Declaring ourselves a minority group

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There would be certian benefits to being officially a miniorty, however - I am just being selfish here and considering things like, say, not getting fired from my job if anyone ever found out . . . though I suppose the ADA would techinically cover me . . .

I, like several other people, think it is dangerous to get an 'us vs. everyone else' mentality . . .

gwynfryn wrote:

i agree, gwynfryn - although using the method of yelling at someone and being shouty and aggressive doesn't work any better than doing nothing - it merely annoys people and makes them unwilling to listen.

be clever - agree with them first, and THEN suggest otherwise! (says she, arch manipulatrix). this is where theory of mind comes in handy - i had to learn it (psychology, even astrology, observation etc.). politeness wins more votes (or at least listening ears) than stridency.

interestingly, my request for information /experiences so that i could try and "educate" NTs at my university had few (although very useful) replies, here as well as on AFF (i'm not spamming, but responding to ASMAN's comment earlier). it's under the education thread, if anyone's interested.

and the very best of luck, monastic!

V

You seem to be missing vetivert's point Asman. While civil disobedience may well be acceptable, the question is whether on an ongoing basis it is effective. The battle for recognition is firstly of awareness - and yes, civil disobedience, protest, etc helps do this, I don't think anyone disputes that.

However once people are aware of your stance the battle for hearts and mind begins, which requires a little more willingness to listen and discuss - and compromise. And yes vetivert - subterfuge...

hi

duncvis!!

I agree with your points however , vertivert made no mention of protesting and then to listen and discuss . She always mentioned just listening and discussing period. So I could not draw the inference you did.

in fact in this post she seemed antigonistic about protesting

[quote = vertivert]
i agree, gwynfryn - although using the method of yelling at someone and being shouty and aggressive doesn't work any better than doing nothing - it merely annoys people and makes them unwilling to listen.
[/quote]

I am British, but there is a question I would like to ask about this idea of Aspies / Autistic people declaring themselves a "minority Group" ( I am sorry if I am ignorant about this subject!) The concept of such a formal declaration does not exist over here.
How exactly would you define who is a member of the group? My understanding is that the autistic "spectrum" is just that...a scale which extends from people at one end, who are only mildly affected, to people at the other end , who are severely disabled by their condition and need a lot of help just to cope with everyday living.
And then there are people with a formal diagnosis of AS, people who are self-diagnosed (maybe some 'professionals might disagree with them!) , people who suspect they might have AS but are not sure....would they all be included? It is easy to spot a member of a group defined by, say, colour or religion, but not one defined by subtle neurological differences.
My experience is that here in Britain there is very little awareness of AS or indeed help for Aspies. When mentioned in the media there seems to be little understanding of the condition and it is presented in a negative and rather ignorant way. Examples of this include a recent murder case where a young man killed a young girl at a party (she had been teasing him, but it was mentioned he had attacked other people previously). The reports made quite a point of saying that the young guy had Asperger's, although they stopped short of saying that was the cause of his murderous behaviour. (The implication was there, though) Another case reported in the news was of a middle aged couple who attempted suicide - only the father succeeded - because of despair over their daughter who had Aspergers and had run up debts on their credit cards to the tune of some £30,000 (if I remember aright) buying fashion items, designer clothes and shoes etc. Again, the suggestion was that this is the sort of behaviour you can expect frpm someone with AS. Nobody pointed out that in general, Aspies are not interested in fashion or physical appearence in general, and nobody seemed to question what the parents were doing in any case to allow the girl to use their credit cards to such an extent!
I am not suggesting that such stories amount to evidence of prejudice. Just ignorance, maybe. In America, have there been many examples of prejudice towards Autistic people? I myself tend not to tell may people that I have a diagnosis of AS. My family, doctors, and a few friends know. I would not care to mention it to employers or workmates. So if I meet a stranger who appears to be against me for some reason, I assume it is not because I am an Aspie, but that there is simply some other characteristic of mine that they dislike!

Poeple judge other poeple by the way they act and react to others. When one comes into a group there is always that competition taking place. Members of the group will "test" the new one. They will tell him some ugly thing for example and they will intensly observe the reactions. Will he answer with ugly things ? Will he started laughing and bring the situation to a funny one ? Will he collapse and start crying ? ect.... This is taking place in the first 5 minutes and everyone in the group will "rank" the new one according to those sings. This is called "social hierarchy". Because of how we, Aspies, react, we are almost always sent to the bottom of the scale.

Unfortunatly, this is how society works. Everyone "ranked" everyone unconsiously according to his social skills. This is why some are teased while some other are elected "president of the republic". It all depends on your score at the social game that takes place everywhere, everytimes, with everyone.

With that minority group thing, we are asking to be treated as if we were higher in the social scale, because our lack of performance in this area is not due to a lack of competances, but is due to a pathology. This is like going in the president office and saying "I know i'm not good at my job but it's not my fault, it's due to a pathologic condition. Therefore, i request i'd be promote to a boss position because inside me, i know that's where i belong." This is simply NOT going to work. At best you will be kicked out of the office and sent back to your bottom of the scale position. At worst, you will be fired because you acknowledged that your not good at your job !

Our problem is beeing sent at the bottom of the social hierarchy because of our poor social skills, and no one is going to let you get in front of them in that endlessly, ferocious, unfair competetion, because it's not your fault !

That is only my opinion. It may sound as if i think i know everything, it's not the case. In fact, i don't know how it sounds at all , just take the words to what they say. You are all invited to agree/refute/argue/comment on it.

Let me clarify,

I am talking about social skills, EXCLUSIVELY social skills. That is precisely one of the 3 major criteria for the diagnostic. As for the example of beeing poor at our job, this apply only in the context where the job's description would be about beeing good at social skills.

Poeple DO rank others on thier social skills, almost exclusively. They will accept or reject others based on that input.