Asperger's Syndrome: Just Different or Fundamentally Better?

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I am Aspie; hear me roar!

Now I'm hungry; out for lunch.

Find something you truly hate. Then, focus 100% on doing it for hours with no end in sight. If you lose focus, start all over again. I think that might bring some more perspective.

My mind craves more of certain things and less of others. When I get more of the things I need more of then I am fine, when I get more of the things I need less of, I overload.

Right now I need food. MMMM.. TV dinners...

I like the way you worded this.

I hate vast chicken wings with a passion. KFC has produced bizarre chickenesque creatures with vast chicken wings for us to eat.

I'm one of these "nebulous people" -- nothing close to normal acquisition of self-help skills and language faculties, for instance (and diagnosed autistic, one of the ones you separated yourself off from as more superior or something at the beginning of your post). Others I know have low IQs, including some on this board (and as I said, if you tested me at a certain time I'm sure I would, and I've tested pretty much all over the map as far as I know). We still read it when people post the sort of thing you post, even if you think we're not aware of it or think we're "not the same" somehow.

And this mentality you're using above reminds me of people who used to taunt (or worse) me and other people who were supposedly unaware of our surroundings, and then claim, "Well they don't understand, so it doesn't hurt them." I somehow thought cruelty is cruelty whether it's understood or not. In general it's a bad idea to assume that the people you are talking about aren't listening, or that the people listening aren't, at least in part, now or in the past the people you're talking about.

What are nebulous people?

Please. My original post to this topic was not meant to offend anyone at all. I was only making the distinctions from autism to show that Asperger's syndrome is equal to NeuroTypicality. I did not mean to imply autistic people (as in not aspies) were an inferior grade.

I could take offense at the sky's being blue, but what's the point?

We do not all live under the same sky, and that would cause offense. It simply may be that some with AS are indeed superior, but so what? Others are not.

This is highly dangerous ground you have wandered into. I have always enjoyed your posts, but I would advise caution.

Though you arent able to accept the fact that Asperger's is officially a disorder and disabling to many that have it.

What do you mean "autistic people (as in not aspies)?" My doctors always refers to me as being autistic though I have 2 separate DX's of AS. If it were not for my verbal skills I would have a DX of HFA, so what's the difference? How does AS=NT if AS is supposed to be superior than NT. Is it AS=NT, AS>NT, AS<NT, AS<>NT, AS=NT/y ?? I am officially confused.

Thank you.


EDIT: I smell food...

There are many times, often due to positive AS-related traits, that I consider myself brilliant in my unique approaches to problems and reality, but as often as I am in an analytically accelerated state, I find myself lost in social or communication confusion that leaves me feeling as though no one could be any slower than I am.

Superiority and inferiority are perceptions, not classifications or absolute truths in a world lacking absolutes and with so many variables and dimensions of personality, skill-levels, and intellect. This is especially true, as perceptions of one's own self and the perceptions someone else has regarding another person can change drastically as another aspect of the person in question is revealed.

People are individuals (even if they like to pretend otherwise), full of flaws (even if they don't admit them), and full of strengths (even if they don't know about them). No one is exempt from this, although I'd have a difficult time arguing for the positives of a serial killer, but that is another matter, as I hope no one here fits that description.

You talked about superiority, not equality, and you rested part of your basis of equality on not being like other autistic people. (Who by that definition would not be equal to NTs, but "aspies" would. Since you were using not-being-like-us as a basis for your equality.)

I agree with the others who said you are treading dangerous ground, and possibly confusing likeness and equality, skills with superiority, and so forth. I don't personally think people are superior to each other, period, but that's very different from saying we're all the same or have the same skills, because we obviously don't.

In this case, I was trying to use the phrase "autistic people" in the restricted sense of those diagnosed with Autistic Disorder by the DSM-IV-TR or Childhood Autism or Atypical Autism by the ICD-10. I wanted to exclude Asperger's syndrome in this particular instance.

Yes. I consider myself to be often better at seeing what is in front of me (in the most literal sense of that phrase) than many NTs are. (And I don't mean "superior", I mean "better at a certain skill".) That same skill is inextricably tied to several other aspects of perception that are considered weaknesses. Neither one is less real or less okay, to me, and in truth they are both part of something else, not separable.



Agreed a lot with the idea that superior/inferior are perceptions.