Is this the typical aspie stare:

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Honestly, he looks like he's suffering from Grave's Disease in that picture. The bulging eyes, potentially enlarged thyroid on his neck and his excessive skinniness seem like hallmarks.

I do get it. But I don't think it's right that punishing innocent people is the right way. Like I said, he could have taken other drastic measures without taking lives, even if he had no value for those lives. People usually want revenge on the ones who wronged them. If they want to punish everyone, then that's mental illness - and that cannot be justified because it has no basis in reason.

Sorry to hear you've been attacked

I have too but not over looks

How many times have you been physically attacked? and what were the circumstances of the attack you described

mental wounds can be as bad as physical ones in my opinion

I think about what people have said about me far more than anything physical that's happened to me

My boyfriend and I were talking about the autistic stare last night, or more like an autistic look that he gets and a lot of other autistic people I've known personally have given. It's not so much that but it's more like a blank stare when they can't wrap their heads around something. He gave it to me last night when I made an off color metaphor ("There's more under 18 here than a Thai nightclub") and we kind of discussed how we've seen other people do the same thing.

I've never seen the look in the picture though

It's difficult to talk about. It's happened to me 2 times. Verbal attacks a lot more. The first attack was whilst I was waiting at a bus stop, minding my own business, there were two of them and they dragged me to the ground and rained kicks on me, a lot to my head, and I had massive lumps all over my head. The police were called but they weren't found so they got away with it, some shop staff got me into their shop and a kind taxi driver took me home without charging a fare. The latest physical attack was from behind, whilst I was holding the hands of my two little girls, in the primary school playground, so obviously they were traumatised too. The perpetrator was prosecuted and convicted. That doesn't take away what happened though. I don't know for 100% sure that it is because of looks, but I was bullied a lot at school, and on one of those occasions the bully told me it was because her friend liked some boy that kept coming to talk to me (which I wasn't remotely interested in, had no clue about, being very niave and emotionally immature). My step-mother told me I was bullied through jealousy when I cried about why I was bullied, so not having any other reason to attribute people's nastiness to, I could only conclude the attacks must be somehow related to the same reason. Obviously there could be an element of me being different too, I don't mix with others being a typical Aspie (although I will be polite if someone approaches me). People attribute that to you being a snob or whatever. Both times I was attacked it was by females, and I don't know why else a female would attack someone who did nothing to them and was no threat in any way. I have as much reason to be bitter, and hate society and NTs as you...I just don't agree shooting people is the answer.

...going back to the Aspie stare, one of the people at school who bullied me, accused me of "staring at her" which I wasn't. Or at least certainly wasn't conscious of if I was it was in an innocent way, not to start trouble. So I think the Aspie stare gives some nasty people an excuse to start trouble on you. (As if looking at someone is reason to start on them anyway )

Last edited by whirlingmind on 10 Apr 2013, 2:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Gosh that sounds awful! Did you have no interaction with them at all before it happened? no staring or anything?
Were they waiting at the bus stop too? Were they white?

Did you know who the 2nd attack was by? Was it another mother?

This all sounds terrible!

I've been set upon at a party but I was pouring lager on the carpet and had had an argument with 2 people beforehand. Then I started a fight myself with another girl on another occasion and I've had a woman slap me hard round the face when I pushed her away as she was right in my face arguing. I don't fear physical violence, just ridicule, which I know is illogical.

But it's like revenge on society as a whole

And no one is innocent either in my opinion, they are just less messed up than the shooter, probably due to being more normal and being given more respect as a result

What was this woman's reason though? Did she give one to the police or say anything when she did the attack?
What did her defence in court say?

I think if someone attacked me out of the blue like that I'd probably snap and kill them! it would be the straw that broke the camel's back for me!

But how can you say that about tiny little children?

Luckily she pleaded guilty so I didn't have to go to court to give evidence. I never found out why. I am not a fighter, and I had my children with me, despite what I was going through I was more worried about their safety. Like I said, it's really hard to talk about this so I'd rather leave it there now.

They were seen as extensions of their parents probably, just representatives of a community he'd grown to hate

I don't like the school children who walk past my house to and from the secondary school I went to - they're often disrespectful if we ever cross paths and if I heard some of them had been shot I'd think 'Good - they deserved it!' as it would mean some poor sod they'd bullied mercilessly had had enough and I'd understand how they felt.

If society separates some of us off as not normal they will sometimes have to pay the price for that stigmatisation if it is used to ostracise and persecute a person ie anyone who isn't mentally strong enough to withstand it may well crack and want revenge.

I don't see myself as NT, I see myself as being in a constant battle for survival against them so if some of them get taken out it's no odds to me as they aren't my 'side' anyway; they are the enemy effectively.

If I hadn't developed this mindset I'd have killed myself long ago.

Yup, that's it. I don't know what it is, but that photo reminds me of me as a kid too. I think it simply has to do with most facial muscles being relaxed, because we don't really use facial expression a lot. In the photo you are pulling the corners of your mouth up a little, possibly smiling for the camera, but otherwise you're not really using your facial expression to communicate.

Most NTs seem to interpret the default ASD facial expression as "blank", "preoccupied", "concentrating", "absent", or "dreamy". It might be part of the idea that autistic people are "in their own world", because NTs expect to get constant face talk, and when they don't get it they assume lack of awareness. Of course, in reality, we're probably more aware than most people are, perceiving the world more directly than NTs, whose brains are adept at summarizing the world instead of seeing the details.

The kid in the OP is making a face. That's not an Aspie stare, just a grimace.

That's an interesting thing to note. We look a bit vacant but that is a reaction to somehow closing ourselves off to all the outside buzz. I used my inbuilt webcam the other day to take a picture of myself, I haven't had a photo taken for so long that I wondered what I looked like these days. It was still there, and with a less chubby face than childhood it was more obvious. I think my eyes look almost glazed, not exactly dead, but sort of in another place or something. I wonder if the facial expression thing is an extension of a degree of low muscle tone. My face literally starts to ache if I smile for a little while, and generally, it almost feels like it just 'hangs' there, existing.