Autism and political perspectives

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Another thread has begun to explore this and I am beginning to wonder to what extent Autistic and Asperger's people are more likely to be conservative or liberal.

I think personally that it is more likely that Asperger's people are conservative and I say this for a number of reasons. For one in the Asperger's population 75% of people are male compared to around 25% whom are female. Already this inclines a large amount of the community to be right leaning. And then when you couple this with the alienation many autistic people face towards social movements then you get a clearer picture.

This is from my experience of looking here. I think many autistic people have a deep seated alienation with liberalism and feminism due to some of the difficulties of their own circumstances. And feel that they are vilified by a social movement that seems to care not one iota about their difficulties and is bent on creating impossible standards for them. I myself have experienced this disillusionment. And no it isn't always rooted in Sexism but some is.

For me it was a sense that my identity and struggles are being consistently sidelined by mainstream liberal movements. And in addition to it, that people like me were mistakenly labelled as privileged. I no longer see the world in that same light however. This shows me that liberal movements have a long way to go and it needs to significantly improve their style of communication and outreach. They don't know how to speak the language of empowerment and they ignore that at their own detriment.

However on issues related to economics and health many Autistic people are inclined to be very very liberal minded. I have seen multiple autistic people here who were tremendously upset by Trump's attempts to repeal Obamacare and firmly believe that parties like the GOP only care about money and power. Not without valid reason might I add. Someone who I think might have this perspective is Auntblubby. And I say this not to cast judgement on him or demean his views.

Some people like Markinis for instance has sometimes talked about how he feels alienated with some of the Redneck culture big in places like Arkansas. And knowing that was interesting to hear about. Someone could certainly make the argument that the Conservative way of life in many states is one that disenfranchises many people.

This is all I have got to say so far. It was a bit of ramble what do you lot think?

What you lot think?

hiya Shahunshah I think you calculated it about as well as it could be calculated. a lot of the righties here have a bit of misogyny as well as a feeling of superiority over lower-functioning aspies here, they seem to think that if they could "make it" that anybody could if only they pulled their heads out of their @$$es and worked hard. as though just being alive wasn't already too hard for some. definite TOM issues. many of those social darwinists have no idea [and absolutely no curiosity about] how hard it is for some. some people cannot "work hard" to save their lives. besides, in today's world, hard work is worthless, one must work smart or not at all, to get anywhere, and once again, not everybody can work smart. but the social darwinists don't care for anybody other than their own.

Many of us are told all our lives, "YOUR BEHAVIOR IS WRONG".

For me, this likely sparks PTSD anger and frenzy in my brain.

This makes prefer conservative individualism (INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR IS OK) over collectivism (YOUR BEHAVIOR SHOULD CONFORM TO THE GROUP).

From my observations most aspies appear to be socialists.

It’s interesting that you have the opposite perception.

I’ve only come across a couple here who appear not to be.

Personally I was brought up by aspie/NT parents who taught me that the world doesn’t owe me anything, I’m not an entitled person. I battle with severe meltdowns, suicide, extremely severe OCD (to name a few). Mental illness is ripe in my genetics severely on both sides.

Fortunately for me we have a health care system that allows for people to easily get the medicine they need.

Because of this, I’ve been able to have a life. I’m strongly against people in New Zealand who abuse the system, and generally lean to the right in our government because of this.

There is no reason why 80% of people in this country can’t make it. Cheap drugs and free scholarships and study fees for people who don’t have any money etc.

Hi Hale Bopp,

Glad you're back.

Hi, my friend. Wishing you a happy new year.

The Right seems to come with Social Conservatism and a strong appeal to Religious values or morals. I'm not sure these are areas where the government really needs to be involved, or it's not a strong priority. I mean people can be good strong moral leaders certainly, but not that they need to be busy coding things into law.

The Right also kind of has a message that The Government is the problem to paraphrase Reagan. It's a weird position to want to administer what you are against (except big Military?).

I tend to lean Left because while government has flaws, I think there is a willingness to fix it instead of cutting and dismantling departments. I also see government's purpose as one of collective security and this can include the threat of poor health from disease or other illness.

I've strangely had the same thought before about most people on the spectrum, out of those I have met mind you, leaning more towards the right on the political spectrum. I'm perfectly aware that neither the Republicans or the Democrats are saints, but in my own experiences, I've seen a somewhat dirty low ball from people on the left that just rubs me the wrong way. Those are just my own thoughts and experiences though. Imagine half of it may very well be the people or things you see that shape your perspective on the right or the left. just my two cents.

I think the worst corruption is with Neo-Conservatives and Neo-Liberals which makes everything a bigger mess and the true followers of classic form of these idealogies feel under attack or betrayed.

You have hit the nail on something I have noticed from a number of people including some of my autistic friends. They described to me how they associated conformity with the left and individual freedom with the right. I don't subscribe to such a view, however.

I'm surprised there are any liberal autistic people considering we're supposed to be hyper-logical. Judging by this site, most autistic people are apparently liberal. I'm just as surprised that there are autistic people who are religious.

I'm not conservative either. My position on most if not all political issues is in the middle.

I'm undiagnosed, so I'm not sure if I count towards the overall view of how Autistic people view politics.

My personal view is that democracy seems better than the alternatives, and as long as we have democracy, we'll have some form of politics. However, I have no interest in being involved. I've been told by people from both sides that this is wrong. The narrative goes: "The OTHER PARTY is evil, so if you don't explicitly support our party, you're lazy and apathetic! And don't you know, apathy is what allowed the Nazis to rise to power! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! Vote for our side!" Again, this is what I see from both sides.

Part of this is that, in general, I care intensely about a small number of things, and very little about things that fall outside of that. I'm not interested in romance, sports, religion or a number of other things that people tend to base their lives around. So people telling me that I have to care about politics has very little effect.

I do not believe my individual vote would have any effect on the outcome of any election. The counter-arguments I hear generally don't respond to this, but instead attempt some vague guilt trip like: "Soldiers died for your right to vote!" (I still have my right to vote if I choose to.)

After the recent midterm election, a liberal friend asked me if I voted, and when I said "No," he said, "We need your vote!" The next day, a conservative co-worker asked me if I voted, and when I said "No," he said, "Well, you know, if you don't vote, you can't complain!" I replied that if I had a valid complaint, whether or not I voted wouldn't make it any more or less valid. "Yes, it would," was his response.

I don't associate either side with individualism. The extreme Right I associate with Christian conservatism and corporate culture, and the extreme Left I associate with terribly written online articles that decree what we're supposed to be offended by next.

The one political issue that I did somewhat follow was the debate over Marriage Equality. This was because I believe the side against allowing gay couples to marry had no argument whatsoever, and it was fascinating to see how they continued to try and argue their position.