So much anger!

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I stayed out of this thread until now, but the above.....just is disgusting. And if I had to guess, these are "enlightened" individuals saying these things.

When I went to a talk given by Autism researcher Simon Baron Cohen, organised by Autism West Midlands, myself and my mother had a conversation another lady in the audience who was a drama therapist and she asked me what I did for a living and I said I had Asperger's Syndrome. Her jaw dropped in a look of pure shock as it seemed as if she'd taken me for another autism indistry professional when all along I was 'one of them' - one of the autistic ones! lol

I didn't take offence at it as I found it amusing and par for the course in terms of how NTs think

I wouldn't be shocked by any NT attitude towards Autism to be quite honest as I have a realistic appreciation of what they
can be like

Surely in this instance I am being the intelligent-minded, accommodating one

Surely being fully aware of the nature of the average NT can thus lead to more accommodation and tolerance of them instead of pretending they're all marvellous and being shocked when it's plainly proved that they aren't!

My advice would always be 'Have low expectations of them and you'll never be disappointed'

I don't know what you mean by "trying to sort things out". I wasn't aware I was.

I don't like people putting words into my mouth. I did not anywhere say, nor imply, that a society made of only Aspies would be perfect or without any problems.

I am just talking about NTs. If this way of approaching this is "limiting" then so be it. I am an Aspie so I have rigidity of thought, and like I said before, low empathy.

As for commonalities and altruistic motives. Sorry, but I have been on this earth long enough to know the truth. Sadly, there is still that niaive and gullible aspect of my Aspieness that still feels let down and surprised by NTs, because I can't quite believe that they can be that bad, even though I know they are - I'm living in a perpetual state of disbelief about it, like it's some bad dream I will awake from. So you can't tell me that I am living a self-fulfilling prophesy by the way, because I don't go into it totally expecting it. I'm always proved right though. Without exception. And be assured, that even one example of shining altruism that I had experienced from an NT, I would be proclaiming from the rooftops of WP. It just hasn't ever happened.

And no-one is talking about Aspies being bullies. I have never bullied anyone.

Its hard not to be angry at NTs, but I try my best to be levelheaded when thinking about them. Sure the majority of NTs do not understand me and probably never will. You meet those people everyday, and the anger just builds up inside of you. Then you meet someone who is totally awesome and is truly a kind, caring human being. In college, I was very depressed because I was not making any friends. One day, this random girl sits with me at lunch; turns out she was in my math class. I did not talk much but she was very patient with me. We ate lunch almost everyday and at the end of the academic quarter, she offered to give me her phone number so if I wanted to chat or take a walk sometime, I could give her a ring. I told her I didn't know how to put a number in my phone. She laughed and gave me a hug before she did it for me. Yes, this was something small, but the fact that someone took the time to recognize me and care about me made me feel so much better. I needed that.

I think some NTs take things very personally and think that your odd behavior is because of them. Once you explain it to them, they no longer blame themselves. Maybe they'll treat you like a freak; maybe they are nicer. Or maybe they will continue to just not care.

Oh and I have met some Aspies that were downright jerks. For example, my ex-boyfriend, and I really don't believe AS had anything to do with it. There are as*holes both on and off the spectrum.

It appears to me that the term "neurotypical" is often used as an allegory for Society. There is no neurotypical per neurology; never has been; never will be. That is not the way of nature.

Perhaps humans can eventually be genetically modified like corn, but that will likely spell a sooner end of the human race, if humans become so "smart" as to think they understand the total synergy of nature in attempting to create an actual reality out of a myth of typical neurology.

Anger against society is common and not an Autism specific issue; however, society is difficult to escape per one's goal for survival in the long term. That is a choice one must make for themselves.

I linked this topic of the problem of determining who is Neurotypical along with several other topics earlier in the thread, but will highlight it again here alone, for those who wish to attempt to address this from a standpoint of facts and statistics rather than emotion leaning perspective, per Autistic traits as a common element in the general population.

http://katiemiaaghogday.blogspot.com/20 ... ho-is.html

Personality issues are common among all neurologies. I have experienced thousands of individuals in my lifetime before having no label other than the merit of my behavior.

I found people with the highest of positive intention per others with differences and people with the lowest of positive intention per others with differences.

There is also a whole spectrum of human positive and negative intention toward others that does not "discriminate" against people either "assessed" on or off the spectrum.

There is even a word for this kind of noxious treatment. It's "microaggressions."

Yes and they occur on here all the time too so it's a human behaviour, not just NT

This is not true. "Typical" is a matter of statistics, not a single thing. Saying people are neurotypical does not mean they all have identical neurology, but that their neurology is, like the majority of humans, within a couple of standard deviations of each other.

Referring to NTs does in some way refer to society, which has largely developed to accommodate NT needs, such that it is frequently necessary to use legislation and legal pressure to gain accommodations in school, hiring, and employment to account for neuroatypical people.

Arguing from the position of indefinite uncertainty is meaningless and unrealistic. It's also a great way to achieve cognitive paralysis on a topic.

I've said before - in the past, I was mistakenly identified as NT on occasion. It happens to me and I know why it happened and it doesn't bother me. No one can ever expect to be 100% right all the time. However, to argue that NT is meaningless because you can never know for sure if someone you perceive as NT is really NT is utterly meaningless. You can never know if person you think is straight is really straight or might turn out to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, etc. either in the present or come out of the closet in the future. This doesn't make it impossible to identify both ways in which society privileges heterosexuality as well as identify a significant number of straight people. Uncertainty is a part of the real world, and uncertainty does not really serve as a valid counter as you're using it here.

Also, even if someone is not NT, I have seen many NaTs actively support the idea that society should completely favor neurotypicals at the expense of autistic people, people with ADHD, etc. I've seen it argued on this forum by autistic people and on an ADHD-related forum by people with ADHD. John Elder Robison said in an interview that autistics need to adapt to NTs because there are so few autistic people relative to NTs that it's unfair to ask them to adapt to us (even though other disabilities with similar and even smaller percentages of the population are also accommodated).

Snark noted. For the record. I never said that...I said you weren't making yourself understood... Huge difference

Quite so. I've seen a lot of microaggressions on this forum, even some aimed at autistic people. This thread is itself a form of microaggression, although I do not recall that it was posted by an autistic person.

I believe that what we have here is a great deal of macro-aggressions...

I wouldn't argue with that either.

and passive aggression

Nessa: That was not passive aggressive... THAT wasn't about you, as much as you think it was. I have moved on. I noted your snark and sniping, but I am not engaging you. I am having a conversation with other members

I think you may be reading more into my statement that is implied. I stated it appears to me that people often use the term neurotypical as an allegory for society. This is how this term with little concrete meaning is used in it's "most metaphorical" extreme use.

There are some other people that use it to identify typical neurology in all other people except for people diagnosed on the spectrum. That is an extreme literal use of the term, that has no basis in science.

Per an idea used as metaphor that there are some people that have more difficulties with reciprocal social communication than others, it works as a metaphor than can generally be observed in human interaction, but is not reflective of any hard statistic, per actual diagnosis in the real world.

Per use as a metaphor to describe Autistic vs non-Autistic per actual diagnosis, it works out as a concretely defined statistic, per CDC official figures of 1.14% vs. 98.86%. That statistic is subject to change based on method of measuring ASD's in the general population and continuing changes in diagnostic criteria, per the new much more restrictive criteria to meet diagnosis of ASD in the DSM5 ASD criteria.

The term neurotypical is not in any English dictionary nor is it recognized by my Firefox spell checker as identified in that database. It is a term coined in the autism community, as identified in the Wiki article linked below that continues to change with various meanings as time goes on among those who use the term, however they see fit, as it has no concrete definitions in English dictionaries.

It is in the urban dictionary along with all the other terms created by small groups in society as time goes on. I like to coin new words too. Not surprising to me that others do too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurotypical

I thought the macro aggression comment was generally directed, not aimed at a specific person.l