I interview Steve Silberman about his bestselling book, Neurotribes

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Uhh, I didn't reduce it down to its most vulnerable, I considered its nature as a medical disorder. I have OCD, tics etc. and I don't think they're the best thing in the world either, LOL. Who wouldn't want to be the most perfect NT if born again, able to cruise through life. If I could choose to be born into a rich family or a poor family (both kind families), guess which one I'd choose? Not the poor one so I could 'come out of it a better person'.

The NT spectrum isn't even useful to consider outside of comparing non-autistic individuals to autistic individuals in scientific studies. NT is just a vague term that refers to all who are not autistic. Feel free to continue to imagine that all NTs are just sport loving, physical psychopaths, though. Now that's narrow.



So it wouldn't be an attempt to attack you if I called you a stupid a**hole because I could claim I was referencing your humanity? Thought NTs were meant to be the cryptic, deceptive ones.

Why do you refer to yourself as differently abled but NTs as disabled? And if you're fine with holding such views, why were you so mad regarding what I posted? Are you saying it's a matter of perspective (your world view)? If so, why bother medically treating autism but not neurotypicality? I can only presume you vehemently favour autism as the superior way of life, at least your case of autism, because my friend definitely needed treatment for his sensory issues, emotional problems and academic disadvantages. Yes he has positives too likely as a result of autism, I'll say that so you don't explode all over me

@ Norny

It is you who is injecting emotion by cryptic character assassination. I am simply calling you as you are...someone who has a tendency to hide behind his skin pallor or veiled ridicule than address the issues. Nor do I want to be an NT. I have a supremely logical mind and consider the tribal subtleties of NT culture a form of regressed consciousness,

In the ideal world, physical prowess has its advantages in terms of bedding NT females but beyond that, does one really want to endure their proclivities for the rest of their life. I think not.

This is a rather drab place to be parked for a life but if one is to be here, an improvement in the current set of illogical arrangements will help.

WTF is a skin pallor and how am I hiding behind that

I have an extremely fun and kinky mind and don't care for the pretentious nature of so called, human logic, for thee is parched and will get my wizardry nowhere

other than that I'm done, my enjoyment proclivities are cryptically exhausted, -launches tribal escape pod

@ Norny

Oh, please, spare me that "kinky, I'm being funny" BS. You can play those games with one another but not with me.

I am pretty much done with you...you bore me.

lol you're drier than a sack of dates

kthxbai

This is not an approach I can respect.

Why not read the book before expressing a provisional opinion and taking provisional umbrage?
Would the world be poorer for the brief wait for this opinion?

I've read online that the blood moons would herald the end of the world and reptilian aliens hiding in human shells control the world through royal families and secret societies, but it's been suggested that not everything one reads online--shocking, I know--is necessarily completely true.

Derailing topic, and the point that you can't comment on what you haven't (fully) read, is blatant, the guy who sells books about blood or hollow moons would do exactly the same.

Do you feel that such behavior is stigmatized? Why are there Introvert forums? What is it that creates the need for community there?

My guess is that it would be correct to say that the dominant culture is that of extroverted neurotypicals.
Perhaps introverts and people on the spectrum both experience some form of negative reaction from the dominant culture when they exceed the very narrow tolerance it has for deviation from expected behavior.

I don't think NTs are primitive or regressed in any way.
NTs are fine, they have good social cognition that helps in many activities like cooperating with others on tasks.
I see this in action all the time.

@norny: I haven't read the book but I've read online that part of its message is to highlight that autism is a difference rather than a disability, and if it rarely talks about LFA, you've got bias there.

I actually find it incredibly depressing that people are willing to reiterate even the most blatantly incorrect statements made by people who obviously haven't read the book instead of checking them first-hand. My book talks about people with all forms of autism and stresses the point that autism is a disability, rather than, say, a modern plague caused by vaccines or pesticides or Wi-Fi or whatever. Before talking about my "bias," try reading the book!

This is not a subjective matter but rather a matter of fundamental tendencies in a species. All species but man are driven by code or genetics, much like a computer. Thus they are effectively on a pre-set programme or auto pilot and act to further their own genetic sequencing. When they act as a herd vis a vis another herd, thy act to further the coding of their herd.

Thus they act on auto pilot and there is prfection in that flawless process, apparent cruelty notwithstanding. Consciousness in humans has turned off that auto pilot. Instead the human species is now subject to matrial conditions or cultural evolution.

It is my view that consciousness is malfunctioning in NTs hence behaviours which denote auto pilot programming. The tribalism, the preference for physicality rather than consciousness, the herd like instinct and the widespread use of masks and subterfuge and discrete cloaking devices generally.

Bearing in mind that the cognitive scale stretches from auto pilot to the emerging boundaries unceremoniously lumped under the autistic label by the NT world, I don't think it unreasonable to characterise the brutish behaviour of the majority as regressed.

These are your opinions of NTs, not facts.
My opinions are that NTs are not primitive or regressed.

Basically all knowledge is opinion, supported by numbers of reasonable pontificators or observable processes observed by numbers of competent observers. We term that the scientific process.

Secreted away in the vast storehouse of human knowledge the numbers support my opinion....material dialecticism for one and Darwinism for another.

Add to that, the reality on the ground and I am inclined to think that I am correct. To term someone who is highly conscious but lacking the capacity to run around a field beating an opponent to pulp, disabled, is simplistic. Granted the scale is vast but intellectual laziness is not an excuse for no knowledge.

But you didn't support your opinions with evidence, you just said that they are supported, but the solid evidence and mechanisms are missing.

Scientists don't yet understand much about consciousness, so it is too early to say which individual human or group of humans is more conscious than whichever.

This is your highly subjective and idiosyncratic understanding of genetics and behavior, not any kind of objective fact.

Your description of animal and human behavior is inconsistent with the behavioral genetics I have studied and at odds with theories of the role of the nervous system in regulating animal and human behavior that I learned. Your use of the words "flawless" doesn't make sense to me. No biological process is flawless, this high level abstraction has nothing to do with the molecular chemistry at the base of biology.

This whole idea seems more like defensive name calling: "you guys are like animals." Humans are like humans and are a kind of animal. There is no progression and regression in evolution, just change--some of which survives.

Rather than tell me what you think I am saying, why don't you contrast your knowledge with say my position on the role of genetics and systemic regulation where conscientising of a species emerges.

Then elaborate on the nature of objective dialecticism at the systemic level and how it can/could have been improved on and at what stage...and above all, why and by whom.

Th last is critical if you are to convince me that you know what you ar talking about,

edit: In the interests of not derailing this thread, you may PM me to further this exchange. My initial point was to counter the addled generalisations of the likes of Norny but Alex had a point in opening this thread and something I have no interest in overriding.