Dumbing down speech

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Hey it is a way for some people on here to feel better about themselves, saying 99% of people aren't as smart as them.

Well it doesn't make me feel better about myself. I know I'm average with intelligence, sort of on the same level as the average NT. I'm no smarter than NTs. In fact I find most NTs are smarter than me. I mean, I always needed extra help catching up with my learning all through school, while all the other children in the class were all ahead of me in every subject and they all seemed to know what to do. I was still on level 1 readers when I was 7, while all the other kids were on level 3 by then, apart from the other kids in the special ed group (who weren't Aspies, they just had learning delays).

I've been accused of using big words all my life. I still remember getting made fun of in 2nd grade for explaining that some trait or another was in my genes - my classmates thought that I was talking about my pants. I learned early and often that "dumbing down" (an expression I loathe) my language was a way to fit in more easily. Fortunately as I matured I cared much less about fitting in. By the time I was in my twenties I figured that if someone couldn't understand the words I used then it was up to them to ask me what they meant. Most people don't because they are embarrassed. Not my problem.

These days I do get friendly ribbing from co-workers about my vocabulary, but I usually turn it around on them.
Manager: "When you email this person try not to use too many big words."
Me: "Don't worry, I'll keep it on a 5th grade level."

lol maybe they thought you said "jeans".

If I encounter a word I don't know then I ask what it means, I don't just stand there looking confused then complain that the person "is using big words." If I met someone who asked me what a word meant, I would think no less of them, but if they complained about the use of "big words" like some insolent little child then my response would be thus:

I remember being accused of using big words in high school. I said words like taboo, blunt, logical, forte, and kids be like "What is that?" To them those were big words. My mom said they were not very smart. As if knowing less words makes you IQ lower. So does that mean if you learn a new word, you IQ had gone up just a little bit?

Precisely so.

Did they stop bothering to reply or take notice of your emails though?

For the most part, no. Most of my coworkers who know me are very aware that they may need to consult a dictionary, and it's not such a big issue. I usually only hear about it when I'm discussing communicating with someone who doesn't know me at all, and even then it's in a jocular way and not a critical way.

It stopped being a problem for me when I stopped letting it be a problem for me.

Being accused of using 'big words' has a little bit of a different connotation in other cultures.

TheSunAlsoRises

Last edited by TheSunAlsoRises on 21 Mar 2012, 3:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Nobody has called NT's stupid in this thread.

EDIT: *sigh...* Yet...

Last edited by MrXxx on 21 Mar 2012, 2:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Bottom line.

NT's ARE linguistically stupid next to aspies, due to their verbal and written focus on etiquette rather than content or subject

To me, most NT's linguistic intelligence seems to hover around the level of a lawn mowing contractor

Nt's are smarter than aspies in other ways, such as knowing who to suck up to and when, for favour's..... we are really dumb at that eh?

Nice blanket generalizations. I don't buy most of it.

You think prevalent is bad? I was once ridiculed for saying that something was picked randomly.

The words "OOOOH, RANDOM?" were echoed back in a mocking tone, as if they thought it was an exotic word, like I should only be saying such things if working for NASA.

I hate being made to feel ashamed of not having the brain of a dead goat.

The thing is though, I'm not smart enough to know how to dumb that down. I couldn't have said that someone pulled a name out of a hat, because they didn't. There was no raffle, no lottery machine was used... A decision was made with no conscious preference, something was picked randomly. I just can't think of any more simplified way to say that.

Things like this are part of the reason why I learned to just say nothing at all. If these idiots hate intelligence so much, we don't need to burden them with it. Let them walk face first into walls for the rest of their meaningless lives. Without guidance they will eventually die out.

As MrX says, it's a generalization and there are obvious exceptions, but for the most part I'd say you are correct.

Edit: P.S NTs are stupid.

Last edited by Invader on 21 Mar 2012, 3:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah, it is (kind of) like a lottery, it's just their natural reactions, sadly. There's plenty of other problems you could have, if you found a way around that particular one, though. Like the main ones I get, being about 'the way it's said', when it is not any way I am saying it! Think that'd be any easier?

Sounds like you were insulting someone for picking things randomly rather than linear? or some other pattern.