Do Aspies have a Greater Sense of Justice?

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I agree with the OP 100%.

NTs have a pecking order, and justice is the antithesis of that. You can't have justice where all men are equal but some are more equal than others (George Orwell, Animal Farm)

I've literally been told I have a strong sense of justice, and that I had the mind of a child. This was meant and taken as a compliment.

I've heard it said that people with AS often don't ever develop emotionally past childhood, which may (partly) explain why we can have a child-like sense of retribution. The adherence to concrete rules is a pretty good explanation, too.

Oh, yeah... I've also heard that in addition to lawyers, we also have an unusually high propensity for taking on the role of the vigilante.

Did you pay for your representation or where you using tax-earner's dollars to fund your agendas against people you disagreed with? Out of curiosity. Are you working? Are you putting back into the pot, financially?

If you are not then I think you should focus less on running around suing people and work more on building your resume and less wasting time in court and patting yourself on the back.

Most NTs seem to want some "higher authority," either God or The State, to give them answers about everything then actually thinking for themselves.

I have emotions, but when it comes to making a decision I have an easier time looking at the logic of the situation despite how I feel then NTs.

I've never been able to figure that out. I think they like the attention they get from talking about a dead person like they knew them. Also, I think NTs are terrified of being forgotten when they die (where as most aspies feel like they've been forgotten in life so it becomes normal-ish) and so by elevating dead people to this glittery status, it makes them feel better knowing that maybe others will act in the same manner when they pass.

*shrug* I dunno.

There's a convention to talk only positive things of people who've died. This is reinforced by honors being given to people only after they die (canonizing them as saints, naming streets in their name, etc.) Ridiculous and phony. I loved it when we had a wonderful mayor for decades and then a stadium was inaugurated with his name while he was still alive. Most unusual thing to do, but having been the mayor of the most difficult city in the world, he so deserved it!

[quote="Greentea"]There's a convention to talk only positive things of people who've died.

Law and Justice topic

Sometimes they just do not work together.

Some people do not like speaking ill of the dead. I say if they are naked, then they have no clothes on.

And what is all this leading to? Law is not justice but I sure sometimes wish justice was the law, and the universe unfolded as it could for everyone's betterment. As it is I will just do the best I can and speak out for justice and fairness, even though it is not an exact science.

yup

Why some people (and I think some Aspies can be included in this group along with some NTs) behave in this way is a very complicated matter, including but not limited to childhood experiences, issues of inadequacy, neurosis, psychosocial patterns, strong habits, and more.

I have learned to "feel" an "equivalence" of empathy (my emotional feelings "mimic" the feelings of another without needing to express that feeling), and when aware of someone in a position of self-created peril, I feel this "empathy" for them, and I am aware of believing that even though they put themselves in trouble and that that is not good, It is also not good to suffer at the hands of another, regardless of the circumstances, and therefore not deserved (perhaps I speak of feeling compassion?). This comes from suffering myself, at the hands of another, wether I created the situation or not. To feel that one's own suffering is not deserved, while another's is, may be hipocritical. It's like locking a person away for wrongdoing without helping them fix themselves - the cycle repeats once you let them out and the world is no better.

Perhaps one should ask: Can these people separate beneficial living from neurotic living?


I know my sense of justice comes from not wanting to see others suffer the way I have suffered, while understanding those who make others suffer may have suffered in some unseen way themselves. I see it as wrong to make another suffer, at the same time unjust to merely punish the perpetrator, someone once said "success is the best revenge", rehabilitating an offender into a healed person, into a "success", is the best retribution.

Oh, for crying out loud.

A greater sense of justice? No, no, and no.

First of all, the "lack of empathy we are described as having" is a really slippery way to say it. We aren't just "described as having", we actually have a lack of empathy. It isn't some NT conspiracy to keep us down, it's an actual limitation.

Second of all, how on earth can you have a superior sense of justice without empathy? I'm not saying we're devoid of it, but our fundamental inability to understand the NT mindset is not exactly a bell-ringer for mercy.

Third, I've noticed a tendency among Aspies-- and I gotta own this own myself, too-- to be right all the time.

Catalyst, it's because we have some limitations on empathy (heavy emphasis on "some") that actually gives us the detachment needed to possess a keen sense of justice. That plus personal experience of things like bullying and so forth.

So I disagree with what you have said.

No TLPG you are wrong. Someone without the empathy that is needed to moderate their own behaviour is likely to blood-minded carve a path through innocents in their one-eyed agenda.

There is nothing wrong with putting your hand up and admitting your on weaknesses or shortcomings like Catalyst has done. It is very mature and self-aware.

If you where hyposensitive to smell would it be terrible to admit to not being up for being a cleaner at an abbatoir?
If you lacked subtlety is it unfathomable to admit to not being up for politic?

These things are fine. Good call and very brave of you Catalyst

I both agree and disagree with you rossc and Catalyst.
I do agree that someone working an agenda cannot be viewed as being just.
Justice does not really have anything to do with empathizing with anyone.

Raw justice is dealing out the consequences of an action.
You break the law, you pay the fine or do the time.

If anything empathy can get in the way of raw justice.
If you can "understand" why they did what they did and are thus lenient on them for that, then you did not apply raw justice. If you still sentenced them with a lenience for the circumstances, then you applied justice tempered with mercy.

While by definition being able to get closer to raw justice is having a greater sense of justice, I don't think that I would say that utilizing raw justice is the better thing to do.
I think that I have a better time utilizing raw justice, but I think that many times the raw justice needs to be tempered with some mercy and lenience. It is that tempering that I think Aspies might have trouble with because it is the bending or blurring the rules a bit without those concrete exception clauses.

So in conclusion I think Aspies are better at utilizing raw justice than a NT as they might be a bit further removed from empathizing. But I don't think that anyone in the world really wants raw justice to be utilized as it is far too unforgiving.

Well said, KClark! Pretty much what I said, except in more detail.

I'll just add that speaking for myself I only take legal action as a last resort (when all else fails). Really - anyone who takes a matter to court has an agenda. No exceptions, because that's the way a court works. If you don't have an agenda you don't have a case to prosecute - or defend.

When I have been caught stealing or speeding or lying I admit it.

It really freaks NTs out.

I was wrong you caught me why stress?

I think we do have a higher sense of justice because we take things literally and in absolutes.