How do you feel about NTs?

[nakedphil]

NTs are alright but I couldn't eat a whole one.

 

[texkag]

I read a blog recently that is written by an autistic about NTs. It is a tad patronising to NTs, but FAR less so than any article written by NTs about aspies, which always contain phrases like 'symptoms' and 'diagnosis', like it's a disease that needs to be managed. However, the blog raises a lot of interesting points.

Acting NT: Neurotypical Syndrome Played Straight

But projecting forward, this also goes down an inadvisable path of "us and them" which is never good. Whether it's men v woman, isolating a culture or religion, or something as simple as programmers v project managers, the "us and them" mentality is never productive.

However, knowing and believing this is one thing, but putting it into practice is much harder. In my teens and 20s I always thought NTs would one day wake up, that they would eventually realise how irrational they were being, tell me I was right all along and come around to my way of thinking.

They never did.

Then I started to emulate them. However, I'm so extremely, far end of the spectrum aspie that I never truly mastered it.

Now, in my 40s, I accept them, find them interesting and am content to co-exist beside them. I also married one and birthed 2 of them!

However, as hard as I try, there is still a part of me that views NTs in the same way a scientist would view a monkey. And I still use the word "them". I think this is probably the wrong attitude, thoughts?

I think of it this way now: NT's are interesting, confusing and sometimes anxiety provoking and even downright frightening but so are we at times. We need to meet each other half way, but I agree that it feels like we are more willing to get to the half way line.

Human beings are massively diverse in so many ways as well as neurologically and any attempt to define "normality" in one culture, let alone across cultures, is always doomed to failure. In fact, as soon as you attempt to define "normal" the very concept falls apart. Currently it is seen as abnormal and abhorrent to demand sexual favours from people who have less power than you, which of course it is. But, in many alpha male dominated workplaces, even now, it is simply seen as a perk of a power position.

When it comes to any form of difference I believe that we all have a choice to make. Do we judge our fellow human beings based on the content of their character, as Martin Luther King advocated, or on their neurology, ethnicity, class, brand of trainers and on and on and on? I think that it's healthy to take an anthropological approach. Having differing social and communications styles means that this is probably the best way for us to learn about each other.

 

[NothingToSeeHere]

I don't feel any different about NTs than I do about NDs, we're all just people. Most are nice, some aren't, but they're all just going about their lives trying to make the best of things, same as me.

 

[Littlemissnaughty9]

Frankly, I don't have an opinion either way. I'm on the spectrum and they're not, so I have to figure out how to function in a world that is mostly NT or have a rough go of it. In the interim, I can hope they will try to understand me and maybe make an effort to afford a few minor accommodations.

It seems like we've covered this subject before:

https://www.autismforums.com/threads/aspies-with-a-us-vs-them-mentality.8844/

Thank you..I am what you class an NT..whos close and a carer for someone with AS!

 

[Littlemissnaughty9]

If you want to read an interesting Blog written from the viewpoint of an Aspie, have a read of mine (to which there's a link in my profile and signature).

Ok ill read it!

 

[Stephen1975]

Most of the time I don't feel one way or the other, to look at they look the same, and often they are interested in the same things I am. It's a different story when I need to get them to do something or vice versa, then I find them very frustrating. My experiences with other Aspies can be equally frustrating but the important thing on those occasions is that I know where they are coming from and can trust their responses without worrying about some ulterior agenda.

 

[Suiseiseki]

They're all I know, but I don't get close to them because of how different they and I are.
I knew someone very much like me and now I hate her.

Reading that article, there's a lot of generalizations there, I mean I have aspergers but I have plenty of runaway emotions and I "chase tail" like regular guys (and am alright at it) they don't give way to anything logical, I do it because it feels good- i suppose that's logic to me, but I don't feel bad giving into my more base urges.