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C2V
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28 Apr 2017, 8:54 am

Something weird just happened.
I was walking into a shopping centre to get groceries, and two guys were walking toward me. They looked over at me and sort of sniggered. Then they got closer, one of them yells at me "Run, Forrest, run!" And they both laughed.
Their meaning is obvious, and I am way past anything like this bothering me, so if that was their intention they failed.
But I do find it confusing. I was if anything looking less autistic than usual, because I'd had things to do earlier in the day where it was better to look as normal as possible. I was dressed in a way I know is normal, in clean black pants and a clean collared shirt with blue stripes on it. I wasn't doing anything weird - I was just walking across a parking lot looking at a list to make sure it was the grocery one.
And yet two total strangers pegged me as ret*d.
It makes me wonder if I look this way all the time, regardless of how normal I think I look, and others who have said I don't were just trying to be polite and therefore lying to me (because they view telling someone they look autistic as an insult, which is an unintentional but really sh***y attitude I won't get into in this post).
I don't really know what to think about this encounter.
I know others here fly below the proverbial radar and don't get recognized as autistic, and others are recognized as different all the time. I suppose I thought I was blending in more than this, but apparently not.
Anyone have anything like this happen? Have an opinion?
I don't really know what I'm asking exactly, it was just weird.


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Corny
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28 Apr 2017, 9:00 am

They probably didn't know you have autism. Because you don't look like you have autism since it's mental and a physical disability. They're probably just 2 guys just being stupid and immature and doing something random when they saw you. They probably didn't know you had anything wrong with you. They were just being stupid.



Chichikov
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28 Apr 2017, 9:08 am

If I had to guess I'd say it's maybe the way you walk. We don't "see" how we walk so what isn't obvious to you may be visible to others.



The_Blode
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28 Apr 2017, 9:16 am

^ alright. . .I'll be the one to say it. . .those guys are j**ks. . .

Nobody 'looks' autistic since it's a quirk in the brain. . .

Um, they were just being idiots. . .and it probably wasn't a dig at your Autism (it most certainly wasn't). . .maybe it was the way you were dressed. . .even though it was smart from the description. . .maybe they are so disadvantaged that they think anybody wearing clean collared shirt and black pants is considered "Forrest Gump". . .

Take it with a pinch of salt mate, we're all behind you here. . .next time you might bump into two old ladies who say how handsome you look. . .



Corny
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28 Apr 2017, 9:20 am

The_Blode wrote:
^ alright. . .I'll be the one to say it. . .those guys are j**ks. . .

Nobody 'looks' autistic since it's a quirk in the brain. . .

Um, they were just being idiots. . .and it probably wasn't a dig at your Autism (it most certainly wasn't). . .maybe it was the way you were dressed. . .even though it was smart from the description. . .maybe they are so disadvantaged that they think anybody wearing clean collared shirt and black pants is considered "Forrest Gump". . .

Take it with a pinch of salt mate, we're all behind you here. . .next time you might bump into two old ladies who say how handsome you look. . .

You know you kinda said the same thing I told him.



The_Blode
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28 Apr 2017, 9:30 am

Corny wrote:
The_Blode wrote:
^ alright. . .I'll be the one to say it. . .those guys are j**ks. . .

Nobody 'looks' autistic since it's a quirk in the brain. . .

Um, they were just being idiots. . .and it probably wasn't a dig at your Autism (it most certainly wasn't). . .maybe it was the way you were dressed. . .even though it was smart from the description. . .maybe they are so disadvantaged that they think anybody wearing clean collared shirt and black pants is considered "Forrest Gump". . .

Take it with a pinch of salt mate, we're all behind you here. . .next time you might bump into two old ladies who say how handsome you look. . .

You know you kinda said the same thing I told him.


^ my bad, Corny. . .I get stick all the time as I wear a white collared shirt and black pants for work and I always get stick re wearing a waiter's uniform or school uniform! ! ! I've just learned to get over it. . .can't change what people think of you. . .



Corny
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28 Apr 2017, 9:33 am

The_Blode wrote:
Corny wrote:
The_Blode wrote:
^ alright. . .I'll be the one to say it. . .those guys are j**ks. . .

Nobody 'looks' autistic since it's a quirk in the brain. . .

Um, they were just being idiots. . .and it probably wasn't a dig at your Autism (it most certainly wasn't). . .maybe it was the way you were dressed. . .even though it was smart from the description. . .maybe they are so disadvantaged that they think anybody wearing clean collared shirt and black pants is considered "Forrest Gump". . .

Take it with a pinch of salt mate, we're all behind you here. . .next time you might bump into two old ladies who say how handsome you look. . .

You know you kinda said the same thing I told him.


^ my bad, Corny. . .I get stick all the time as I wear a white collared shirt and black pants for work and I always get stick re wearing a waiter's uniform or school uniform! ! ! I've just learned to get over it. . .can't change what people think of you. . .

That's fine. No worries. You don't have to be sorry for it. It wasn't exactly the same. It's just that me and you had similar opinions on this. That's all.



The_Blode
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28 Apr 2017, 9:39 am

Corny wrote:
The_Blode wrote:
Corny wrote:
The_Blode wrote:
^ alright. . .I'll be the one to say it. . .those guys are j**ks. . .

Nobody 'looks' autistic since it's a quirk in the brain. . .

Um, they were just being idiots. . .and it probably wasn't a dig at your Autism (it most certainly wasn't). . .maybe it was the way you were dressed. . .even though it was smart from the description. . .maybe they are so disadvantaged that they think anybody wearing clean collared shirt and black pants is considered "Forrest Gump". . .

Take it with a pinch of salt mate, we're all behind you here. . .next time you might bump into two old ladies who say how handsome you look. . .

You know you kinda said the same thing I told him.


^ my bad, Corny. . .I get stick all the time as I wear a white collared shirt and black pants for work and I always get stick re wearing a waiter's uniform or school uniform! ! ! I've just learned to get over it. . .can't change what people think of you. . .

That's fine. No worries. You don't have to be sorry for it. It wasn't exactly the same. It's just that me and you had similar opinions on this. That's all.


^ yeah. . .it's like OP. . .I live in a trashy neighbourhood too and kids do that stuff all the time. . .the Forrest Gump quip is too smart for the kids round my way. . .they probably never saw the film. . .I remember last week. . .a young kid boarded a bus I was sat on and he didn't have any money so the driver told him to get off the bus. . .and the young kid was abusing the driver and shouting to his friends saying that "This guy is trying to be a hero" what has happened to the youth of today. . .



kicker
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28 Apr 2017, 9:59 am

C2V wrote:
Something weird just happened.
I was walking into a shopping centre to get groceries, and two guys were walking toward me. They looked over at me and sort of sniggered. Then they got closer, one of them yells at me "Run, Forrest, run!" And they both laughed.
Their meaning is obvious, and I am way past anything like this bothering me, so if that was their intention they failed.
But I do find it confusing. I was if anything looking less autistic than usual, because I'd had things to do earlier in the day where it was better to look as normal as possible. I was dressed in a way I know is normal, in clean black pants and a clean collared shirt with blue stripes on it. I wasn't doing anything weird - I was just walking across a parking lot looking at a list to make sure it was the grocery one.
And yet two total strangers pegged me as ret*d.
It makes me wonder if I look this way all the time, regardless of how normal I think I look, and others who have said I don't were just trying to be polite and therefore lying to me (because they view telling someone they look autistic as an insult, which is an unintentional but really sh***y attitude I won't get into in this post).
I don't really know what to think about this encounter.
I know others here fly below the proverbial radar and don't get recognized as autistic, and others are recognized as different all the time. I suppose I thought I was blending in more than this, but apparently not.
Anyone have anything like this happen? Have an opinion?
I don't really know what I'm asking exactly, it was just weird.


I have experienced this more than I care to admit, however I have learned a few things that now I just feel sorry for the people that do it. This behavior is learned. Therefore at some point they were taught to act this way to gain attention or to avoid attention.

Which means they suffered cruelly and developed a low self esteem.

It's extremely unfortunate for them as they get older they will find that they are left behind, their peers will mature, but they won't. Unfortunately when they have children (if they do) they will teach the same behavior to them in one way or another and the cycle will continue.

Like I said I feel sorry for them as that is not a life I imagine to be easy, and even more sorry that they don't understand or even are aware it's the life they have and could change if they choose to.



Corny
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28 Apr 2017, 10:50 am

This question just popped in my head. But were the 2 guys kids, teens, or adults?



naturalplastic
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28 Apr 2017, 4:01 pm

Probably they have seen you around the mall before from a distance, and maybe you have a crew cut, and kinda look like Tom Hank's looks in that role of Forrest Gump to them, so its like already their private joke (if we ever walk past that guy who looks like Forrest Gump lets rib him a little).And thats why they were already snickering and glancing at each other as you walked past them.

In eighth grade my classmates would unaccountably break out into "the Secret Agent Man" theme when I walked past them when the teacher wasnt around. I happened to have allergies to pollen in the air, and so one guy even ad libbed words to the song by singing "Secret Agent Man, they're giving you a snot rag, and taking away your name...." (spoofing the original "they're giving you a number, and taking away your name.." Apparently I was known for always using hankerchiefs). I realized later that it was probably because I (and my dad as well) looked a lot like Patrick McGoohan -the actor who played the secret agent man in the Sixties TV series of that name.Must have become an inside joke among my classmates when I absent or something. Okay...the Secret Agent man guy was a little bit cooler than Forrest Gump, but still I wouldnt get upset about it.



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28 Apr 2017, 6:58 pm

Forest Gump was cognitively impaired so I'm not sure why people are talking about looking autistic. Autism and cognitive impairment are two different things.

kicker wrote:
Which means they suffered cruelly and developed a low self esteem.

It's extremely unfortunate for them as they get older they will find that they are left behind, their peers will mature, but they won't. Unfortunately when they have children (if they do) they will teach the same behavior to them in one way or another and the cycle will continue.


You don't know that any of this is true about these people. Why would you just make up stuff about complete strangers? People who've had good lives still sometimes grow up to be rude and/or cruel, and they can and do grow out of it.



magnum233
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28 Apr 2017, 7:07 pm

C2V wrote:
Something weird just happened.
I was walking into a shopping centre to get groceries, and two guys were walking toward me. They looked over at me and sort of sniggered. Then they got closer, one of them yells at me "Run, Forrest, run!" And they both laughed.
Their meaning is obvious, and I am way past anything like this bothering me, so if that was their intention they failed.
But I do find it confusing. I was if anything looking less autistic than usual, because I'd had things to do earlier in the day where it was better to look as normal as possible. I was dressed in a way I know is normal, in clean black pants and a clean collared shirt with blue stripes on it. I wasn't doing anything weird - I was just walking across a parking lot looking at a list to make sure it was the grocery one.
And yet two total strangers pegged me as ret*d.
It makes me wonder if I look this way all the time, regardless of how normal I think I look, and others who have said I don't were just trying to be polite and therefore lying to me (because they view telling someone they look autistic as an insult, which is an unintentional but really sh***y attitude I won't get into in this post).
I don't really know what to think about this encounter.
I know others here fly below the proverbial radar and don't get recognized as autistic, and others are recognized as different all the time. I suppose I thought I was blending in more than this, but apparently not.
Anyone have anything like this happen? Have an opinion?
I don't really know what I'm asking exactly, it was just weird.


Ah yes boof heads aka jocks. I live in a city full of these sorts of people, lately ive noticed few try it on with me anymore thanks to exercising almost daily and doing weights. That could be one way to make these neanderthals leave you alone.

There is a certain feeling of greatness being physically fit and strong as well as mentally.


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VIDEODROME
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28 Apr 2017, 7:13 pm

For a short time, I got called Lieutenant Dan. Only because my name is Dan. I in no way resemble Gary Sinise.

People are just dumbasses.



slw1990
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28 Apr 2017, 8:22 pm

People don't usually make fun of me, but I can tell that they treat me differently than other people. It must have something to do with the kind of vibes I give off because I dress okay and do my hair.



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28 Apr 2017, 8:37 pm

It can also be your posture, as I tend to be very rigid and straight-backed.


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