can aspies/autists really be cynical?

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I had a flash temper at humanity per se yesterday and said something cynical that the NTs around me thought was inappropriate. I thought it was a realistic observation. But I am usually the person being told I see the world with rose colored glasses, that I'm very inexperienced or naive. Can people on the autism spectrum really see through BS and maintain the belief that others are essentially selfish and hypocritical? Or are we doomed to fall for the pretenses of anyone who claims to have good intentions and integrity? Is it a matter of upbringing, for instance can we be raised to see others as essentially selfish if that is the paradigm our family or peers have adopted? I've met people who unabashedly claim that selfishness is in the public interest (economic theory) and that it is everyone's responsibility to get their own and let everyone else take care of themselves. But I have trouble assuming that this is the way most people behave, whether they attest to it or not. I can be persuaded but the belief doesn't stick or I hesitate to apply it in real life. I am usually the first to give someone the benefit of the doubt.

I, personally, give people the benefit of the doubt. I've been hurt over and over again but still manage to trust (foolishly many times). At the same time, I see our economic system as breeding selfishness by putting people in a situation where they either think they're desperate or really are.

People tell me I'm like a child, yet I get angry too and know that human nature is definitely not all good. People don't know what to think of these juxtaposing points of view.

I think it has a great deal to do with the way a person is raised; if your parents are cautious around others or are in a situation where they have to be, you pick that up. OTOH if you're raised in a sheltered environment most of the time it's harder to learn the trait.

I think it's harder for Auties and Aspies to learn caution or trust because of our difficulties in reading other people.

Well I'm not diagnosed but I have a lot of aspie tendencies and I'm very cynical. When people make any kind of subjective value judgement, like the example you gave about the free market theory, I'm always looking for their real motive, and I tend to assume it's either selfishness, stupidity, or ego. And I'm almost always right about that.

And the "take care of yourself" attitude is pretty basic to not only humans but to all life. Just look at how plants grow: if you put 2 seedlings next to each other, they'll both keep growing taller to try to get more sunlight, and if one happens to grow over the other, it will then begin to spread out, forcing the other to start twisting itself sideways to try to get sunlight and probably eventually wither away and die. Life doesn't even need consciousness, or even any kind of nervous system to be selfish, it just is.

How's that for cynical?

I am extremely cynical. so help me, but ... there it is. YES.

hmmm... thanks for replying. I don't know if it makes sense to want to be more cynical, but if I could be at peace with cynical beliefs I tend to imagine they would protect my feelings.

OH, rose colored glasses, I remember those! YEAH, mine cracked a little too much. The shards of glass cut into my soul and YEAH I'M CYNICAL! I think everyone notices it eventually.

My impression is that autistics tend to be either very trusting or very suspicious. Generally because an overly trusting person decides to stop trusting people without having the skills to decide who is or isn't trustworthy.

I'm both - cynical and idealistic.

Yes they can. Check out the thread on this forum about a cure for cancer supposedly existing but being deliberately held back by money greedy power-wielders who profit from the suffering. That's pretty darn cynical.

I wonder how common belief in such cynical conspiracy theories is among people with AS.

But that's actually feasible... not in such a blatant way, but - do you have a link, I want to weigh in on that discussion.

I was very cynical a few years ago. I didn't trust anybody.

After I went back to being the fun person that the WP veterans remember me as, I'm not so cynical anymore.

I'm a cynic - there, I said it.