Poll 6: Are autistics obliged to become more normal?

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I do what I can not to hurt people.
Other than that, if people want to change because I'm not normal enough, they can go copulate with a rusty screwdriver. Do I ask them to become more autistic?

Engaging in significant amounts of abnormal behaviors interferes significantly with my normal functioning, so I do not do so most of the time. However, I do try my best to make others comfortable around me, and I am willing to meet others more than halfway, as long as they are willing to meet me somewhere around the middle. I am not willing to meet others 99% of the way, as that conformity to the abnormal is the Road to Hell, or burnout, and highly detrimental to my health and happiness.

I feel that option B is the best option.

I believe Autistic folks need to be themselves, but learn how the rest of society works so that they know what the "game" is, and to be wary of it.

In the 20th century if you were autistic and acted weird they gave you ice-water enemas and electro shock therapy.

In the 21st century if you are autistic and act weird they give you pills that make you behave more normal and become boring. As an additional bonus for the good of society those same pills kill your sex drive nutering you so you do not spread your bad genes.

glad I am not on those pills......sure they make you behave more normal but at what cost? though I never had a sex drive to begin with so I don't really care about that.

Option C:
Try to fit in as much as possible without overburdening yourself. Do not sacrifice special talents. Your special talent can be a huge benefit for society, it's in society's interest not to waste that. Aspiritech seems like a good initiative at first glance.

^ This is a perfect world; but unfortunately, ours is far from perfect. Yes, learning to function in the Neurotypical world is a good thing (because I think it is obvious that it is a NT world), but forcing me to be Neurotypical when I am not wired to be is not only cruel, but a physical impossibility. If someone tried to force me to change the color of my eyes by will, could I? No! Asperger's is as much a part of me as my eyes, my hair and my skin, I can't change it.

Yes, it is a good idea for those on the spectrum who are able to work at getting used to loud noises and to become, if not perfect communicators, at least able to perform those social niceties that seem to be required. These things are unavoidable, unless you keep yourself locked in your house at all times with soundproof walls, windows and doors. Loud noises cease to have much effect on me, save only when they are unexpected; as for communication, I work as a cashier in a VERY big grocery store, so I have to be at least passable (I've actually gotten comments from customers that I have been the friendliest cashier they've ever encountered). I am still learning, and there are sometimes where I forget everything I have learned and I just want to shut out the world in it's sensory-bugging, conversing entirety, but I can function, provided I have a safe, quiet place I can go later.

I hope this happens in my lifetime.

I too work in a very large store, and I have a secret to handling this:

I don't try even for five seconds to fit in. I'm just me. I forgot what anyone thinks of me cause I tell myself it probably isn't good anyway, and just have fun, and joke around with the customers, and act goofy and all that. Did I mention I work in a hardware store? Customers don't know what to make of that, and apparently many co-workers have told me that working separate shifts from mine, they often miss my wacky antics on the job.

I know that no matter what I say it's gonna come out bad, and no matter how hard I work to sound as suave as 007, it won't. So I don't try desperately to make what won't work...work. I just have fun with making an ass of myself, and the customers are comfortable with that too; and my co-workers think it's a laugh riot.

it won't; know how I know this? Because humans will always find another group to scapegoat. Look at all the minorities that got scapegoated for hundreds of thousands of years; then they moved on to gays, and then those with different mindsets.


Welcome to Humans Being Humans 101. I don't look for understanding, I just work to make my own life as great as it can be.