Asperger's and 'alternative' culture

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Is it me or are there quite a few Asperger folks who would be classed as 'alternative'? I don't know many AS people, but those I do know definiely go against the grain, which is contradictory to the myth that we all try to be 'normal.'

Me for one, I'm a vegetarian, I don't drink or smoke, I don't really do normal activities like the pub or whatever, I'm much happier reading a book, or doing my artwork.

So is there a natural tendency for AS folks to rebel against the system, or is it because we think in a different way, it manifests itself in rebellion? I'm not sure.

What would "Altenative" culture be defined as? I am wanting to know that myself.

Tim

I'm definently not alternative. Plus, I hate wearing black unless it's pants or a skirt or something. At my school, I'm classified as a prep. Then again, so are 90% of other people as well. Then there's 5% alternative and 5% ghetto wanna-be's. The alternatives at my school can't stand me because "I talk too much, I'm too perky, and I'm too rich"... Yeah, that about sums it down.

Pretty much anything that doesn;t fit within the cultural 'norms' of fashion, music, or anything really.

Well, we (I mean aspies in general) do pretty much anything we like as opposed to what we're supposed to (because we don't know we're supposed to or just don't care); and often what we like doing isn't the mainstream.

Would "Mod" and "Hippie" be classified as alternative cultures? I do the fisrt one without trying, quite well.

I'm definitely unusual in my appearance. Back when I was in my teens, I was "goth" though this was before goth widespread like it is now. Before Hot Topic existed. I was the only goth kid in my school, and the school had 2,000 students. Most of my "goth-ness" though was just a love for the Victorian era.

I've always dyed my hair odd colors, even when I wasn't "goth." I don't do it anymore because I feel like I'm "too old" for it. I still wear somewhat unusual clothes though. And I act in unusual ways a lot of the time. I go to the park and get on the swings or see-saws, which isn't too common for someone who is almost 30.

I don't have a "group" or "culture" that I fit in with or hang out with though. You couldn't really pigeonhole me as any one "thing" if you saw me walking down the street.

I worry that I am too normal for alternative people, and too weird for the normal people. I worry that I'm too rich and successful to attract alternative people, and not rich or successful enough for normal people.

I am lost.

Tim

Wearing black or being vegan isn't alternative, it's mainstream "alternative" trends. People do it to fit into a label. I used to be a "goth", I know what I'm talking about here. The Vegan thing is a major trend. This is where I stand on it.
If your straight edge, that's ok, I'm not judging you on it. However, I take offense when they are my peers and they judge me because I smoke weed or cigarettes, or occassionally have a drink. It doesn't stop me from living a productive life, and the only person it's hurting in any way is myself. I work, I go to school, I have an IQ, I have priorities.
As for the no dairy thing.... I'm not judging anyone on it, but I think it sounds stupid personally, if one's reasoning for it is about animal safety. Because milking a cow doesn't hurt it, if anything it helps the cow.

well snake, not to get off topic here, but drinking cows milk is about the most unnatural thing for a human to do.
i would say it depends on a persons reason for following a particular belief or mode of behaviour. for instance as snake says, many of the current alternative "trends" are no more than that, simply trends, market choices, as such. although i do know a number of truly independent people, who tend to think and act how they wish too, with no recourse to the mainstream and its myriad "alternative" cultures and lifestyles.

But how does drinking a cows milk hurt a cow? If anything milking the cow prolongs it's life.

and how do you work that out? if farmers never took the cows calfs away from it, then they would milk the cow, and there would be no problem. are you one of those people who think that cows are actually milk machines, and that they dont have to get pregnant and give birth before they can produce milk?

but my point was that it is completely unnatural for humans to be drinking cows milk, nothing to do with the welfare of the cow at all.

I personally don't care about being normal, because normal is defined by mainstream culture to begin with. Overall, it is a word I have learned to hate. I think that most of what constitutes mainstream culture is trendy, disrespectful and sociocentric. This does not have anything to do with aspergers, autism, or any sort of neurological condition, per se, but rather do to a pervasive desire to retain happiness through material desires. There as many aspies as NTs that I have seen who subscribe to this sort of ideals.

I think that the current system, though, is unfriendly towards aspies and to anyone whom has different ideals to the mainstream. It is a system that prides itself in competition, thus catering to the creation of atmospheres that promote bullying and power trips. I actually watched an episode of 20 / 20 not too long ago. I believe it was 20 / 20, but if not, it was definitely one of those primetime news magazines. It was about education, and it completely blew the concept of alternative education way out of proportion. It was completely the type of bull that preached that everyone was the same and that the public school system was to blame. It preached that the school problems resulted from lack of competition and encouraged the use of a government-funded voucher program that would supposed to help instigate competition. It also talked about treating schools as corporations, even going so far as to bring up General Electric as a means of approval. This has more to do with choice, which they mentioned, but the idea that good and useful alternative schools would be supported and / or created through a voucher program tied to investors and the corporate community is completely propaganda. The corporate community was dumb children weened on standardized tests. It wants children educated on their selling and social potentials. One reason that social skills are so vital in the current school systems probably has little to do with cooperation and participation other than participating in a group that looks at other groups as adversaries and enemies. Social skills need to be therefore educated with a strong selling and persuasive potential. In other words, when you send your children to school, you are exposing them to propaganda.

Many aspies tend to favor material desires as less than their own, which propels many of them to favor libertarian policies. I'm not sure that libertarianism, as that which is practiced in the United States, is anti-mainstream. It's just really mainstream policies with an anarchist edge; that is, they are taught to be far more self-centered than the typical mainstream culture. Libertarian policies do promote the same kind of material desires that are taught in mainstream culture, and usually to a far more degree. Their policies tend to promote market fundamentalism. Many people who claim to be libertarians tend to focus relatively on the ethical nature of personal responsibility. This is somewhat flawed, because proponents of private property are very authoritarian. The issue of what could be called personal responsibility is thus allocated to those who own private property. So, in their eyes, it is perfectly right to own a corporation and treat your workers with callous disrespect as to increase profit shares. In fact, because they despise most forms of government regulations, any controls in place to provide workers with rights, such as labor laws, would probably be seen as a form of government coercion and social engineering, thus would not be supported. If there were libertarians that do support such a thing, then I would have to say that they have already departed from the libertarian party principles.

- Ray M -

This sounds like the opposite of the rebellious teen archetype. To me, rebelliousness, in the everyday understanding of the term, is more about acting out for attention and being accepted as cool by one's peers than actually seriously transgressing social norms. There's little need for genuine social rebellion in the United States, even when we have a government as inept as our current one, unlike in some other countries.

If you want to go against the norm, the door's wide open to you. If you don't believe in gods, you can be an atheist, and it might just make you a little less popular. Aside from a few minor laws like "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, there's not much you will have to fight for. If you want to be a vegan or even a meat lover, you can. You'll have to go much more extreme than vegan painter if you really want a public backlash against you. And then, I'd suspect you'd be just going for the rebel image instead of fighting for a sensationally unpopular cause you firmly believe in.

My idea on normal is like 'The Code' in Pirates of the Carribean: They're more... 'guidelines' than actual rules.

As a side note, I can't beleive the stuff they put up on fashion shows. It's like they slapped together a few dresses, frocks and frills, stiched them together and made it look pretty! I'd prefer to stick to a good ol' T-shirt and baggy jeans, thank you!