT. There is no "looking ret*d" really, because there's so many ways people with that diagnosis can look.

I am not sure. I know what you mean

I have PDD NOS autism and here are some of my videos? Do you see it here
Can you tell I have it from any of these? Can you tell I am autistic?

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri= ... 2moRnmB8-8


http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri= ... OtVpKkPt7s

Also please reframe from using the r word

Admittedly I may not watch as many such videos as some of you, but most of the videos I have seen, from AS people, do NOT look that way! And most that DO are ones where I doubt the person has AS.

OH, And the corky character actually sounds pretty intelligent for someone WITH DOWNS SYNDROME! HE and the character he plays do NOT have AS! But for someone with downs syndrome? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Burke_(actor)

BTW people with downs, which DOES limit intelligence, DO generally look like chris burke. It isn't nearly as obvious in that picture because it is only the face, and he is older, but it is in the diagnosis, etc... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_syndrome

Some other syndromes, like williams, also change features.

So there ARE things that can clearly make a person look... well.... but a person could have that problem and look normal. And some may look like they have the problem and don't.

You're right OP. They should show more videos of Daryl Hannah when talking about Aspergers. Mmmmmmmmm

Please post examples of the videoes you are bitching about not to mention videoes of yourself speaking so we can compare to see what your talking about.

Wow.. Some of you guys need to control your emotions better. The OP probably did what many aspies do. He used a word to explain an idea the best way he could, and many of you just burn him down because he failed to do so in a socially acceptable way.

Thank you for coming to my defense. I meant no disrespect. I guess I worded my original post incorrectly and I apologize for that.

I feel really terrible reading this thread and having people accuse me of being intentionally being mean, so I stopped replying.

I was trying to ask a question the best way I knew how to but I came across as offensive. It's part of my AS. I wasnt prepared for people to start attacking me.

I'm happy to see that at least one person here understands, it means a lot to me. Thank you. It's tough dealing with AS because people misunderstand what you're trying to say. This thread is a perfect example of that. It's why I don't really try to communicate with people anymore, and have been severly depressed.

It sucks. Even on an AS forum, with "my own kind" I'm still misunderstood.

EDIT: I see a few other posters came to my defense as well, and I thank you too. I didn't realize so much would be read into my original post. 1 poster here said I thought people with AS were as bad as ret*d people or something like that, which never even crossed my mind when starting the thread.

It's a good example though of what people with AS have to go through in daily life. Having things you say being misinterpreted all the time really sucks.

It's surprsing to me that someone who has as many posts as you do on this forum would so misunderstand my original post like that. I'm a little upset about it because you are trying to tell me people what I meant in my original thread when in fact you have no idea what you are talking about.

You should have asked me to clarify myself, if you were unsure or suspected me of putting people down. Instead you jumped to conclusions and attacked me. You need to try to understand how to deal with people who have AS a little better, because I found your reply very hurtful to me.

With that said, I apologize if I offended you or anyone who is disabled.

I wasnt offended I know you were having trouble choosing words just wanted to know if you see it in my videos

Are you suggesting your terminology is not emotionally loaded? Are you sure you're not reading a lack of emotional control into these responses? It seems like there's a lot of oversensitivity here about being asked to not use a particular word.

I didn't attack you. I am sorry that I managed to attack you while not intending too. What I meant was that there are a collection of stereotypes about what intellectually disabled people look and sound like, and you were drawing upon these stereotypes to label people in these videos you're talking about. I also meant that people were not attacking you, but were criticizing your word choice because I suspect many people here find that word hurtful.

What did you mean beyond "Why do people in these Asperger's videos look intellectually disabled?" That is basically the title of this thread, right? You said with most AS people, you can tell they're AS but they don't sound intellectually disabled, but that the people in the videos do.

I do not know what your motivation was in posting this thread, other than to ask those questions. I still don't. Were you worried that people might see you as intellectually disabled? Is this a bad thing in your eyes?

I once had the PARENT of a friend say that I "looked ret*d" when I was about 15...my IQ has been tested 4 times and the lowest score was 155, so I just laughed my ass off when he told me that one. I didn't know I had AS then (hell, AS wasn't even a diagnosis back then, as I'm in my 40s), so I had no clue as to what they were talking about, so I just thought they were nuts.

Don't put much stock in crap like that. I don't know if our OP is a troll or not, but whatever. I've learned not to take sh!t like that seriously.

~Kate