Thinking about Thinking...

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Quite a few mention they are very different from NT's, but NT's are also very different from each other as well in the way they think.

Being brought up in the 1970's everyone was taught to be an individual. In thw 1980's things started to change and by the time the 1990's came along when my youngest brother was in school it was a case of "Every one is an individual but you all have to think the same way and be the same type of people as individuals". In other words, the whole meaning of individuality actually meant something totally different to how it used to mean. Therefore someone like me who may be on thw spectrum or share traits of being on the spectrum, used to be less noticeable in the past when everyone was taught to be different, but since the days when the GCSE's came in (And probably something similar in other countries), the group thinking and being ideals have meant that if I was taught today, I would likely be more noticeably different and not be able to cope (Not that I was always coping in those days! I just put on a brave face (Whatever that is) and ummm.... tried not to get told off or picked on?
Now growing up in the way I dis I assumed that everyone thought in the same ways that I did. By the time the start of the gradual "Sameness" had come in (Things changed to GCSE's about two years before I left school), we were believing we were all the same... Just with different intelligences... which somehow did not sit right with me, as it made be feel a failure before I started, but I couldn't fathom out why.
I inwardly knew I was different, but also knew society had shifted to sameness or trying to fit everyone in the same type of box... I knew this did not work, because one of the failures of growing up in the 1970's was the attempt to rule out gender. It failed miserably! Blues for boys and pinks for girls were frowned on. Everyone had to dress in yellows or bright green! Neutral gender colours. Wales in the 1970's was a confusing place! To be honest, I always stood out a little, as I never followed fasions and many of my clothes were handmedowns from my cousins on my mums side of the family, and they had probably had half of them as handmedowns from other people, so when the early 1980's came along, I was either in wide bellbottom flares (Aweful things to try to ride a bicycle with!) at a time when everyone else seemed to be in drainpipe thin jeans, or I was in what my friend laughingly called "Rupert trousers" after Rupert the bear which were also a 1960's fasion... Two decades out of date!
So I assumed I was different because I did not follow fashion, neither cojld my parents afford to, as the whole 1980's decade we seemed to be paying half my dads wages i to vets bills for the goats or the dog... The vet seemed to be getting larger and larger more luxurious cars... And we later found out that the dog had been on tablets made from chalk which were described as having no effect whatsoever, and the vets knew this... We didn't! So as a family we were in diee straights when local vets were onto a good thing!
But I assumed my differences were due to my parents having a different way of life as I was brought up on a smallholding, and my parents were very much "Back to the land" people (Think of the TV series "Goodlife" and you will get the idea). I did not rhink that I thought different other then to think it was my way of life that was different.

For me, it was a real eyeopener when I joined this site and discovered that the way I think is very different! I had never thought about it before, except that a few years before, I had been dating a lady who has asperges, and when I asked she said she was wired differently. She said she thinks in a different way. She tried to explain how she thinks, and about half of what she explained was how I think so I could not fathom what asperges is (As I had not really grasped the possibility that I could have it or traits of it). The other differences I did not share... Well, she was on her own there! HAHA! But seriously, I could not make sense of what asperges was from her descriptions except that she said she rocked back and fore if anxious (Which I don't... Later found out I do different things instead which are more subtle) and she said that in her brain she translates english into her own language. I don't do this, but I know I translate words into pictures in my mind when I think in a deep way, or if someone is reading a story from a book to me, where I have to get them to stop so I can form a picture of the scene in my mind, before they can carry on reading, as otherwize I will miss whole chunks of the story being read while I am trying to picture it in my mind to make sense of it as I can't do two things at once! I can't listen to the story and use my brain to translate the scenes into picture form at the same time... (I can do it if someone is a very slow reader, but not if someone reads out a story at a normal speed if that makes sense?).

Now as I used to think everyone thinks in the same way and I have since discovered that we don't, I have had a thought.

Could it be that everyone on this planet actually thinks in a difrerent way but most people find it easier to make their thoughts compatable with those around them? In other words, they can translate their thoughts into ways to communicate (And I don't just mean through speech but in body language and other ways as well), where many on the spectrum may find they have difficulty in this respect?
And along these lines, it could be that everyone actually thinks differently somewhere, but for those on the spectrum, the way they think can be a hinderence in todays society of sameness rather then a help, so therefore they are far more likely to hit mental overload where they can't fit in, then they would in the past where peoples individuality was praised?

Short answer: everyones brain is different but people on the spectrum are in a way different that it causes problems if it comes to nonverbal communication and social interactions.

I too suspect that Western culture has become more conformist in some ways, with the result that autistic people stick out more -- which I suspect is one of the main underlying reasons for the autism "epidemic". (In other words, I suspect that autism has become more and more noticeable in today's culture, though not necessarily more common.)

I should add that although Western culture has become more conformist in some ways, it has, at the same time, become less conformist in other ways. An example of the latter: increasing tolerance toward LGBT people, thanks to the successes of the LGBT rights movement. At the same time, society has become more conformist in some specific ways that make it harder for autistic people to fit in, such as increasing social expectations in the workplace.


Here in the U.S.A., standardized tests were a thing even back in the 1960's. So I don't think standardized tests are a main cause of the cultural change toward greater conformity.


What exactly was your problem here?

For me the move away from fixed gender roles was a move away from conformity and toward greater tolerance for people (like myself) who didn't fit into traditional gender roles. And it did not mean we were all under pressure to be the same in this regard, either.


This I don't remember. Are you talking about school uniforms here, or just fashion in children's clothes?

The decade/era you find yourself living in makes no difference.

I have lived through several decades, and have seen the cycles in eras when conformity was esteemed, and eras when nonconformity was esteemed and back again. In NO era was autistic thinking ever valued.

Actually I am a bit optimistic that society in the coming years of the 21st century will become more accommodating to autistics and aspies (like how homosexuality and intergender folks are more accepted now than in the 20th century). But I cant imagine a society in which autistics will stop "standing out" no matter how "individualistic" society might become.

People do "think differently". Autistics differ from NTs, men think differently than women. Individuals within each group think differently from each other.