Autism and Cvil Rights!

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Autistic people don't have the same rights as everyone eles does cant go to the army or air force cant buy a gun cant hardly go to collage the high schools pawn us off to voc rehab and voc rehab pawns us off to a low paying job we Basically we are second class citizens! sad world we live in

What are you talking about? People with autism are allowed to do all of those things.

really that not what I hear lots people tell me that they cant go to the army or buy guns?

I personally would not consider this a bad thing were it true. We don't do well in settings with strict social order.

I'm almost positive you could go into the military if you wanted to. It would be discriminatory not to allow them, just like when they forbade gays from entering the military.

Then you're listening to the wrong people. I am autistic. I've served in the military. I've earned a BSEE and an MSEE. I own (licensed) firearms. I have the same civil rights as any other American.

Obviously, your friends don't know what they're talking about.

thank you!

Only if they can pass a psych eval.

What "Psych Eval"?

The only time I ever knew of anyone going through one of those was after he had a meltdown during basic training.

Well, I've thought of being a cop because I like investigating but I read you need one and a driver license which I don't have.

I've taken two psych classes so I might be able to B.S. it.

And during your service, did your superiors and recruiters even know that you had autism? When you bought your firearm, was the background check that calls to check for "mental" issues even in place?

I have no doubt you, at some point before all this recent nonsense surrounding these situations and conditions, had been able to do these things, but I'd wager it was not recent when you did all of these things.

When I had thought of joining up in the military myself (this was about 10 years ago now, and only right after I found out about my dx), I asked the recruiter that I had met at the time if I'd be able to find a desk job or something (which they do have) because of my dx of AS, and he told me that alone would keep me out of the military. The same thing applies to people wanting to join the air force who have to wear contacts or glasses, they will not take them.

Of course they didn't know - because I didn't know! I had no idea that there was anything "wrong" with me, and my six years of honorable military service puts to rest any doubt of my capability to properly own, operate, maintain, and store firearms.

Had I known then what I know now, I would probably be one of those mumbling, stumbling old men you see with a cardboard sign at every intersection and off-ramp.

In my state, convicted felons, people with a history of mental illness, drug addiction, and/or mental instability are all ineligible to posses firearms. These laws were in place long before I made my first firearm purchase.

I am not mentally ill, nor am I mentally unstable. It would take an arrest and/or a judge's declaration of "Non Compos Mentis" to remove my right to own firearms.

In the UK autistic people are not allowed to join the armed forces. To be honest I can see why. In the US I'm not sure, though I assume it is the same. It's just the same as not allowed other medical conditions in.

There's no reason why you can't go to college or finish high school.

The gun thing, it usually depends on the person, here you need character references and all that jazz to get a firearms certificate. The US I have no idea as it is much more lax over there.

It is no good if Aspergers do such jobs. Aspergers often get things wrong even when they are stated pretty clearly. This job requires a better than average cognitive empathy, in particular when you are confronted with difficult situations or when interrogating people. You have to judge situations instantly and in all their complexity before every single person involved has given you her or his opinion on it. You have to judge the credibility of conflicting statements intuitively (i.e. perform cognitively complex operations that are largely automized with NTs, but not with Aspergers and based on a common sense and a knowledge of people that Aspergers dont have). There are so many factors you have to consider (does he show signs of insecurity, does he only stage confidence, is he psychotic, is it the kind of person that has a detailed memory for events that lay back a bit or rather not, etc. etc. etc.,), in order to ask the right additional questions and to check with the people what needs to be checked, and sometimes in a way so that the other is not getting suspicious, or at least recognize that he has got suspicious. Absolutely no chance for an Asperger to do that well and to get things only approximately right.

Aspergers who do this kind of professions (and unfortunately many feel attracted to criminology and law, and basically because they are so bad at judging) do a lot of harm to others.

Last edited by Evam on 03 Jan 2016, 12:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.