Why do you think nts project their emotions onto autistics?

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for example, they say rhings like "you must be so lonely", just becsuse you are sitting alone, or "You must not care", when you really do.

I hadn't noticed particularly. If so, it's ironic - I thought they were supposed to be the amazingly empathic mind-readers and we were the ones who thought that everybody feels the same way as we do about everything. Not that I especially believe that.

I think most people project. Somebody really likes a song, they say it's a great song. Somebody loves football or alcohol, they get cognitive dissonance when they find somebody who doesn't. "Why aren't you cold? I'm freezing, you must have got antifreeze for blood or something." They've failed the Sally-Ann test, they think if they can see something, so can everybody else. Sometimes I think they don't know what's going on in other people's heads any better than I do. So what do you do if you're mind-blind? Project. Until it dawns on you that you don't actually know. You can then ask. But a lot of people never get to that point. Maybe a bit of scientific training would do them good, the way it insists we stick to what we have good evidence for instead of assuming. But getting people to do a science course might not be easy.

I think there's only one thing for it, you've just got to tell them how you feel, set them straight.