Poll: How critical of opinions are you?

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How critical of others' opinions are you? For discussion: Do you believe that autism makes criticism more frequent or severe?

Moved from Off the Wall.

I think so, and I'll tell you why.

Went to a social gathering a few years ago, and it was a special occasion where a lady was going to speak at the beginning. She was in her late 40's, and she struggled all her life. And she recently "discovered" she has autism (or aspergers).

From watching her I could see her case was MUCH more severe than mine.
She apparently had very difficult time interacting, as I walked up to her after and introduced myself (trying not to me too forceful and blunt as I usually am). I don't think she looked me in the eye even once. And was looking at the ground all the time. Which made me sad because I thought I could connect with her, socially.

But anyways, during her speech, she held many many staunch opinions about groups (like gays, this was an lgbt group), and she was quite undelicate in expressing what she thought about gays and the like. And then she comes around and says nice things, saying how our group has accepted her and all the regular jib jab.

So yes, by watching her, and others (on youtube), I see that many autism spectrum individuals have very entrenched opinions about things. Not that NTs don't have their opinions and stuff they won't waiver from. But the autistic opinion is somehow "different". I can't explain it. Because NDs (neurodiverse) and NTs both can hold very staunch and intractable opinions. But I think they do it in different ways.

I agree. I searched for research about the matter and found none (except the 1947 concept of "autistic hostility" which has very little to do with today's definitions of the phrase). So, to explore it a little more, I posted this topic hoping others might yield more information. Thanks for playing along.

It all depends on how well founded my opinions are.

I try to test others opinions to see if they hold up, else I'll do my own research. However if they shout rather than reason then I'm lesslikely to believe them!

If I'm not well read or don't have the latest news then I'll yield to others seemingly more authoritative, however I will generally check up as soon as can.

Its all situation dependant for me.

Similar here, I don't see it as my job to accept the opinions of others, only to test their opinions, and if they present them as fact, or shout them or try to sell them, that makes me suspicious that they have left the path of wisdom. If they will simply begin with "in my opinion" or end with "on the other hand, I could be wrong, what do you think?" then I feel better about what they're postulating, because they're not trying to force their potentially flawed ideas onto anybody.

I never really yield to anybody's opinion as authoritative, though I might not argue with them. I've heard and read some complete rubbish by people who are revered as great experts, and I believe that no individual, however learned, is completely free of talking complete and utter crap occasionally.

I was nearly diagnosed with Schizoid Personality Disorder due to my lack of caring about other's opinions, so, I'd have to say........not very.

I didn't really like any of the options, so I didn't vote.

I'm not critical.

I tend to hold open a "bubble" that believes whatever the person is telling me. I am proud of this ability. I feel that without fully "jumping in" to their belief, I can criticize with accuracy. So, I seek first to understand...

I think there is a tendency of HFA people - especially the academics and intellectuals - to "not suffer fools gladly"

http://www.robertfulford.com/SufferFools.html

And I would say this has probably always applied to me. Here are some examples that can, and have, triggered my NSFG response:

- fundamentalist religionists. Deny anything that might conflict in any way with their belief system, and impose their belief system on others in a judgmental and holier than thou way - yep, this is a red rag to the NSFG bull!

-confirmation bias thinking. In fact this can be very similar to the above, though you find it more amongst educated people like doctors. Yep, another red rag to the NSFG bull;

-generalising from a single case (ditto) (and this includes scientists who generalise from a single, often poorly designed study, and the media that ignorantly report "a huge new breakthrough" on the same faulty grounds)

-outright idiocy - the moon is made of green cheese, the earth is flat, (you get the picture)

-extreme black and white thinking that stigmatises anyone with different views "if you are not a democrat/republican/whatever then you are a fool" (why I don't bother with the political forum)

-the media writing things from an obvious point of bias and pretending it is objective fact (lol)

-racists and sexists especially the 'all' kind (all whites are selfish, mean untrustworthy; all men are rapists; all women are gold diggers)

With increasing age, I wouldn't say that I have grown more tolerant of fools, or better at suffering them gladly, though I am better at choosing simply not to engage with them. It is a misguided waste of energy to try and point out to mega-fools why they are irrational, wrong, biased or whatever. They go on thinking foolish things anyway, and just hate you for disagreeing. So better not to engage - I can't stop thinking it, but I don't have to say it as well!

My nanny had a wonderful old saying about people who displayed persistent and wilful ignorance "What can you expect from pigs but grunts?" and to my naive idea that you could educate them (very naive) she would say, "don't cast your pearls before swine; it wastes your pearls and annoys the pigs". She was an insightful old lady, even though she had hardly any schooling (but buckets of natural wisdom, bless her!)

This is something of a constant struggle for me. At a conscious level, I try to remain humble about my opinions. In general I think people, myself included, have a tendency towards over confidence about their beliefs, especially in areas where they lack expertise. Despite this, I still struggle with the frequent instinct that my opinions are correct and the urge to "prove my rightness" to others.

The easiest way I avoid this is simply by not voicing my opinions as often. That's not exactly ideal though, as it doesn't necessarily keep me from judging others, simply from avoiding their judgement. It also means I test my opinions against other people's scrutiny less often as well, which isn't helpful for improving on my belief system.

I always prefer to be listening rather than speaking. So I don't voice my opinion that much unless someone asks me. If someone's voicing their opinions and they are ridiculous, I don't argue with them; I just laugh silently to myself and use them for my entertainment. Sometimes I'll ask them leading questions for further amusement. People are more willing to share their ridiculous opinions with me if I don't challenge them.

I've become a lot less critical with age. Most people's beliefs don't affect me, anyway, especially if it's just about movies or video games.

Outside of Wrong Planet, the Internet is full of critical opinions. I think most people are critical but don't show it offline.

Opinions are shaped by experiences within a persons environmental system, development is individual as are genetics and these influences lead to different perspectives.

I expect my current opinions to evolve, I expect that of other people too and place less value on opinions from closed minded people. If there is a possibility that another persons opinion is wrong but they don't acknowledge it, I presume they have attached the opinion to their self image/etc., and attempts to critique their belief would be a waste of my energy, and possibly damaging to that person. It's situational.

I feel that everybody, inevitably, will have an opinion. Some of those opinions will, inevitably, not be reflective of mine. I am not critical of one who expresses opinions.

I believe in expressing opinions, rather than stifling yourself.