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Stoek
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31 Dec 2012, 12:21 pm

Alright was just thinking about some thing.

do you ever think nt's are not the problem but it is the mainstream that is the problem?

I know that may seem like a silly way of putting it, but I'm more serious than that.

There seems to be a rather significant issue with us being about 1 percent of the population, and it's never good to be see it as 99 to 1. However when you start doing breakdowns, things are a little more complicated.

Using america for example, there are jews, lgbt community, hispanics, blacks, muslims, asian americas,, veterans, people living with disability, feminist(not simply woman, but people who worry about the progress of woman), native american's, and the list goes on.

My point isn't that these people are all the same. My point is for the most part these groups have all banded together independently because they have or still face a large degree of resistance from the mainstream.

So why is it were unable to see ourselves as counterparts, to those who do not feel safe under the mainstream.

It seems when your numbers are limited, one needs to reach out to those who's numbers are also limited.



Last edited by Stoek on 31 Dec 2012, 1:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.

CyclopsSummers
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31 Dec 2012, 12:29 pm

What do you mean by 'counterpart' in this context? Sorry if I may seem dense, but I honestly can't deduce it from your last sentence. Are all those minorities you mentioned 'our counterparts'? Are 'neurotypicals' our counterparts?


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Stoek
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31 Dec 2012, 12:39 pm

CyclopsSummers wrote:
What do you mean by 'counterpart' in this context? Sorry if I may seem dense, but I honestly can't deduce it from your last sentence. Are all those minorities you mentioned 'our counterparts'? Are 'neurotypicals' our counterparts?
What I mean is that they are groups of people that have nothing in common. Other than the fact that they issue with the mainstream.

Unless your claiming one of these groups do not face issues with mainstream society either in the past or present. I think that would be a truly offensive statement.

Obviously they are different, not just from us, not just from each other, but from the assumption that all people are well represented by the mainstream.



CyclopsSummers
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31 Dec 2012, 12:43 pm

Stoek wrote:

Unless your claiming one of these groups do not face issues with mainstream society either in the past or present. I think that would be a truly offensive statement.


I should hope that's not what I'm saying, considering I'm bisexual and multiracial, and I have to deal with a heterosexist norm in the media and public space every day, on top of a sometimes not-so-subtle xenophobia here in the Netherlands.


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Stoek
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31 Dec 2012, 12:46 pm

CyclopsSummers wrote:
Stoek wrote:

Unless your claiming one of these groups do not face issues with mainstream society either in the past or present. I think that would be a truly offensive statement.


I should hope that's not what I'm saying, considering I'm bisexual and multiracial, and I have to deal with a heterosexist norm in the media and public space every day, on top of a sometimes not-so-subtle xenophobia here in the Netherlands.
Alright so you do agree with the basic concept, that we as a society are well aware that there is a plurality of groups in our society, who are not well treated by the mainstream.

Obviously our experiences are not one to one, no one should suggest otherwise.

However it should be stated, that we do have connections through our pieces of the overall puzzle?

Why is their such a barrier to seeing eachother as part of a spectrum of the fringe.



CyclopsSummers
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31 Dec 2012, 1:07 pm

Stoek wrote:
Alright so you do agree with the basic concept, that we as a society are well aware that there is a plurality of groups in our society, who are not well treated by the mainstream.

Obviously our experiences are not one to one, no one should suggest otherwise.

However it should be stated, that we do have connections through our pieces of the overall puzzle?

Why is their such a barrier to seeing eachother as part of a spectrum of the fringe.


An old member of this forum, KingdomOfRats, once theorised about the failure of the autistic community to carry a common cause, on her blog:

Quote:
Online autistic community

One of the problems that affects the online autistic community is the lack of a spectrum,mostly concentrating on issues,beliefs and experiences more common to the high functioning unsupported end of Aspergers.

There are a few reasons why this is,not least because of the difficulties with interaction,language,learning and communication,but a wider problem have experienced is the lack of welcoming and understanding to moderate and severe autists who have ability to use the internet.

Have also seen a lot of nastiness and lack of [trying to] understand towards those of us who are pro choice or pro cure when it comes to mod/sev/prof. autism with a low quality of life,parents of autistic children especially seem to get a hard time when it comes to this,because they get highly functioning adults-who are not/have not had the same living experience and quality of life as the parents child has/will have, being told how to look after their children,from a HF view, which doesnt work.

Another problem have experienced,is users using their own rules to what each level of autism,and label is about as they have so little experience of ASD apart from their own/family/whoever.
In classic autism,many do not understand that mild,moderate,severe and profound autism can not be put into one description for each,because they are all spectrums-even people who specialise in us often judge like this.

we are all very different in how autism is experienced,and will even find some profoundly autistic people can do some things that someone lower down on the severity level cant do.
A common belief is that anyone who claims to have severe autism online is automatically a fraud because we woudnt be able to use computers, use the internet,communicate in text...plus they also think severe intelectual disability is always attached so that woud count us out-it isnt! severity is not the same thing as functioning either.

Am limited a lot online,due to interaction and communication- can be sat here all day trying to put sentances together,and find it extremely difficult to get into interactive mode online as well to do back-forth messages,often not realising the amount of messages that go unswered,but no matter the difficulty,being online had opened up a world of freedom.

Besides being completely useless at everything including computers/ internet,staring at the walls all day in a corner,and having a severe intelectual disability,we are supposed to have no humour at all [aspies at least are starting to be understood a bit better with humour now-as it is being changed to 'different',from none at all],just as well those who think these things arent our specialists and understanding support staff,though they sound like they woud be perfect as ATOS doctors [thats those untrained doctors that use books to tell them to chuck everyone off long term sickness/disability benefits unless they are in a coma]!
What happened to judging autism as well as the person,instead of comparing against whatever autism manual they are using like a bible?

Am always being reminded about being funny [child/toilet humour],but dont try to be or notice,and cant remember having known another Autie without their own humour [though there maybe,just as with aspies].

ASD forums are not well set up for us,on the other half of the spectrum,eg-those CAPTCHA things to stop spam bots registering will often require another person to do all the registering if the autie
has limited maths or question understanding,and it takes away the freedom that we have from being online.
There are often users that are called 'grammar nazis' [think thats the word?],these are users who attack,or at the least point out all the language or spelling mistakes of another user,for those of us who have different communication styles or,a limited understanding of language,or word difficulties,dyslexia etc,this is one of the most off putting things on a forum,and is in a way,a form of bullying.
Some spectrumers have a innocent habit of doing this as part of their
ASD,but people dont come to forums to be given language tests either.

-Many users have very little experience of spectrumers beyond themselves or family,so do not know how to react to us,and the different experiences that we write.
Some have even reacted with hate or have taken advantage and bullied,because we might be easier to get information from,they have a bias,prejudice and no understanding of us and project their own faults onto us.

They may react with jealousy and hate-they think we get instant understanding and care,because their own condition,illness or ASD is less visible and they have a harder time of getting any help,we are always assumed to be understood easily,get help easily and have [unwanted] 'sympathy' piled ontop,but it isnt further from the truth most of the time.

The other side always looks nicer.
We often have to cope with being seen as heavy burdens on everyone and everything,many do not realise we may be following what they are saying,if we are trying to communicate with an alt. form,they think its attention seeking or challenging behavior.
Though this can affect everyone,we may have to see comparisons against our sisters/brothers constantly by family,on how we will never be like them,how great they are [listing all the good things they have done,and none of the goals we have done-only bad]-yes,what a bloody great disapointment we are.
It is a lot harder for us to get things out,so have to relie on those around us to know whats wrong,unless are able to translate it from head-to some sort of communication.

If are going to [example] -PC world to buy a new laptop with support staff-and are fully non verbal at the time,but do have a typer to communicate with, who do think the usual predator shop staff are going to speak to? the one showing all the computer understanding via text, or the support staff who are rubbish with computers?
That is exactly what happens as normal-a ghost to people-even to some regulars that self know well,and they turn the sympathy on overkill [for whoever are with].

People shoud never judge an Autie on their severity label,it stops those of us who are severely autistic but not the outdated meaning of low functioning from being understood and believed,and it stops severely and profoundly autistic people who are low functioning by the outdated meaning,from been given hope for improvement.

The amount of us on ASD communities is not going to improve any time soon,but when there are-please do not treat us as any less a user or worth.


TL;DR, she's saying that all too often, folks on the high-functioning or mild end of the spectrum are too concerned with their/our own individual experience of autism so as to completely neglect and disregard the experiences of people with a more severe form of autism. I'd agree.

Link: http://theresidentialautist.blogspot.nl/2010/04/online-autistic-community.html


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Last edited by CyclopsSummers on 31 Dec 2012, 1:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Stoek
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31 Dec 2012, 1:20 pm

alright so you do see the connection, atleast partially I'm not crazy am I :(



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31 Dec 2012, 2:26 pm

I certainly see us as similar to other marginalized groups. A lot of our problems come from this marginalization, but it's important to remember that this doesn't cover all our problems, for all of us. Thing is, even some things that aren't social (for instance, executive dysfunction or sensory issues) are made into more serious problems because of lack of understanding and accommodation. We are in a similar plight to wheelchair users in a city without ramps. I suppose what I mean is that it isn't, or shouldn't be, only for the very "high functioning" or only for those who do not consider themselves disabled.

Not to mention the issues with labels like "disorder", "disability", "difference", etc. What we call ourselves doesn't necessarily correlate with our level of functioning/outcome. I've had people who were far more "high functioning" than I am tell me I am a fake because I don't like to see myself as disordered, but more as a misfit, but I stand by that: "disorder" and "disability" aren't inherent but found in the relationship between the person and the environment, and it is not selfish, nor does it make one a fake, to try and seek or create a healthier environment.



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31 Dec 2012, 2:38 pm

Sorry again Stoek, but I'm really having trouble understanding your posts.

Partly because you're using unclear terms. For instance, mainstream is a cultural term, describing trends and styles. Other groups you mention, like people with disabilities, may or may not be interested in or may or may not follow the mainstream, but their disabilities are not a cultural choice.

You write,

Quote:
My point isn't that these people are all the same. My point is for the most part these groups have all banded together independently because they have or still face a large degree of resistance from the mainstream.


First and foremost, people are individuals, not clones. Second, if a person belongs to a group like, say, the Deaf Community, this doesn't say anything else than they are probably deaf, hard of hearing, or interested in the topic. They can as well be interested in and thus following some parts of the mainstream culture. They can as well be part of many different groups you mention, like a Jewish Hispanic lesbian feminist suffering from diabetes and osteoarthritis who believes in Aliens, loves knitting and enthusiastically supports environmentalism.

People are not as simple as 1 + 1 = 2. Indeed, they are complicated systems of equations with many variables.



ianorlin
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31 Dec 2012, 3:05 pm

Or how in Alice's restaruant Arlow Gutherie wrote in Alice Restaurant in trying to make an anti draft movement.

Quote:
Situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if your in a
Situation like that there's only one thing you can do and that's walk into
The shrink wherever you are ,just walk in say "Shrink, You can get
Anything you want, at Alice's restaurant.". And walk out. You know, if
One person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and
They won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony,
They may think they're both fa***ts and they won't take either of them.
And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in
Singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an
Organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said
Fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and
Walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement.
Notice how they are all saying the same thing but with the high varience of autistic people there is no unified message which seems to be what people in power seem to want only mutliple people together acting as one not many different voices disscussions and differences. This seems to be one of the failings of humanity.



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31 Dec 2012, 4:00 pm

I think the concept your referring to is "othering" where the majority views itself as superior to a minority group that is different then them. Its happen to all minorities pretty much. There are 7 different catagories of discrimination that society can use. It varies on the severity and acceptance that specific area is. So some people will move to different areas that has a higher percentage of there minority to be accepted by the community. Unfortunately, people on the spectrum can't do that so much. We can move to places that have more services but disability is still very taboo. I just learned and accepted that I will probably stick out for the rest of my life being that I am a quadruple minority.



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31 Dec 2012, 4:29 pm

Stoek wrote:
do you ever think nt's are not the problem but it is the mainstream that is the problem?


If I'm not misunderstanding what you mean, yes, I have thought about that and I agree. Some people on this forum seem to think that all "NTs" are *insert whatever insult* but, as much as I dislike most people I know, I don't think the problem is that they don't have any neurological disorder, it's just that most people are actually not very nice. I dislike mainstream society and its irrationality, but some of the people I love/admire the most are NT. And I'm not just saying this because I have no idea if I am NT or not - my brain might be "normal", but I am not mainstream.


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Stoek
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31 Dec 2012, 6:48 pm

PTSmorrow wrote:
Sorry again Stoek, but I'm really having trouble understanding your posts.

Partly because you're using unclear terms. For instance, mainstream is a cultural term, describing trends and styles. Other groups you mention, like people with disabilities, may or may not be interested in or may or may not follow the mainstream, but their disabilities are not a cultural choice.

You write,
Quote:
My point isn't that these people are all the same. My point is for the most part these groups have all banded together independently because they have or still face a large degree of resistance from the mainstream.


First and foremost, people are individuals, not clones. Second, if a person belongs to a group like, say, the Deaf Community, this doesn't say anything else than they are probably deaf, hard of hearing, or interested in the topic. They can as well be interested in and thus following some parts of the mainstream culture. They can as well be part of many different groups you mention, like a Jewish Hispanic lesbian feminist suffering from diabetes and osteoarthritis who believes in Aliens, loves knitting and enthusiastically supports environmentalism.

People are not as simple as 1 + 1 = 2. Indeed, they are complicated systems of equations with many variables.


first your saying, I'm not clear enough because I deliberately mention groups that are not rigid, but instead associated group where membership is voluntary, not defined by design, and may only be momentary for most.

Than you go on to say, that I'm putting people in boxes, I think most can see the irony. My point is there are overlaps, no nt versus aspie paradigm, can exist, as long as you realize that overlaps go in both directions.

English is a natural language, based on associations, the fact that there is any logic to it at all is based merely on the fact that the thought around those associations may be logical although often it is not.