Spare a thought

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The overwhelming majority of people on this discussion forum come from western countries, where attitudes towards those with ASD are quite enlightened. In the other parts of the globe attitudes are a lot harsher.

I think we have to count our blessings in that regard.

Here, here.

yes, this is so. I cant imagine not living in the Western world.

Yeah, good point! I wonder what it's like for those aspies?

I'm willing to bet most of them get beaten up and possibly killed before reaching maturity. The ones who reach maturity probably do sh*t jobs for life. Thats my guess.

I'm not sure that you're correct about that.

Western society is great at trying to pigeonhole people, mark people out as different and unable. If we don't generate as much profit as the average person, then our value is less.

Many non-Western societies view disability or difference as being a normal part of the variety of life and are much more accommodating to those with differences, whatever they may be.

I am sure there are examples of people viewed as prophets in eastern cultures who, had they lived in the west, may have ended up pigeonholed and medicated rather than revered.

I have an online Aspie friend from China and he says some of his characteristics are valued more over there and he doesn;t feel quite the extreme outcast. But this is only one example.

I think being an aspie used to be valuable. Way back in the old days, everyone specialized in something: one person was a baker, another was a blacksmith, another was a shoemaker, and so on. Since aspies have narrow, specialized interests, this worked in their favor. After the Industrial Revolution, that changed. Factories mushroomed in every American city. Each factory required hundreds of workers to do the exact same things. Specialization became a liability, rather than an asset. So even though our society no longer relies on industry as it once did, the anti-aspie attitudes remained.