What is Autism Culture?

Post Reply New Topic

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daRhEOkUL1o[/youtube]

I have seen the word for over ten years but I could not find a part in it. Where I live there is day programs for socialization and employment. This is like a culture to. But it does not have social clique names like Aspie, Autie and so on. People don't seem to focus on how different they are either. Is an autism culture an autism support group only if when it calles other people N.T's and focusing on a strict and rigid methodology for viewing themselves and the world around them as the N.T's?

I have had no desire to goto autism socializations offline. Is the online autism the only culture like this? Can I just define a different culture as social and or employment day programs in day to day life which do not adhere to this sort of compartmentalization of typological brains. It seems so burdensome to view the world this way that I am really upset at it.

Nathan Young

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFLXxqoapPY&feature=artistob&playnext=1&list=TLpziDWWxsOLE[/youtube]

The N.T conceptology is so often misused that is yields irrational beliefs of others and stereotypical generalization that are unfounded. Firstly people with autism are so diverse and manifest of their social and environmental upbringing that even some of their behavior from what I've seen in person can be called N.T behavior that I seen written on this forum and others about. How about individuality, which is not compromised by the change of others for having autism necessarily from professional, yet the changes of cultural regulation are near as mutually sublime and relevant. There is no Aspie (A.S) and N.T (normal) box of behavior aside from a few generalities which are a far cry from an identity and personality in whole. It is so annoying and unpleasant to sift through illogical social descriptions to figure out what people are saying when they are wrong. The first person that ever says to another person with a form of autism what he or she is doing in their behavior is akin to being an N.T I know a manipulation exists even if it is not intended.

Your thoughts please..

Nathan Young

There's no hard set of criteria that categorizes people one way or the other. As far as I can tell, diagnoses are based largely on patterns in observed behaviours. This becomes even more dicey when adults are being diagnosed, since by then there's a possibility that they've learned to cope with their difficulties so well that the behaviours and traits associated with autism spectrum disorders don't clearly and unambiguously manifest. Much research has been done but I haven't heard of any reliable physical markers being found for any of the autism spectrum disorders (though there are plenty of guesses, to be sure).

So while the "high severity" (I realize that "severity" is an awful term but I use it for want of a better one) cases can seem pretty cut and dry, when it comes to HFAs, Aspies, and others with similar disorders on the spectrum, sometimes there is no true scotsman.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHCm36nn5yo&feature=artistob&playnext=1&list=TLTk-aB5Rvm98[/youtube]

For me they knew since early on but I didn't know of my disabilities until later and they didn't have a high functioning autism category. I could care less if parts of me are normal, weird, defective or so on. My name is Nathan Young, not autism, and the N.T and so on verbiage is like an annoying noise and no one I know with autism knows what the hell it is.

Personally I am mostly annoyed because it creates hard feelings between people. Every-time someone makes fun of an the N.T label or applies some negative notion to it, it becomes a potential social problem and especially collectively to my experiencing normal and others despite being unique. Why so? Because hate never helped a damn (reverse discrimination) person and I work with the public and would never advertise this site, any other forum or any such verbiage because I need the public to help include people because people want to become more like the so called N.T's and there is nothing wrong with that.

My suggestion is crack down on the bull. It's then I'll find some respect for this online advocacy.

While I agree with you in principle, I'm not sure that the aim of this site is strictly advocacy. That might be part of it, but it seems to be largely a community where people who have autism, those who love and support them, or even people who are just interested in knowing more about autistics can have discussions. It is partly about advocacy but it is also partly about giving us an environment in which we can "safely" discuss the issues that we face (that is, without fear of discrimination based on our disability).

I think those issues include discrimination that we face because we aren't neurotypical and so although I don't condone it, I can see why many may have an adversarial mindset towards NTs. We should encourage people to be open and accepting, but inevitably there will be people with deep scars who have a lot of hatred for the people in their lives who have wronged them that they will want to vent out. They will lash out at NTs as a whole because it gives them a clear target for their anger. It's not right, it just is.

At the same time, many who have gained considerable social skills may approach NTs as being examples of how they should be, which makes some sense -- the very reason why HFAs and Aspies and so on are labeled as having a disability is because they don't socialize in the ways that NTs expect, right? But sometimes people forget that NTs aren't always perfect either. There could very well be cases where a neurotypical person actually has worse social skills than somebody on the spectrum.

Most people who have no autism do not know what autism is or that they are doing anything wrong. It is fruitless, creates bad social realities and there is no excuse for discrimination. Hope is something created by inspiring, opportunity created by innovating and understanding by means of friendly discourse. This standard should be realized fairly easy and implemented without great effort. For constructive results people have to figure out what needs advocating. For people on this site, least the influential, they attend college already and there needs in advocacy not very similar to those with substantial disabilities. I do not quite understand the fixation with the need for socially fitting in and belonging so I have no suggestion. I simply do not require a whole lot of this but if having more friends is the goal then bashing the N.T label part time is just creating this pathology against future friends.

I'd say a % of people without autism would laugh at the bashing, make a joke about it to lighten others up and then move on and be friendly.