What if aspies were valued?

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What if instead of trying to "exorcise" us (which is really what NTs are trying to do), they valued us? What if the smartest aspies were celebrities in the same way that Angelina Jolie and Madonna are? I was reading some guy's story over on HuffPo about a Tesla-invented time travel machine, and it got me wondering. What if some supersmart aspie (which Tesla was) unlocked the secrets to all those dusty patents of his that collect dust because nobody can understand them, and in doing so so radically changed the world that NTs did a 180 and started valuing us for what we are? Separate schools for aspies would be for our benefit, instead of holding pens. We don't care about money or status, so we are put in charge of running things. Aspie technological geniuses would have their living accommodations taken care of, so they could spend all their time bettering humanity. Aspie parents desperately try to "cure" their NT children. Eventually, NTs are relegated to such lines of work as PR specialist and nurse, occupations that need social skills above all. "You spent your time at Stanford drinking, eh NT? Well, go drive a freakin truck!" I can always dream...

They say Albert Einstein may have had Asperger's, and nearly every parent these days either wants or think their kids will grow up to be Einstein. But we'll never really know if he did have it, and when he was a boy at school they told his parents he may not amount to anything in the world and feared that their son was a moron... E=mc2

I wouldn't want us to benefit from positive discrimination, but we do need to have equal opportunities, which could only be achieved by means of some special arrangements and accommodations. Most of us are so very smart, but spend so much of their energy with trying to fit in or working full-time at a job where an NT would thrive, but not people like us...

I wish for a future where it won't matter whether a kid is born NT or Aspie. They will be loved and supported just as much. In this deam society, there will be avenues for both NTs and Aspies to be successful. And no one will have to conform and strive to fit in, because fitting in will not be as important as it is and diversity will be valued...

Posts like this, from Aspie supremacists who think they own the world, have a lofty sense of entitlement and do nothing but bash nuerotypicals, are why WP has become a joke.

I didn't mean it like that, really. Now I can see some cringe-worthy stuff in there, but when my mind goes it just runs. ST77 has it right, I'd much more like to see Martin Luther King's world, where people are valued for what they can contribute. If you spend your college years partying, you deserve to have a crappy job, not become a billionaire from your "contacts" made from keg parties. College is valued more for who you get to know, not what you actually learn in the classroom, was my point.

I must be honest and say I take offense to this.

Even if I wasn't NT(ish), I'd still take offense. How is it OK to balk at the stereotypes thrust upon you by another group, and then turn around and do the same in return? I will be honest and say this has always boggled my mind. The entire pool of NTs is not trying to exorcise anyone, nor do they devalue you. There are large portions of the NT population who do the exact opposite of what you are accusing.

Because I'm feeling feisty today and feel the need to be heard on this...it is also posts like this that make it difficult for us parents who do value and respect our ASD kids. Posts like this, for whatever reason, fuel curbie parents' fires. And we (non-curbie parents) somehow end up caught in the cross-fire. Or at least I have. I am left in the middle of two extremist groups--both equally wrong--trying to find a way to bring peace.

I wish all neurodiverse people were valued more. Society as a whole will hinder my children more than their neurology ever will. But the kind of sentiment expressed in the OP is not going to help make things better.

And for some of us...it makes things worse.

I don't mean to be naive, but aspies and auties are not discriminated against, are they? I don't see it. Can you imagine discriminating against someone with Down's Syndrome? Not only is that aberrant, but I really doubt it happens. Who in their right mind would denigrate an autistic kid? Definitely not a "normal" person. Anyone who would put down people like us is not only being discriminatory but downright evil, and that's not normal.

I am trying to figure out if you are being serious?

My son has a giant bully target painted both on his back and his forehead and because he is "typical-appearing" (IOW not obviously disabled) it would appear that there is no taboo against mocking him, picking on him, and in other ways discriminating against him.

If that has not been your experience, I think it would be wise to consider yourself lucky.

Pezar, I just now saw your clarification of what you meant (because I got an email alert that someone had posted to this thread.) I must have been writing my post when you posted. My apologies if I offended you.

College achievement isn't valued much these days, either, actually. I did very well in college, but adapting to all the NT demands of real working world stuff has been my downfall.

I don't agree with you entirely there. People who receive great marks are heavily rewarded. They get scholarships and opportunities in great schools. But in the end, the academic knowledge you gain in the class room is only one part of the experience. Many jobs require you to be socially at ease with people. College should be used as a great opportunity for a social experience. Does this mean you have to party every week to get that experience? No. In the end, college is about having a thirst for knowledge and growth, and not necessarily what you learn in the class room.

In the end, people deserve what they get. If you have intelligence or a skill that people will pay for, then you deserve to get employed regardless of your grades.

The bit I posted about bullying those with disabilities is related to this:
1. When I went to school, Down's kids and autistic kids were educated separately. As such they were protected from bullying.
2. The ones who were high functioning, like me, but were bullied and not part of the severe population, were bullied not because of our diagnosis. The bullies picked on us because we were smaller, or nerdy, or immigrants - none of which were related to the diagnosis of Asperger's or autism.

Yes, we are discriminated against. Why else do so many of us strive to hide our neurological status at work? especially when this causes a greater drain on our energy than the work we are paid to do.

I see...you do not think someone's "nerdiness" could be related to their diagnosis of AS? My son is bullied--to a large degree--because of his social cluelessness. That--most definitely--seems to be related to his membership in the non-NT population. An example is that he understands that Angry Birds are popular and cool. He wants to be seen as cool. So, he wears Angry Birds t-shirts to school every day for 2 weeks and gets teased because of it. (Yes, I realize I am partially to blame for this for allowing it, but I have real struggles with things like bending to societal norms that I deem meaningless and I also think--in principal--that people ought to leave him alone; wearing an Angry Birds shirt every day for the rest of his life harms no one. If he wants to wear one every day, he should be able to) Or, he thinks asphalt is amazing. So he puts some in his pocket and shows it to people and gets teased because of it. Or, he cannot tell when someone is making fun of him, so he naively plays along which then causes the bully and all his cronies to laugh at him, but he thinks they are his friends because they are "having fun" together. None of that would fly with a typpie because a typpie would a) not wear the same (or nearly the same) shirt to school indefinitely, b) not find asphalt amazing and store it in their pocket and lack the common sense to keep their fascination to themselves, and c) not put up with the mockery, because they'd see it for what it is.

What I'm beginning to find is that you don't get treated like a regular human being unless you act like a regular human being. People do stuff and expect certain normal responses. If you don't provide them, they don't know what to do, so they don't do anything.

Someone with aspergers won't be treated like a normal human being because they aren't a normal human being. All normal people want to stay normal. They always have. So no one is ever going to want to be like the guy that no one has any idea what he's trying to say or the guy that is brilliant but doesn't have a single person to get a drink with his entire life. Ever. They might admire his brains, but they know distinctly that they'd never want to be him. And I hate to be negative, but its how I feel right now: none of the normal people really care about the fact that that guy is all alone. They can't really, because they'll be fine with or without him. And you might tell me that there's all these guys that if they weren't around, no one would have computers or electricity, but that isn't what we're talking about here. All that is is those guys being work horses. And everyone can stand around and admire a nice race horse, but if the horse started causing trouble or not performing they'd just put it down. It was never about the horse. It was about demonstrating the owner's wealth, education, and 'talent' at choosing and breeding horses. The owner makes his living off a plantation that dumps toxic waste into the water and air, poisoning everything that the horse eats, so that eventually it hurts the horses so they start underperforming and breaking under the pressure and having to be shot. Then the owner would just have to move on to a new idea for displaying his manhood, but he'll still have his house and his wife and sportscar and country club golf buddies.

Those of us who want jobs would be given a chance by employers instead of collecting Disability.

The problem is not a NT vs Aspie one. It's more a question of how society values intelligence versus celebrity. The thing is, people of average intelligence can not really relate to someone who is very smart and well read. Their view of the world is shaped by popular culture and they simply do not immerse themselves in the sorts of reading and entertainment that smart people do. Smart people tend to spend their entertainment time expanding their minds and usually have a more limited knowledge of pop culture than a person of average intellect. My theory is that people are interested in things that are targeted at their level of intelligence. Thus, someone with an IQ of 100 will rarely seek knowledge and understanding. Instead, they will seek what other people of limited intelligence seek as it will allow them to socialize in their peer group. The same is also true of the higher IQ people. Thus, neither side will ever value the other.