The one trait that all Aspies share?

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I was just curious on this one. Is not conforming to the herd mentality a trait that almost or all Aspies share? So far it doesn't seem like I have read one thread from an Aspie that talks about how they follow the mainstream society in life. I know I tend to shy away from sheepism and don't understand why it seems many people will follow others blindly without questioning if it's right for them.

Anybody else feel this way?

Well, I know someone who I'm 99% sure is an Aspie and yes, they follow the herd, even if they aren't entirely comfortable with it. I doubt I was the only Aspie in school but I can tell you I was the only one who didn't follow the herd and the only one who got attacked and bullied.

I would say the only trait all Aspies I know share is that they spend an above average time alone and appear to be introvered but that's not to say they can't join a sadistic mob. Seen that more than once to say the least.

People who don't follow the majority also eventually meet up and form a group, so it's questionable whether that makes it any different (unless you revolt against any consensus ever reached).

I remember having arguments with my own team players about the ball being in outside. I usually end up on the bench.

I'd say Aspies are less likely to notice - or care - that they're not conforming.

My vote is for all Aspies not giving a toss about the current fashion.

We're all human, regardless of how so many of
us are hell-bent on claiming we are from another
planet

Write this on a giant billboard and you shall make millions

I don't know if not confrming is the trait. More like an inability to conform, even if we wanted to. Some might blend in, but it doesn't always work as well as we'd imagine.

I think it helps to not look at what people say they do but also look at what they do. Many people here say they don't follow mainstream society or don't talk about following it, but many have fairly mainstream ideas about a variety of things.

I think the notion of "sheepism" that you bring up is actually more about being self congratulatory and putting others down than it really is about questioning the status quo. It's a fairly popular mainstream activity to accuse people who do things one disagrees with of blindly following others without questioning, call them "sheeple," etc.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm so sick of listening to people complain about "sheeple" as if the only reason one would go along with the herd is because of an unwillingness to think for oneself. Sometimes, the majority really does have it mostly right, or at least not so wrong as to actively fight against.

I also find it hilarious that there is often a huge social pressure from one's own in-group to regard everyone who believes differently as sheep. The irony is delicious.

I hate hearing people calling others "sheeple". It doesn't seem to occur to them that that might actually be what the person believes or likes and that they aren't just blindly "following the herd".

I bet if the same people were blindly following them they wouldn't be calling them "sheeple" then. It's only used on people that disagree with you.

I'd also say we're less likely to be able to conform even if we do notice or care.

Yes, indeed.

Then you have the "nonconformists" who work so hard at nonconforming that they conform to the concept of nonconformity. I know a few people like that who are almost comical in the degree to which they let rebuffing "the conformist majority" dictate who they are, how they feel, and what they believe.

So. There are people that do that. How do you tell the difference between genuinely held beliefs and people who are pretending? Do you think that everyone defaults to exactly the same mold, and any deviation from that takes work? I am very vocal about not having to pressure everyone to conform, that doesn't make the act of non-conforming in itself political. It's just how some people are. That is even more insulting than calling people "sheeple" - you have to remember who's in the majority there, and which we are pressured to be.

As far as nonconformity goes, I guess it matters when one doesn't try to use nonconformity itself as a form of social pressure to encourage conformity (as has happened to me on this forum, when someone told me - incorrectly, in this case - that I was adopting the majority view and they were standing apart from it).

I am not a conformist, but it is not something I really see as such as an important part of my identity that I label myself or talk about it. Mostly, I just do my own thing because doing everyone else's is boring to me. There are still a lot of things I enjoy that a lot of other more "mainstream" people enjoy.

I am not sure where I'm going here: I guess mostly I don't really care to look at things in terms of a mainstream/nonconformist dichotomy where they're automatically bad and good respectively. Too many variables.