"Us and Them"

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I really don't believe that using terms like "NT's" to put the rest of the world into another bracket is very helpful. It just creates further divisions and alienation. The same happens with non white ethnic groups, religions, homosexuals and/or transsexuals. At the same time I sympathize with those who are on the low functioning end of the spectrum, but the majority of people would just assume that person was weird, and they would do the same with a different type of person who isn't on the spectrum. Not that "weird" really has a true meaning anyway. I feel that some of us have victim complexes (which may not be unjustified), but it isn't helping anyone, and plenty of people who aren't on the spectrum do as well.

Thoughts?

I wholeheartedly agree.

Surprisingly enough, you can have issues with having too much skill--lots of people have issues with savant like skills--like flipping through a new magazine or book and being able to display remarkable comprehension over what you glanced at.

I don't think that the use of the term "NT" is a bad thing in and of itself. But there can be an "us and them" attitude when people start stereotyping NTs and emphasizing the differences we have from NTs.

I don't think villifying NTs as an "out-group that's not like us" is helpful for anyone, but acknowledging that we are largely separate from each other culturally, mentally, emotionally and behaviourally is what creates the "autism community", or any community of different individuals, such as the black, deaf, or homosexual community. I think this sense of connectedness with one's "own kind" so to speak is important and valuable, but being connected with others like us doesn't mean we have to reject those who aren't like us, namely NTs.

I've been on the edge of making this kind of thread myself. A terrible lot of sweeping generalizations been going around on this forum lately, a lot of people are paranoid of others whether it's the gender or functioning wars.

Not a single lie in sight.

*sips truth tea*

No I don't really agree. The NT-word are made up by NT's, that's where I first heard it from And really it's them who try to force/convince us to be like them when we aren't

yup

The whole use of nt is absurd. A term used dirisively that assumes everyone else is operating normally whatever that means. It assumes that ASD is somehow unique and on the upper echelon of neurodiversity. it implies you are somehow better. Which makes me wonder how many people on here just latch on to the label to satisfy some less sexy issue like low self esteem and narcissism. I also find the whole ASD scoring people add to their profiles asinine.

And even using that dubious term and what it is supposed to mean,
i struggle to understand how anyone that suffers with ASD would not want to be normal.

Person with ASD, probably smarter than you with those super powers nobody really cares about and would trade everything except maybe my hair to be not this. I guess that means neurotypical. That's me next to Elmo.

I agree, OP. And I've never really liked the term Neurotypical as it implies that, just because someone isn't on the spectrum, their brain functions normally. I prefer the term Allistic.

A terrible lot of sweeping generalizations been going around on this forum lately, a lot of people are paranoid of others whether it's the gender or functioning wars.

Without the term NT we'd never have seen those parodies of the way we're portrayed in diagnostic manuals - the mythical "Neurotypical Syndrome." I thought they were quite funny. I think NT is a useful term, but like a knife it can be used to do harm as well as good.