16yo Thunberg: She’s the MVP Aspie of the world! IMO

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And don't even get me started on "save the planet." Not a single person actually cares about the planet. All they care about is their own species.

Firstly, if you had of stood up for some substantial cause and Obama repeatedly criticized you on some sort of social media, he would have received a similar level of outrage as Trump's behaviour towards Ms. Thunberg did. By the standards Trump operates at, his negative comments towards her have been relatively measured, let's face it, if he called her 'that ret*d Norwegian girl who isn't even a 9' no one would have been shocked. But, he speaks from a position that once demanded great respect, and that power imbalance is part of what leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. The president of Brazil was ruder than Trump was, but he's a less significant figure. Trump's minions are often far worse towards her, but it's immaterial to just block them and get on with life.

Personally, I've called some of what's been directed towards her cruel and needlessly insulting, but no need for tears, that's the nature of the internet. I largely agree that if it's too much to ask of her that she should be encouraged to go back to being as normal as possible and let someone a few years older handle it for at least a few years. Why should someone that age be expected to devote that much energy and time to that sort of cause when they still have a bunch of other important personal priorities to deal with, many of which are somewhat time-sensitive.

This is somewhat of a tangent, but the bolded kind of stood out to me. This seems to be a really common experience on here, and it makes me curious how often the posters who've made other posters feel like they're be driven off are even aware that's the impact they're having, let alone intending it. It seems to be fairly universal, in the sense that people from all over the political spectrum have complained about it in the years I've been here. Between a general tendency to phrase things fairly bluntly and a tendency to take criticisms personally, I'm not sure this is an unexpected trend on a forum focused on ASD.

Perhaps those posters who are to fragile to deal with discussing social and political issues and the comments that result should refrain, or would it that be an unfair expectation? It's certainly a lot less negativity (how often does one get disagreement from more than a half-dozen people on here?) to deal with, and entirely from similarly irrelevant nobodies.

Or would it be more reasonable to expect that everyone make more of an effort to try to avoid causing butthurt when they disagree?

I don't have an answer, but I know you're not alone in that experience.

For what it's worth, there's posters I both disagree with and dislike, but most of the posters I disagree with I'm fairly neutral or somewhat positive towards as people.