Glad I Don't Live In America.

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IOW we've gone crackers.

That is my point.

my point was you don't understand or care why i am a collectivist. there are plenty of collectivist auties like myself, albeit widely separated and with absolutely no influence in national affairs.

Unfortunately, you are correct to some degree, but I believe there are still more individualists than collectivists compared to the NT community.
Individualism is a known significant characteristic of those on the spectrum.
Just ask Tony Attwood.

I'm not sure that's true at least in this AS community, I've been taking flak my entire time here for preferring a more individualist system, it's one of those things where people can't understand me not wanting something they think should be in my interest, but then turn around and blast other people for voting their interests, it's kind of a no win double standard.

Perhaps for me it started in the 90s. Back then, "attack-dog" Republicans, like Ken Starr (for one although there are many examples) came across to me as bullies and I had a natural distaste for such people. There was no doubt in my mind that had Ken Starr been a school mate that he would have acted as a leader for the people who bullied me. It became fairly well known in 2012 BTW that Mitt Romney was a bully in high school.

The Right bases its appeal on authoritarianism. Here is a Ted Talk that does a good job of explaining what I mean by this. In general, right-wing politicians try to appeal to voters' desire for authority. My characterization of how conservative politicians prefer to spend money is that, if it wears a badge and/or carries a gun, it's good, otherwise it needs to be cut. Every year the Republican Party seems to identify some sort of threat to society that can best be dealt with by arresting people and locking them up (if they're American) or launching a military strike against them if they're foreign. At various times, these targets have been Drugs, the Soviet Union, Radical Islam, Antifa (who aren't yet officially a banned movement but could easily become so) and so forth. If it's your assumption that folks on the spectrum are individualists, then you shouldn't be surprised if some view the Right as a bigger threat than the Left.

If you hope to make yourself stick out by insisting that you're actually a Libertarian or Objectivist so can't be positioned on the Left/Right spectrum, then I can say for myself that those philosophies seem designed just to make it possible for people already in a position of power to continue to do what they've always done without any legitimate means of interfering with them. Of course, they appeal to some people by making their followers feel that these philosophies are more "intellectual" than what the average person follows so by adopting these philosophies, they can think of themselves as Intellectuals. Having been guilty of this in the past, I think I can confidently say that for a person on the spectrum, becoming a self-described "intellectual" is a trap and will actually impede your ability to function successfully in a Neurotypical world. Of course at this point I have perhaps identified one thing that might attract some people on the spectrum to the Right. Consider in particular the "Intellectual" Dark Web. The key there is the term "intellectual" because by following those people you make yourself better than those NT idiots and yes I can see the appeal.

I think the other appeal of the Right, especially for those whose lives are more narrowly circumscribed by Autism, is that identifying with a bully like Donald Trump or his hundreds of clones gives them a sense of power. Those people want to think that by wearing the red cap they can instill fear in others i.e. they are a part of the élite who will eventually hunt down and neutralize the less worthy elements of society. What better way to compensate for the misery of a life ruined by autism? Mostly I pity those people and do not try to argue with them on WP although the temptation is very strong and yes I'm not always a very nice person.

Hope that helps!

EDIT might as well add this as nobody has commented (probably because it's 02:43 in Australia) but it occurs to me that if somebody on the spectrum holds an opinion that they consider untypical of society in general, they often attribute it to their autism. For example, an autistic atheist might believe that autism leads one to reject irrational points of view so it should be impossible for somebody on the spectrum to be religious. According to this reasoning, many autistics are also likely to be astonished that other autistics don't share their political beliefs.

Last edited by MaxE on 11 Nov 2021, 10:53 am, edited 2 times in total.

^^^that is helpful, yes.

Thanks! Given the timing you might have missed my recent edit. Might want to take a gander at that.

i gandered and long have been aware that many other aspies don't grok me and never will.

I don't want to be too specific about the community on *this* website, but will point out that a lot of "individualist" Auties have been driven away.
I was very surprised by the collectivism I found here.

I wouldn't judge autistic personality traits based on some of the louder members, here.

I live in Canada, and the thing about the US that grinds my gears, is why does Canada, and probably other nations as well, feel they have to copy American politics?

When something happens in the US, Canadians feel they have to copy it. For example, when the US legalized cannabis, Canada felt they needed to do it to, when the defund the police movement became cool in the US, Canada, felt they needed to make it cool too, when gas prices went up on the democratic parties watch in the US, Canada's did too in their liberal party, etc.

Now the US is printing more money causing inflation, and I wouldn't be surprised if Canada was going to do it too now, etc. So why do other countries like Canada, or others, feel that the American way to live, is the best way to live, and feel they have to copy it?

This is a problem with other nations from the US, is that they feel they have to copy American politics influences.

i can't comprehend what you just said. i can't believe other nations copy our politics or our policies. canada decriminalized pot before we even thought to do so on a national level, our pot decriminalization is strictly local.

Oh well it's just that that was back a long time ago though. I was thinking in recent years Canada bas been like this. American legalized in some states, than Canada got on the bandwagon, etc.

just about all the places in amuuurica where pot is still highly illegal, are in the south. they show no signs of growing up anytime soon, esp. as the pot convicts are often parts of their infamous chain gangs.

That's true. I guess what I mean is more specifically, Canada seems to want to copy more of the North of the the US's politics more so.

it could also very well be that even before that, that many northerners of the usa wanted to emulate more of canada's more humanitarian methods such as your health care delivery and financing system which is much more humane than the execrable non-system we non-rich 'muuuricans are stuck with.