Aspie culture is needed why can't people see that.

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I dont really understand how aspie culture can really expand offline by very much. The reason why we are aspie is that we have a hard time relating and communicating with each other. All aspies are very different. Do aspies nessarily like other aspies, not no. We would probably relate to each other based on mutual experiances and interests. Do we always have that? no. On the otherhand, online aspie communities seem to have good success rates because we eliminate the face to face contact, type and ramble. And no ones forced to read through a whole monologue if they dont want to.

I like the idea of an Aspie Culture where we all learn to accept ourselves and celebrate our autism. I'd like to see a type of culture that brings across a message that it's okay to be on the spectrum.

I have been thinking about it and I see a flaw to celebrating autism. By the semantic definition of autism and aspergers it is a disability. Why are we celebrating something that was constructed semantically as a negative?

I think it is time to change what we are all celebrating. We all have strengths and weaknesses. We all have different personalities. Let's celebrate our strengths and what we all have individually accomplished.

I believe the reason the aspie/autie culture has not taken off is because it is based upon celebrating negatives. What are your strengths? Can you play a musical instrument? Let's celebrate stuff like that and concentrate more on that. Let's not even worry about creating a culture. Let's let it happen if it is meant to happen. Let's all just come here, have a bit of fun, debate each other, laugh, drink tea, butt heads, tell fiction stories, make jokes, etc.

There is some question if Asperger himself saw it as a disability, he surely had very good political reasons not to call it that at the time, and he's believed to have compared himself to his patients. The DX that bears his name could stand to lose the "syndrome".



Could this be "Let's all come here or to an offline event, have a bit of fun.......?

I don't want anyone who goes to an offline event to feel left out .

There seems to be a big overlap between "Geek"/"Nerd" culture and Aspie interests so I think we should be celebrating the good things about that, and kicking up a stink when the media make cheap jokes about it.

Here in the UK it's an insult to be called a "trainspotter" and by extension all rail enthusiasts are trainspotters. However, these people painstakingly restore vintage locomotives and make fantastic models that give a lot of pleasure to young children and older people as well as other fans.

I go to science fiction conventions and yes, I do see a bunch of people who fit in with the stereotypes and yes, there are big corporations out to flog over-priced tat to the gullible but I also see a bunch of incredibly creative, funny and likeable people socialising together. I see physically disabled people mingling happily with able-bodied people, different generations chatting together and all manner of gender stereotypes being kicked over.

There really is stuff worth celebrating here and it has been celebrated in the past - it's just modern dumb tabloid culture and the sniffy, class-conscious literati that have pushed it into the gutter.

I'd like to see sneery jokes about Star Trek fans viewed as outdated as mother-in-law gags and as offensive as racist/homophobic jokes.

Wear your anorak with pride

I believe that we may have gotten off of the OP's intent in this thread. If we use the OP's defintion, then yes, Aspie "Culture" would be a very useful thing to have. But what "learned patterns of behavior" would we have?

Would we have a "culture" that encourages quick decision making, even at the cost of consensus (ie, a "Western" model), or a model that encourages discussion and consensus (ie, a "collegial" model)? While I think most on WP would go for the later, it should be noted that often these "collegial" models only function with fairly tight restrictions on acceptable issues. For an IRL example, look at the ideological similarity of your average Western political party's legislative caucus.

It's worth a question.....

I'm in the minority here; rather than becoming part of an alternative culture, I'd like to be seen as a member of regular society. I know the general opinion of most people here is to embrace your differences, but rather than being separate from everyone else, I'd just like to fit in.

Oh, I think you'd find a fair amount of agreement on your position in some circles. That said, if you look over the entirety of WP, particularly the "Social Skills" and "Work and Finding a Job", you'll see a recurring view from many individuals that they are not accepted into "regular society" (to use your phrase).