Confrontations with NTs over violated unspoken rules?

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Jayo
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06 Apr 2025, 11:45 am

A bit of a general thread, but wondering how my fellow ASD-ers have handled confrontations with NT folk (that THEY initiated, not you, obviously!) over violated unspoken rules? Did you really have to stick to your principles - and your line - that you honestly didn't know, before you both basically had to "agree to disagree" and part ways?

I'm sure you've followed a similar pattern that I have, whereby most social rule violations didn't go unpunished, albeit it was in a more passive-aggressive way (both individually, and collectively meted out) - it tended to be the exception, rather than the norm, that an NT might angrily confront you over it, ask rhetorically WTF is wrong with you, you're making other people feel uncomfortable, etc. etc..

Basically, they're conflating your character or personality with your neurology. Simply because they don't know any better. I think of Stephen Covey's famous statement, "We see the world not as it is, but as we are, or as we are conditioned to see it." 8O

Yes, we are digital thinkers in an analog world, as the saying goes - picking up socio-emotional nuance and unspoken expectations can be very grey and contextual, not in our typical special interests that are mostly STEM-oriented.

While this tactic doesn't always work, I've tried answering their questions with further questions, or using the Socratic method... e.g. "Why do you think I would do that deliberately?", or "Well, what if some people's brains or mental models work differently than other people's?" or "You know me fairly well already, you know my personality type - if I was aware of that, do you really think I would have chosen to respond that way intentionally?"

Of course, there may be a few folks who will, again, conflate your behaviour with personality disorder or character flaws; they may label you as passive-aggressive, probably because this is the "normal" behavioural response for an NT. It's like they impose an NT template or lens on all interactions (going back to that Stephen Covey quote), and that you're an NT all along who's somehow paradoxically different (almost like a quantum reality, like Schrodinger's cat), I dunno, you see what I'm getting at.

Well, we can only hope that greater awareness and understanding of ASD will mitigate this sort of blow-up... then again, or at least I believe, NTs as a collective in most settings will ALWAYS prioritize their desire for social harmony over the desire to accommodate someone who's neurodivergent. Because the NTOS's primary directive is social harmony; for the "Aspie OS", it's objective truth and facts. So we might get greeted with an NT response of "We have to put the needs of the many before the needs of the few (or the one)." Yes, quoting Star Trek 2: the Wrath of Khan - and I've actually been subjected to this silly line a couple of times, almost as if they invoked a visceral stereotype that I'm a geek and all geeks love Star Trek (I don't), ergo he will relate to this line :roll: :x



ToughDiamond
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08 Apr 2025, 6:05 pm

I can't remember anybody confronting me over unspoken rules, but if they did I'd probably ask them why they didn't tell me before. Maybe if I thought it was a silly rule I'd just criticise the rule, or if they didn't have any power over me, I might say something like "stop being so uptight."

But I think with unspoken rules, mostly you don't get directly confronted.



Mikurotoro92
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08 Apr 2025, 7:27 pm

This happened to me I believe

My neighbor confronted me because I told her that she said my ex-boyfriend was a human trafficker, which could have put her family's life in danger!! !



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08 Apr 2025, 8:10 pm

It entirely depends on the culture.

To me, my confrontations are so relatively petty (and it's barely constitutes as "minor" offense like, there's no physical harm -- no touching even, no money involved, no invasion of privacy nor space, barely if not no verbal exchanges, no relationships twisted except all because of that one moment that their stupid ego and their stupid expectations over how they get to be treated) that I just don't care anymore.

Like, it's barely worth feeling or thinking anything over.
And anyone confronting me over it just pissed me off, no different than a kid who's being an a-retentive.

Makes me understand how one hates snitches, how one hates rigid people, how one hates being the so called rule follower, for reasons nothing to do with cognitive styles and more to do with whatever nuisance of a foolish priority.


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SocOfAutism
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10 Apr 2025, 7:26 am

ToughDiamond wrote:
I'd probably ask them why they didn't tell me before.


hahaha!

I am NT but I have a master's degree in sociology and one of my interest areas is in symbolic interactionism, which is the fine nuances of social interaction. My favorite professor once said that the more you learn about social interaction the more weird you become. I think this is true if you are naturally neurotypical.

Most NTs do not spend much time thinking about the details of social interaction. The ways they behave which may seem ignorant or cruel to a more unique person or situation are actually pretty functional for a greater society who needs to behave in a herd.

When another person does something unexpected, that action may be a threat. The neurotypical person will feel an extreme sense of unease until they know what is going on with the other person. If the other person is determined to be a threat, the NT will avoid them or perhaps challenge them in some way. If the other person is considered to be "incorrect" in some way, the NT thinks they are helping them by offering the "correct" way to do things, which will stop the feeling of their own unease. They are probably unable to see things from an unusual person's point of view, because they have no reference point for what it is like to be an unusual person. Sometimes they do or can try, but it's not reasonable to expect it from most NT people.

I get most of this from a social scientist named Erving Goffman, if you are interested and want to read up on it.



2ukenkerl
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10 Apr 2025, 6:21 pm

I was confronted, by two people, because I stood the same way NTs often stand. When I one day pointed to a guy that was standing THE EXACT SAME WAY, and I said JOKINGLY that HE must be racist because I was accused of it when I stood the SAME way. The room gasped, because they saw him as the most gentle guy there.

For my SUPPOSED racist act, they got our boss to demand that I treat them to dinner.

Of course there are LOTS of things you could violate.



ToughDiamond
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10 Apr 2025, 6:34 pm

^
You mean it's possible to stand in a racist way? And that bosses can make employees buy stuff for others with their own money? This is the first I'm hearing of those disturbing notions. 8O



Jayo
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13 Apr 2025, 6:21 am

ToughDiamond wrote:
^
You mean it's possible to stand in a racist way? And that bosses can make employees buy stuff for others with their own money? This is the first I'm hearing of those disturbing notions. 8O


I have absolutely no clue what "standing in a racist way" could mean. While there are racist gestures and epithets, I don't see how one's posture could convey a racist message. It sounds like total BS harassment.



BillyTree
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13 Apr 2025, 11:16 am

I find it very odd for a boss to tell someone that is supposedly racist to make it up by buying people dinner.


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babybird
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13 Apr 2025, 11:24 am

The rules aren't something I've ever worried about but my bluntness has been pointed out but not usually in a negative way

I suppose you either love it or hate it really


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Participant626
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14 Apr 2025, 8:38 am

Y'all are getting confronted? My recent history is that I get punished out of nowhere. I wish people would come up to me and discuss it respectfully. Instead, they start being mean or ghost me.


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mossogreen
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06 Jun 2025, 4:21 pm

Quote:
They are probably unable to see things from an unusual person's point of view, because they have no reference point for what it is like to be an unusual person.


I have not seen the "unusual" terminology before, as counterpoint to "neurotypical", but I like it!



pokeystinker
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07 Jun 2025, 10:16 am

I wish I could shut myself away and not have to deal with the rules of a society I just can't understand.


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TheOldWolf
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07 Jun 2025, 1:04 pm

the rule is if its unspoken its simply not a rule , I dont read minds



Grad0507
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07 Jun 2025, 7:36 pm

This is why I prefer working with men. When I worked with mainly women, they put me in a performance plan thing because I didn’t know the unspoken rules. Also, in my most recent job, I was confronted over not knowing unspoken rules near the end instead of them explaining it to me at the beginning. The “assume” word was used a lot by the NTs. I was not happy about it.



Identifiedautismkyle
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Yesterday, 1:47 am

It's weird. I've been there the whole time. All nice smiles warm welcomes. Then they snap stupidist stuff. Not in the least important in any way. Why waste your breath. They need sweaty Russian half nude sauna treatment to learn tolerance. They wouldn't say it to the sweaty Russian half nude guys rubbing against them what audacity you have to say it to me.im just standing here. Then they got comments.they have to say something stupid. I just comply with a yeah ok or I don't know what you are talking about.these neurotypicals are so lame. Don't make any sense. Yet somehow make sense to each other. Any logical person can see they responded inappropriately made a comment out of the blue. Is it really that important to make a comment. What does it change. Real change words of real change. That's what I see. Life-changing helpful words that benefit. Whatever they do is just confusing superficial and didn't amount to anything. Why do they waste their words. I never waste my words. I store them up up use them wisely. To be helpful to stay positive encourage convince in oneself. Why they come up with reasons to make comments.. make up these rules. I didn't know there was rules. I see you you see me.im at peace I'm quiet comfortable distance between but they just have to open there mouth and say something stupid. Maybe I'm an extremist. But is it so hard to use only worthwhile words. What outcome were they expecting. Yeah ok so sorry. I said so sorry for the situation but they opened there mouth for stupid reasons. Making up stupid rules about themselves or something only to me. Only do I have follow them. These rules are flowing river water with their friends. But I show up it's a river with trash. Enforce these rules on your friends I don't care about your rules.they are not life changing. You say the same thing tomorrow still if you could feel how I feel about you.when you make a comment or a rule. Instantly I want nothing to do with them but I know that relationships have to be positive.how these relationship experts not know about keeping things positive.im going to make up rules that make sense not just because I wanted to make a comment cause effect. If I did something wrong that's what it was it needs no further analysis.