bad opinion on temple grandin

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Lau: if only we knew what you meant.

I doubt anyone is 100% consciously aware of what drives their motives, behaviors or actions 100% of the time. That just sounds like an over-inflated ego to me, which is also the typical male.

I'd rather be overestimated in most cases

However, think about this. You raise the bar for yourself to attain certain goals. You reach them and can feel good about yourself. Someone else sets the bar, and you easily reach it and know you can do more than that. It makes ya feel poorly in one sense because you know you're capable of more but at least you HAVE achieved something. But then, someone else sets the bar and it's out in the stratosphere... You NEVER reach those goals. You NEVER achieve anything "worthwhile" even if you actually do because your sights are set on reaching those goals way out there that are impossible for you to reach. How does that feel compared to the other?

I have no problem with ANYONE saying that autistic people (especially us Aspie's) are incredibly smart or gifted. It's a compliment and it's much better than being regarded as having mental deficits. But I don't like the pressure it puts on me to be equated with someone who is a savant. Not because it's an insult to me so much as it's an insult to them! They are a separate category for a reason!

And the 1% I quoted was from a neuro-psychologist (David Callighan in Providence, RI). He was using the definition of savant as obtained from the DSM-IV. Of course, if one were to strictly use the definitions found in there, I wonder how many wouldn't be "diagnosed" as being autistic at all But that's a whole 'nother issue!

I meant 10% of autistics is also a savant. But if you really want to exaggerate the distance of these goals, you could set them at the heliopause (about 48 billion kilometres away from the Sun).

Well, to return to the original question... I personally don't like Temple Grandin. I can't understand how someone who empathises as much as she clearly does with animals could dedicate her life to streamlining their slaughter. It just doesn't compute. I'm sure that she has reasons that are logical to her, but personally, I think it's horrible.

I may be the first person to have brought that up! Sorry if I offend anyone with my opinion.

She didn't just streamline their slaughter. She also taught the slaughteryards how to keep the cows happy until they are killed without knowing what happened to them. Slaughterhouses (which will exist whether or not we want them) are much more humane places now because of her work. I admire her tremendously.

Temple is right, she said what she meant. This thread shows a range, the world is broader, and you only get to put forth one point of view. All of her speaking is directed at people with little to no knowledge of inside autism, so she has to craft messages that will reach them.

It is not about my lack of social skills, that does seem the prime driver in most to me. I say I am just my DNA acting out. I am an animal. I have one mind.

I see the other side, I am what in others is the subconscious, the animal they deny.

I fit an old saying.

"You can teach a pig to dance, but it will never get really good at it, and it makes the pig unhappy."

Nothing wrong with bringing up that the focus of autism has produced, we are not all usless people who should be shot, or worse. To defend a group it helps to show their better points, even if most are far from it.

While it does seem there are some bright NTs, that may be aspies who are just good social liers. Some of us have learned a few tricks over the years. There does seem an inner drive in autism lacking in most, all of my life I have been told that I study things that I am not paid to study, nor do they have anything to do with my employment, This confounds the general population.

For me it has paid off, for over years things change, and new skills are needed, I have them. They, who most have not read a book since leaving school, expect to be trained on the job, and no job should take learning. We do have 17% unemployment.

In public speaking there is your message, and how it impacts the listeners, who are paying customers. Politics, the band on tour, speakers, it is all the same, some things work.

Here I would say, "I am an ape." You are all apes, and most are in deep denial. That is truthful and blunt, and now everyone feels insulted and wants their money back. Temple skipped that, said "I have no suconscious," and they will all be back for the next tour and bring their friends.

In Jewish Culture there are people trained and skilled at killing food animals. They do a clean job of it. They have been doing it that way for thousands of years. It shows a respect for the life taken for feeding the people.

The American system was not as aware, before Temple. It was a major step toward a better world.

I see the same for autism, if there are only a few who produce wonders, the wonders are shared by all, and you would not want that to stop.

The cave man story is a lie, it was a girl, but we are technology. It was also a girl who made pottery, wove cloth, after making string for snares, rope, and other skills that take focus. Aspies were always bad hunters, but they would learn new ways. Great hunters kept trying for new records, like killing a charging Bison with a spear. Great hunters did not last.

Again she puts it in terms they will understand and remember. The Bill Gates and computers connection is another one that works.

Getting the message out to 99% that they do not want to kill us is good. Making money doing so is better.

I'm a lot more like my idol, than I am like Einstein. Both are great men on the high end of the spectrum, but let's be honest. I'm not the genus that Einstein is. I think that my real IQ is more like 112.