Dumb things I've heard autistics say about autism

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"Autism isn't a disability."

This one really gets to me. There are so many Aspies who, blessed enough to be high-functioning and fully abled to do whatever they want in life, pretend that the rest of us don't exist. They like to think of autism as something that makes them different, special, deserving of sympathy and special allowances but nevertheless just as capable as everyone else in the long run. Full stop, no exceptions. When I first found out about autism, I only interacted with this type, and they made me feel terrible about how little I could do, like I wasn't even living up to the standards of autistic abilities. It still drives me crazy, and I hate seeing people who look at autism as this "different but fully functioning" thing, as if it were a personality type instead of a disorder. Autism isn't quirkiness, it's a disability!

Yep! I forgot about that ... seven years ago!.

The doctor's response is a form of "Microaggression".

Apparently assuming that the people your work with have no need for something so fundamentally human? Yeah, nothing particularly "micro" about that.

"If you're autistic, you don't read between the lines."

This one was ironic since it was said to me by someone who kept making their false assumptions about things I said, saying "but with this sentence, you clearly meant A and B" when I DIDN'T. Hypocrite...

I might have been quilty of saying that at some point... it's not that I want to belittle the experiences of other autistic people whose autism affects their lives far more than mine affects my life, but in all honesty sometimes I just forget that my autism counts as a disability since my physical disability causes me much more trouble than it does. And when I compare the trouble caused to me by the two, I can't help but feel that the ones caused by autism are very minor in comprasion. But then again, I can live on my own, I can work and so on, so maybe it really isn't such a bad disability in me that it is in some others here.
And before anyone asks: yes, I've been officially diagnosed.

SaveFerris wrote:

"Is Gay pride or black pride false pride ?"

A really good question. I have thought about this, myself. I think it could be considered real pride in the sense that is connected to some kind of social movement or action that is being done by a particular group of people who are being discriminated against by having their ability to act taken away. But then you would have to maybe include white pride etc.as some white people also feel (imo wrongly, generally speaking, but not always) that they are a group that is being discriminated against, so it might be a kind of subtle distinction that would depend upon how you play it; Pride is kind of a nebulous concept, actually, but you probably do get the gist of what was said previously.

So if there was a group actively driving rights of autistic people, they could have "autism pride?" I mean I don't see how that would be any different from gay or black pride; all three are things people are born with.

Then again, the word "pride" could be taken in a different way. I think that, in this, it's not supposed to say "I achieved something and am proud of it" but "I am who I am and am proud of myself for being able to accept it."

Right. Really smart answer. It could mean that. I do not know if you will agree, but to me the premise is still in some way flawed though it is hard to put ones finger on exactly how. As I said, the concept of pride is kind of nebulous.

So, to put it a different way. gay, black, autistic are all conceptual and involve a conceptual sense of self and various thoughts, feelings, subjective and probably conditioned responses about the meaning of being oneself, with probably many wrong ideas about the nature of reality conditioned into it. Let me give an example of my opinion of real pride. When I was a young person I worked very very hard on one of my first jobs--I think a physical grunt job but unpleasant and I kind of had to force myself to do it, and when I got my paycheck I went to a store and bought a mock peasant blouse for fifteen dollars, which was a lot of money to me at the time. It was white with embroidered flowers of many colors around the neckline, and when I looked at this blouse I felt pride. It was contextual but because of something I did, not because of who I was. This is imo a subtle but important distinction and imo League_Girl made it very well. So, in this vein, an autistic person could feel pride because they got themselves up off the couch and were participating in a parade to help autistic people, but without feeling proud that they were born a certain way. To me the latter makes no sense. This said, to understand it further it might be necessary to look at if the latter angle is helpful or harmful to anyone, and, if so, why? Imo it is harmful to be identified and glory in a particular conceptual label of oneself. That kind of pride is tainted, or, as I and some others see it, false pride. This is not in any way to discount the point you made, which I think is valid and helpful.

'You need to make an effort to relate to us'...

'But you're high functioning.'

Yeah sometimes hf isn't so hf. Then it's being accused of all sorts of garbage because you did or said something wrong, but you're a 'hfa' so you should 'know better.'

I think the dumbest thing I hear from both NTs AND Aspies is that we are all geniuses, or that we all have no empathy.

This.

How could i have missed this thread? This should be a stickie and a must-read if it isn't already!! !

That is just sad and hilarious at the same time.



"We have no empathy, because i cannot feel emotions"

No - YOU - have no empathy because you cannot feel emotions.

"Why cant we..."

f***s sake with the *we* again.

"Are all aspies/autistics..."

No. Just no. We are individuals first. If you have a specific problem, then that problems is with you - you. Not everyone else.

"I won't be able to have a job"

Yes you will, but you have to go for a job that fits your character and skill set.

"I won't ever find a girlfriend"

No - you wont if you spend time complaining about it on a forum. Join a dating site or some organization where people that are probably single actually meet.

"Aspie superpowers"

Far from everyone is a savant. Just read these forums and you'll see the daily struggles of the "common aspie".

"Lets list some fictional characters with autism"

Go ahead - waste your life arguing about a fictional character.

Some of these I agree with 100% and some I don't.

I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to find autistic traits in a fictional character. Nobody complains when people try to find sociopathic traits in a villain do they?

Tbh I see autism in nearly every book character I read.

I think it's cos fictional characters are interesting if they feel a bit out of place with the world, see things from an unusual or deeper than average angle, are a bit lonely/loners/like solitude etc.

TV doesn't do this, it uses entourages and idiotic people who are only socially intelligent.

On Corrie, everyone except David, Ken, Daniel and Roy are thick. (Non Brits, this is a show with like dozens of characters on it). Roy is deliberately portrayed as aspie and I think David has tendencies as he's overly blunt and has meltdowns which aren't symptomatic of serious mental illness, usually when something has changed unexpectedly in his life.

I would hate most TV characters if they were real people because they are dumb as a bag of rocks...

Amy said something like 'I think I'm just feeling a bit hormonal cos of my pregnancy' Tracy 'you've been spending too much time learning big words from your granddad'... um no a 14 year old would know the word hormonal... I can't 100% guarantee it was that but it was something as simple and as appropriate to the situation as that. Same as when they ask how each other know about things which aren't pop culture when they show up in crosswords or how they have heard of Lady Chatterley. This stuff is basic knowledge. Knowing the name of the gardener, that would be impressive.

TV characters esp soap characters are proud morons so it makes the book characters seem like autistic savants.

Maybe you're right, TV characters often times are idiots.

But I still love The Golden Girs. Those old ladies are fun and nice, we need more nice people in this world!