how people are treating rosie king is why AS don't speak up

Post Reply New Topic

I thought the main point of her message was that not all autistic people are non-verbal and/or low functioning. And because people tend to judge autism by what they see on the surface, she was trying to explain what may not be visible to them, how she experiences things internally.

Reading the comments, most of them completely missed that point.

I don't think she's trying to act special or superior or have a pity party for herself. It wouldn't have even occurred to me to think that while watching the video. Like I said, it explains a lot about why people act the way they do, to know that those are the kind of thoughts that run through other people's minds.

Other thing that seemed to come up in the comments was that she seems so normal the only thing wrong with her is being a 16 year old girl. This really bothers me, because I have had real trouble convincing people of my troubles and needs ("but you do so well!"). People cannot see her struggle. They see a 10-minute clip of what is probably the result of hours and hours of preparation, and assume that is what she is like all the time (it's called fundamental attribution error, btw). They did not see what happened before she climbed on that stage and assume she "just did it". I've encountered the same thing. People see the finished result of my work and when I tell them how it was achieved they refuse to believe how much painstaking work it took me. When I try to make them understand that this is how much effort every single one of these similar things takes me, they just boggle and accuse me of lying. Because it's so easy for them.

Of course it's sometimes easy to forget that NTs have problems too and we can't see their struggle. They might have problems with different things we might be equally unable to understand. Our neurodiversity is not at fault for every struggle in our lives, everybody struggles with something. It's just that the world is optimized for NTs (as much as it is optimized for anybody), so they have a lot of things already smoothed out for them, whereas we have to find different ways to do even mundane things.

It'd be hard for normal people to see anything wrong with her, as they're used to the difficulty of talking to a group of people.

I could talk about firearms to an immeasurable crowd and be unfazed by it, all whilst appearing normal. Put me next to one person, and I'll go full autistic.

I love all of you and I love your empathy and how you get it. It's so amazing! I'm happy I posted this

Sure you may have some traits (and/or disabilities) that are due to AS, but it doesn't define your whole personality, it is simply part of it, part of who you are, like being "neurotypical" is a part of what a "neurotypical" person is but doesn't define their whole personality (i.e. each person is unique). There is a big part that is just you, your own unique personality, with or without AS.

Would it be correct to say that the manifestation of your personality would have come about differently under other neurological conditions? Wouldn't it then be true that autism is an interwoven part, if not the very fabric of your personality? Could a dichotomy lead to a mind-body problem?

Yes it is an interwoven part (like anything else related to your brain or physical attributes in general), but I don't think it is the "very fabric of your personality" at all. Only certain things are directly due to autism. For example, let's say that you have a special interest (which some NTs have too), maybe you would be slightly less focused on it if you were NT but this doesn't mean you wouldn't like the exact same things and have the same special interest(s). Same goes for any "neurotypical" person. That's why in a family of 9 (my dad and his brothers and sisters for example) neurotypical people, they are all different from each other despite all being "neurotypical", having been raised the same way, and by the same parents. That's why, for different reasons, some neurotypical people are very social and others aren't, and the same goes for people with AS (even with severe disabilities, some autistic people are very social, while others aren't, everyone is unique).

I think you're right. Let's make a generalization: The neurological configuration is the very fabric of our personality. Different configurations will yield different results all else being equal.

I often come to the conclusion humanity is organized chaos with no concrete intellectual boundaries

The internet is fascinating for exposing this.

I don't think the chaos is organized.

It was really awkward when she was explaining the cliche of "worlds in her head"

It was really awkward when she was explaining the cliche of "worlds in her head"

If I judged the human condition by what I read on Youtube comment sections I think I would have to do myself in.

On whatever subject the Youtube comment section seems to be a haven for sociopaths.

I've long since become desensitised to hateful and ignorant comments on the Internet. The only thing one can do to help is to post positive messages.

I really don't know any sane or intelligent person can say anything bad about Rosie's video. It was a lovely inspirational video from a young autistic girl. What on earth is there to dislike?

I guess the hateful comments are mainly from children or teenagers who have nothing better to do than troll. I can forgive kids for doing stupid hurtful stuff like this because they are simply immature and lack the emotional intelligence to realise what they are doing. They will mostly look back in a few years and realise what a little dick heads they once were. Hell I look back on some of the stupid s**t I did as a teenager and its downright embarrassing, so I'll let them off. Its just kids doing stupid kid stuff.

The adults who post nasty stuff are also probably deserving of some pity as well to be honest. They are clearly either of a significantly lower than average IQ and/or have had some kind of trauma in their lives that makes them so bitter. I mean what kind of grown man (or woman) posts nasty stuff on a youtube video made by an autistic girl? How sad does one need to be to actually do that? You basically have combination of morons and emotionally scarred people who you know damned well hate themselves most of all. Its sad that there are so many damaged individuals in the world.

The ones that do piss me off are the biomedical snake oil merchants who leap on any discussion of autism to try and push their BS. These people have a financial agenda and are trying to hoodwink and exploit vulnerable parents and people on the spectrum. These are the real scum of the earth because they are basically lying for their own rotten gain.

EXACTLY.