Are some cultures more tolerant of people with AS?

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I've heard it said that, in the USA, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease", whereas, in Taiwan, the saying goes "the nail that is standing up is the one that gets hammered down."

I've seen lists of famous present and historical people who were suspected of having Asperger's syndrome, but I don't recall having seen any Asian names on any of these lists.

I never said he was accomplished. I said he is somewhat famous.

Pretty funny that someone with Asperger's came up with an incredibly popular game (though I haven't played it) based around collecting.

If there is a culture truly tolerant of differences of any kind, I have yet to meet it.

In my country, the Netherlands, people are quite individualistic and theybelieve more in what's inside of you, rather than what you wear, how much money you make or if you can speak like certain groups do.

I have just returned from a one month's stay in South Africa. I always notice there that people are very sociable, 99% of their conversations revolve around chit-chat (women, sports, labels, sports, cars, sports, drinking, sports, money and houses, etc.), they lack information and are continuously enforced by strong voices, hyperboles and by swearing. And men hit each other on the backs. And what's most important: you're not supposed to show that you can be vulnerable, too.

Women, conversely, talk about labels (Billabong, Gucci, Oakley, etc), boyfriends, the gym, necklaces, houses, watches, b*tching, etc. And they should talk about this with a falsetto voice. Accents of men and women are rather different, and their vocabularies are so, too.

In the Netherlands, people tend to talk about things that have more meaning (ideas, feelings, politics, etc.), the socially acquired differences between men and women are not as big, pitch in their voices is more similar, they usually find clothing labels important when they are adolescents, and later on it doesn't really interest them so much. On the other hand, people don't care so much for each other as people do in South Africa, which is bad for a society where there are people who are not self-supporting.

I think, on the whole, South Africa is more traditional. There a person with AS will immediately be spotted, due to his/her speach (no specifically male or female accent; let alone a local accent; no hyperboles or excessive swearing) and (the intensity of) his interests (cosmology, collecting fossils, cars) and his disinterests (clothes, chit-chat, gossip).
In the Netherlands, a conversation (if the Dutch have conversations at all ) seems to be more than an exchange of social formalities.

I have talked to several people in SA who didn't seem to fit in, and who come across as introspective. They have always been the odd one out, out of place, and I can see their frustrations. In the Netherlands these people would just be seen as introspective; not odd.

Conversations are very shallow in SA. A nice example: if s.o. in Holland were to ask s.o. else how he/she's doing, chances are that the person will reply: "Not so well." In South Africa, "How you doing?" (or the less interrogative "Howzit, bru!") is automatically replied by "Can't complain". Or: "Fine, and you?". And that's it. Men hardly speak about personal problems. And: boys don't cry. On the other hand, girls do.

I wonder how this works in America. I think people have more time for eccentrics in Holland than in South Africa (which is my point of reference) because peer and group pressure is not as high in Holland.

In Nigeria people with autism are seen as being possessed.

In Ireland, a Nigerian woman and her twin 6yr old boy and girl were deported to Nigeria despite the boy being autistic

hm

Finland possibly - based on a "60 minutes" segment I saw years ago. I managed to find the show transcript online:

http://www.uku.fi/~paganuzz/xcult/tango/text.html

Hard to see how AS traits would stand out if that is an accurate portrait of the national culture.

^I have a friend who goes to Finland regularly on business, and he says they're definitely aspie-ish.

I think somewhere like Finland or elsewhere in Scandinavia would be good for quiet aspies, and the Mediterranean countries would be good for loud ones like me. I don't think Asia or the Americas are very good places for aspies - too many contradictory social expectations.

im sure europeans are about 10 years or more advanced in aspergers, and treating individuals for it

I really don't know what, if any culture, would be tolerant of AS. Esp. since AS varies tremoudously in its manefestations.

Certain Aspies, if their flamboyant enough, might do well in the Medeterainian.

Others, much better in Japan.

I don't know how they'd do in England. It seems to me that, although, people in England seem to be far more tolerant of Aspies, they don't seem to be motivated enough to find ways in which Aspies can "overcome" at least some of their "shortcomings".

This is something I have been thinking about for a long time. Some countries seem to have a more complicated and more subtle set of etiquette and unwritten rules than others. People with AS would probably rather live in a country with 10 well known rules that result in draconian punishments if you break them, than a country with 1000 unwritten rules where breaking them just results in nasty surprises or being a social outcast. Another issue is that fast changes in popular culture or attitudes often work against people with AS, because people who aren't in with the latest craze or mindset are marginalised.

France is a bad country for people with AS. The French hardly know anything about AS and doctors deny it exists.