How come so many people here treat AS like a race/club?

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My opinion also.

Time for a poll I think?

People treat it like a club because they have this innate need to belong to a clique. It's in most humans. So, AS is just another clique. I have this desire to not belong to cliques. My immediate instinct is to recoil at the thought of being in a group. This might be the angle you are looking at the situation from as well. So I think of it is just being a diagnosis. Nothing more. It's just the opinion of whomever first observed it, this Asperger dude. It is not a limitation, just a fixed idea thought up by one individual and caught on, spreading to others. It could be cult-like if left unquestioned.

"The next step in human evolution" makes people with AS seem grandiose with a retardedly huge superiority complex. I'd rather be looked at as weird than a crazy ass schizo who thinks he's god.

That's being too negative.

Go for it, why not. I'm confident there'd be a landslide 'no' vote, if you asked whether autism/AS is the next stage in evolution.

I agree. I feel very uncomfortable when I come across people treating autism like some kind of superior lifestyle. There's a difference between accepting who you are and being happy with that, and rubbing it in people's faces. I've seen the term "neurotypical" (a word I hate) being used almost as a derogatory term. "You NTs wouldn't understand." Nearly every day I see some question on this forum along the lines of, "What do you hate most about NTs?" and it makes me feel sick. Lumping all non-autistic people in to a category like that and making sweeping generalisations is as bad as racism or sexism, in my opinion.
Having an autism spectrum condition isn't an achievement any more than having blue eyes or webbed feet is.

OP, I don't know where you're bumping into those people with grandiose ideas like that. Most of the people on WP are here for support, from those with similar issues, not to claim superiority. In fact, any that have made such claims have turned out to be internet trolls.

I agree. I also disagree with those who say AS is a "disease." Saying that implies that AS, itself, can be cured or treated. Such is not the case. You can treat some of the things that come along with AS, such as depression, etc. But it is a neurological difference. It's not a virus, or a tumor, or brain damage. It can't be fixed with medication or surgery. People with severe AS can go through BCT in order to fit in better socially with "normal folk." However, some of us could care less. We're comfortable with who we are, and it's the NT's who don't understand who have the problem. The majority of our problems are social issues, because we simply don't think the same way you do. There's nothing actually wrong with the way we think. We don't have hallucinations. Most of us are not generally paranoid. And if there is paranoia, it's usually due to some kind of bad social experience, not something wrong with the brain. A vast majority of aspies aren't looking for a cure. We're looking for acceptance. And obviously we're not getting that from someone like the OP.

You might be, but I'm certainly not. Another good subject for a WP poll though.


I beg to differ. It's the majority of NTs that are the ones capable of both intellectual as well as social pleasure. They are the ones that find enjoyment from social gatherings, we are the ones that are drained by it. You might say we should just choose things that we do enjoy, but that would mean social exclusion and that is something I do care passionately about.


I'm sure they are in the minority. Although I generally feel very "challenged" compared to the majority of NTs, and I feel only an overwhelmingly depressing INferiority by having aspie traits, it is quite ironic that I found the article on "Neurotypical Personality Disorder" very amusing.

Although that article implies a comical superiority complex over NTs, it would be read by most of us as a way of dealing with frustrations associated with aspie tendencies, and observing the irrationality of many NTs in a comical way, I found great relief. That doesn't mean to say one has to have the notion of aspie superiority to enjoy it.

I also disagree with the word 'disease' being used. Talking of my daughter (as she's the one most likely to get a diagnosis in the near future), she definitely does not have a disease. She's on the spectrum, probably not Aspergers, but something akin to it. She's very high functioning and will probably go to university, if she wants to and get married, if the opportunity arises and she wants to. She struggles with some things, but there are many other things which she excels at, where most other kids struggle, e.g. imagination, art, singing and thinking. Take away the ASD and I'm certain you'd take away the amazing stuff, which makes her special, too. She's gifted as well as having an ASD and I'm convinced the two come hand in hand, in her case anyway. She's neither superior nor inferior, she's just different from average. Yes, there are times when I wish she had better social skills and better concentration, but we're working on that and she's progressing really well. Without intervention, she could grow up to be a lot like me and my life doesn't suck, it's not perfect, but who has a perfect life?

Just pitching in to say that I agree with you fully OP, for me its about learning to deal with it with a number of positive things -and- meds. I don't want to change who I am at the core but I also know that for so many years I was absolutely miserable and alone. I think the people that act like autism and AS are the next stepping stone for humanity's evolution are either really deluding themselves as a means of escape from the harsh pain of reality or there's really nothing wrong with them and they want to be special. The latter is a broad judgement and I don't think I have the right to make it but knowing the problems I've had myself growing up I don't see how anyone could refer to this as the next step in evolution. Maybe if I was more like Einstein or someone famous, but I'm not and I doubt the majority are.

At first I thought I disagreed with you because somehow I got the impression that you where saying you shouldn't feel good about who you are but I realized you where saying you shouldn't be elitist. I agree, do not underestimate the value of others, or their suffering. I think it's too easy, especially for people who have been discriminated against, to get together and do what's been done to them.

However I do not think that I have a disease or want a cure. I understand there are many who are afflicted worse than me that feel differently and if it makes their lives better then I hope they get it. But Lets say they rewired my brain when I was born, would my life be better? I'm not sure but I do know I wouldn't be me and I like me.

I don't have a superiority complex nor do I want to be in any exclusive club, but I really don't want a cure.....for many reasons. For one I know how the brain I have works I probably would not know how to operate a neurotypical brain, and what side effects might the cure have? Also what would be the real motivation behind the cure to help me or satisfy what others want from me? Just to name a couple reasons.

Last edited by Sweetleaf on 22 May 2012, 9:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

Erhum, by defining disease as such is where you ruin your arguement. First, AS does not shorten life expectancy, so it's not a disease by that point. Second, what is "quality of life"? With mental conditions quality of life would be harder to assess as they would have different desires than ordinary people. Third, I'm sure some people will argue AS is not bodily. Finally, there is already enough research people put in researching those things, and I can say they haven't improved quality of life at all. Research could've put into things such as alternate education methods and services, but it's being blown on DNA research and drugs.

This is just as idiotic as the other side, evolution does not have steps. For all we know humanity will split into four different species, or we all die in 30 years.