Formation of one badASs team to take out ToM /empathy thing

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Okay I have had enough of this bullcrap. Reading through the comments on other threads here I think most of us disagree with this guy's position claiming we lack empathy or the capacity to develop the equivalence of.

Now, I was sitting on the fence until I realised this guy's cousin is BORAT!

This is a damn money-spinning NT piss-take . This guy is a media darling and he's junking out on the experience . It dangerous to allow this misconception to persist when the media are currently spoonfeeding their readers with the dangers of individuals and groups lacking emapathy.

I am suggestion the formation of one serious badass team of thinkers to take this theory down before it goes any further and starts impacting on our lives in the current climate of escalating moral panic .

I will not do this unless I have full agreement or a reasonable spread of ideas.

Just post a yes, or no below, and a brief why / why not.

We take the theory out/modify it . In the social sciences no structure is inaccesible , there are all kind of ways in .

To be fair to SBC the statement:

"Autistic people lack any comprehension that other people have feelings"

is actually Dorothy Rowe's.

But yes, shocking views.

nemorosa- yes/no?

I am going to start a blog to take down all of the autism research that has made faulty assumptions and interpretations based on the Plethistic Projection KrapKoater 3000. I have had it with the KrapKoating.

Yes.

Because he is wrong

The quote says 'Autistic' people lack Empathy. It does not specify Aspergians or reference HFA, and generally, when not otherwise specified, the term AUTISM used alone is taken to refer to the more obviously low-functioning, and in that case the statement may be valid.

I would not argue the fact that even High Functioning Autistics have some impairment where Empathy is concerned, though it may develop more slowly, and I think it remains somewhat stunted compared to the norm. Being able to sense and comprehend the emotions or thoughts of others and base correct predictions of their behavior based on nonverbal cues is never the natural, automatic function that it is for most people. Experience has show me that even when I'm sure I know what the people around me are thinking, I am often wrong.

OTOH, recognizing that others have feelings does not necessarily mean I know what the appropriate response to those feelings should be, or that I'm able to produce the appropriate response in the moment, even if I do know.

yes i am going to work on this to get it fixed. he is wrong

I'm in. The specific complaint is that there needs to be a very clear explanation that cognitive empathy ONLY is impaired but not affective empathy or sympathy.

The last thing we need is for the public to start to associate AS with lack of empathy (a very multi-faceted word which is not understood by most).

The other thing is that Sacha is demonstrating a lack of empathy by explaining this in a dramatic way to boost sales of his book. If he had empathy he would realize that he owes it to the autism community to explain the multi-faceted nature of empathy and the fact that only one aspect of empathy is impaired in AS. It's unbelievable that a prominent AS researcher would title a book 'Zero degrees of empathy: a new theory of human cruelty' -- wow, quite disgusting really.