Autism stereotypes alive and kicking: a true story

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Redwulf, agreed, but by then the conversation wasn't about truth so much as hypotheticals. I'm quite willing to believe that there could be someone out there who had never communicated successfully with anyone they knew. At least, as willing as I am to believe that you could cure autism. I almost said that, except I was so offended by the implication that you are only as much as you communicate that I had to argue that point instead.

""She asks me in this challenging tone "do you know of any examples?" (not verbatim), but I didn't drop it. I just said "Amanda Baggs" and pretty well won the conversation."
I wonder how Amanda feels about being our go-to example for things like this."

Well, with someone so severely autistic, we just don't know.

/sarcasm

Here's an idea. If you want to know how someone feels, instead of pondering it and funding expensive studies to try to figure it out, why not ask?

"Here's an idea. If you want to know how someone feels, instead of pondering it and funding expensive studies to try to figure it out, why not ask?"
Sorry, didn't mean to make the same sort of mistake we were just criticizing. It feels weird to direct a question to someone when I don't know if they're reading the thread and they haven't joined the conversation yet. I'm also not sure how to ask without being rude. Amanda, if you're reading this, sorry, and how do you feel about being our go-to example when dealing with people like this lecturer?

Redwulf, your description of your nephew made me smile. Sounds like he has a pretty good sense of humor.

"She's a bigot, and she shows circular reasoning"
Thank you! I knew she was making a reasoning error, but I was too angry to figure out what it was.

Is she on Wrong Planet? Really? Ooh, neat!

Yeah, she is, but under a different username. I always enjoy reading her comments.

Of course they feel. Sure, they may not be able to understand the emotions all that well, as their ability to comprehend language is so bad, but there's not many people with an ASD who are like this; about 20% of those with AD nowadays.

Meltdowns, self-harm, showing gratitude and affection are all there in the most severe of those with an ASD. All are emotions, or products of emotions.

One point I'll make though, Rain Man in the movie has HFA going by the lady who defined what AS is today. This is the rarest form of the various types of higher functioning autism, which is probably why not many people identify with him fully. The typical picture of AS is the most common.

In my experience, if there's someone with his/her mind made up, and they don't want to learn anything, you're wasting your time and you need those people out of your life ASAP. There are SO MANY people out there, who think that any deviation from THEIR way of thinking, and from THEIR ideals, is a defect and some kind of terrible skeleton to keep in a closet. My wife has a 2-year-old cousin, who we are fairly sure has either AS or a form of autism. His parents are spending all their time (and their family's money) on all kinds of counseling and meds, thinking they're going to "FIX" the kid. FORCING him to make eye contact, forcing him to hug and to allow hugging, when he screams in anguish from those forms of attention. Very frustrating for me, and and for my wife (a former special ed teacher) to watch happening. It's kind of like seeing a (definitely) Gay child born into a Mormon household. Sadly, the very BEST that can be hoped for there, is a life of denial and anger, with the worst being a teen suicide. Seen it happen!

Closed-mind people are the true mentally disabled, and the most damning force on people with differences who want to learn and grow, on this earth.

Charles