Has your autism influenced your politics?

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Trotskyism is a cult. I'm not one for cults.

Even regardless of their rather demented beliefs, the way their senior members have treated young women (and then intimidated them into not going to police and besmirching their names) is horrific.

Fortunately, they seem to be disappearing into thin air at the minute.

No idea - I've never not been autistic so I have no frame of reference for comparison.

I suspect my views are more formed by lived experience and background than anything else, though I was prone to black and white thinking as a young un, so drawn to strong ideological positions. I do question my assumptions more nowadays, hence a recent realisation that I'm a lot less 'left' than I thought I was.*

*I still hate the Tories though

I told the candidate I was helping to campaign for that I can't ever imagine myself voting Conservative. Big ex-Tory, all his mates are Tories, you get the picture.

He glared at me.

Given that I have a very hard time understanding appeals to authority, appeals to emotion, or many other rhetorical tricks, it probably ended up leading me to reject leftism, reject collectivism, reject conservativism, reject every single doctrine that is based upon special pleading. Thus, the only logical political conclusion is to tell the left and the right that they're all a pack of liars an idiots and reject them both.

The larger government gets, the more tyrannical it gets. This is logical, inevitable, and proved by history.
The more aspects of individual life that government regulates, the larger it must be.
The more aspects of individual life that government "helps" with, the larger it must be.
Tyranny with a smile is still tyranny.

Tyranny isn't always elected or forced by violent revolution.

It can also have a boardroom and a majority stakeholdership.

So it seems like AS doesn't have much to do with whether you turn out left wing or right wing. The same type of social barriers can justify going left just as easily as going right.

No, I think it just makes me willing to voice my opinions more. I almost completely lack the emotion of shame.

This is, by far, the best response.

Tyranny begins at home.

:wtg:

I wish I would've noticed earlier. It is a damn good point.

Ideologically, I don't really like either the democrats or the republicans. I just favor the democrats because they favor me. I live in New England, which is pretty much all democrat, and there doesn't seem to be any prejudice against people with autism here. I'm 20 years old, and I can only recall one time in my life when I've ever heard anyone say anything bad about autism, in person. I live a couple of hours from where the Sandy Hook tragedy took place, and the news channel that I watch hasn't been saying anything bad about autism. Even right after the tragedy, they still weren't saying too much about it. It seems like most of the people on Wrongplanet who complain about people being prejudiced towards autistics and the media bashing autism in their local region, live in red states. It kind of makes me wish that New England would secede from the union, so that I can live in a nation that I can feel good about.

Probably. I lean to the left because that political persuasion represents those in need, and those who have been stepped on because they are different. Having grown up an Aspie, I know how that feels.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Same here. While there are some nut jobs on the extreme left, it seems to me there is a greater percentage of people who are nut jobs towards the extreme right, and their positions seem to me to be based mostly on fear, greed and ignorance. Those on the right seem to be more about being selfish, greedy and in denial of demonstrable reality (anti-science) than those in the center or on the left. To be more specific about the anti-science bit, it seems those on the right are more anti-science if reality conflicts with their religious beliefs, or if accepting reality would interfere with their making a quick buck regardless of the present or future consequences to other people and the environment.

In addition to leaning to the left because I have been in need of support all my life and have been stepped on because I am different, some of my autistic traits (i.e., "special interests") have led to me acquiring vast amounts of knowledge on many subjects where I can plainly see that many of those on the right are basing some of their opinions (such as on evolution) on faulty (i.e., wrong) information. Of course my inability to read social cues also led to increased isolation as a child giving me more time to read than if I had been socializing like most non-autistic folks. And my sensory issues led me to favor staying up all night to read when it was dark, cool and quiet, so I was isolated even more but could read and read and read.

When I took a lengthy very detailed test of my political persuasion about four years ago, it showed me very much closer to the center than to the left, although definitely on the left side of the fence. I may be leaning a bit more to the left now than I was then, but I do not necessarily agree with everything anyone says or anything everyone says.

As duncvis so wisely pointed out earlier in this thread, since I have been autistic as far back as I can remember I do not have a non-autistic frame of reference to compare it to. Still, based on what Kraichgauer said, and also since my special interests combined with my social and sensory issues led me to educate myself more than most people do, it makes sense to me as an autistic person to lean more towards the left than towards the right. Compassion is a greater motivator for me than greed. I like being mostly towards the center though. That makes the most sense to me, and also ties in with my personal philosophy which is heavily influenced by the teachings of Buddhism including the "middle way."

Being an oddball made me sensitive to fringe individuals, and to fringe groups, and sensitive to groups that are often missunderstood. Tolerant of foriegn cultures and so forth. So that put me left of center.

You do get a more dry outlook with autism.