1. Seeing things in black and white is just as unnecessary as seeing things in a trillion shades of grey
It is best to avoid the extremes of both generalization and not being able to figure things out with more ambiguity than binary code. Avoid generalizing whenever you can, but don't be so paranoid about it that you can't infer anything based on facts with the slightest ambiguity. Aspies are literal, but that doesn't mean we aren't able to put 2 and 2 together.
2. Not everyone comes for the beliefs and stays for the threat of rejecting them
Everyone is biased, but not everyone is unconditionally biased. I am a right libertarian cuz it makes the most sense to me, not because I unconditionally reject dissenting views.
3. If there are no strings attached, then don't ask someone to define what a string is.
Arguing semantics is fine if loaded connotations are attached, but if not then assume the usual meaning.
4. Numbers don't lie, but they do imply.
Avoid calling things "facts" when they are either theories or inferences. Don't ask someone to prove inferences either when inferences are generalizations made as a result of specific facts.
5. The substance of the statement is just as important as the style of the delivery
For example, the phrase "Guns don't kill people, people do" is a statement of personal responsibility, but people will figure that guns are designed primarily as weapons and are an effective means of killing people. To make your point more intuitively easier to figure out, say something like "Murderers have killed morality a thousand times before they've killed their first victim".
6. Logic without context is like an airplane without wings; it doesn't fly
Don't forget that the premise is the foundation of logic, not the other way around. For example, saying that "Most Aspies gravitate towards jobs that are less social" shares the same logic as "Most blacks gravitate towards a criminal lifestyle", but are contextually different. The premise "Most Aspies gravitate towards jobs that are less social" is under the context that Aspies are proven to have a temperament that leans towards introverted, whereas the correlation with blacks and crime is linked to things other than skin colour or genetics.
7. If politics is a different story, keep it that way
Keep politics out of things that aren't political, plain and simple. For example, this thread deals with political etiquette rather than politics itself, so I've made a conscious effort to keep my political views out of this thread. btw that example about guns wasn't meant to weasel my political stance on guns into this thread, but is simply as example of how your delivery is as important as your statement.
19 Jan 2011, 2:56 pm
