What are your controversial opinions regarding the autism spectrum?

[Tom]

Our brains are recyclable.

 

[Dadamen]

investigate intellectual disability? are there people who don't have autistic neurology who have an intellectual disability!?so is autism an intellectual disability ?my mother was completely paralysed so she is in the same area as what is called brain injury ,but she had a wasting disease ,never known autism to be a wasting disease,think if your brother was in the category love instead of autism when you love you don't care that it's autism or any label, just that you love, so it's relative ,dependant on how self centred we are .

He has ASD 3 and intellectual disability. It's not a brother, but a cousin and I see him rarely, once a year or maybe even every few years.

 

[Streetwise]

He has ASD 3 and intellectual disability. It's not a brother, but a cousin and I see him rarely, once a year or maybe even every few years.

So you want to stay in your comfort zone

 

[Dadamen]

So you want to stay in your comfort zone

No, he lives far away from me and that's why I visit him rarely.

 

[Gift2humanity]

NT people are from planet Earth.
Each autistic person is from their own individual planet and I do not really know how to communicate with an autistic person to get the best out of them.

I hope you don’t mind if I talk about another neuro diversity.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
As controversial as this sounds this condition gets on my nerves.
These people are hyper they are too much for me.
I have got this condition myself and I find it more debilitating than my Autism spectrum condition because we are chaotic and basically just to overstimulating to be around.

 

[Magna]

Hmmm....In Western Society today it's no longer valid to say that an extremely small minority in relation to the majority means that minority shouldn't be acknowledged, given attention to or even given preference (e.g. trans). I think the fact that things have changed that can be a good thing since now the "voiceless" not only have a voice and a "place at the table", they can demand that others recognize, accept and be sympathetic to their needs.

Autism absolutely then should be no different.

Would it be wrong for a movement to be led that would change laws regarding things like the following?

• Outlaw chemical fragrances such as those found in air fresheners, dryer sheets, perfumes, colognes, shampoos, etc?
• Modify and increase laws related to noise pollution.
• Increase awareness that there are people, including autistic people who have serious issues with things like handshakes and other methods of touching people in salutation.
• Call for the acceptance of work accommodations for autistic people.

 

[Au Naturel]

At least attention deficit has treatments. Narrowed down to specific neurotransmitters not being produced at times and in quantities commonly produced by NTs. Ritalin and other drugs are vastly overprescribed but if you are genuinely ADHD, they work.

A combination of medication, education, skills training, and psychological counseling works best but because humans are lazy we usually settle for just the meds. And people who don't have attention deficit but are dealing with other issues often get the same drugs, also because humans are lazy.

Can't fix something that isn't there to start with but you can supplement what is missing and you can learn to work around what you don't have.

 

[Au Naturel]

Hmmm....In Western Society today it's no longer valid to say that an extremely small minority in relation to the majority means that minority shouldn't be acknowledged, given attention to or even given preference (e.g. trans). I think the fact that things have changed that can be a good thing since now the "voiceless" not only have a voice and a "place at the table", they can demand that others recognize, accept and be sympathetic to their needs.

Autism absolutely then should be no different.

Would it be wrong for a movement to be led that would change laws regarding things like the following?

• Outlaw chemical fragrances such as those found in air fresheners, dryer sheets, perfumes, colognes, shampoos, etc?
• Modify and increase laws related to noise pollution.
• Increase awareness that there are people, including autistic people who have serious issues with things like handshakes and other methods of touching people in salutation.
• Call for the acceptance of work accommodations for autistic people.

Running a movement for something you believe to be a matter of justice or fairness is never wrong - but you will run into huge objections from people who don't like the loss of freedom they feel you are forcing on them. Because you may not value particular freedoms does not mean others don't value them highly.

Things like work accommodations could be done thru a reinterpretation of the ADA. Businesses will oppose this because it adds to the cost of doing business. Noise pollution laws are things that could be worked on since I suspect that few people actually like noise. OTOH, the noise laws we have now don't get enforced. I don't see new ones helping any. Perfume scents might be problematic because many people actively like them. Maybe there could be some scientific studies on allergic reactions to them.

We live in a representative democracy and the battle for hearts and minds must take place before laws can be passed and be at all effective. No civil rights law was ever passed (at least in the US) without a large majority of the population already agreeing that it was necessary and good.

 

[Magna]

No civil rights law was ever passed (at least in the US) without a large majority of the population already agreeing that it was necessary and good.

I don't know if this is true. Polling repeatedly seems to show that the majority of people polled aren't in favor of high school trans athletes competing on teams that are not their biological sex.

That's one example that comes to mind.

It could be argued that defunding police initiatives are a civil rights issue and same thing, the majority seems to be against defunding initiatives.

 

[Au Naturel]

I don't know if this is true. Polling repeatedly seems to show that the majority of people polled aren't in favor of high school trans athletes competing on teams that are not their biological sex.

That's one example that comes to mind.

It could be argued that defunding police initiatives are a civil rights issue and same thing, the majority seems to be against defunding initiatives.

There is no federal law protecting trans students' ability to compete on teams that are not their biological sex. IIRC Oregon is the only state that has such a law.

There is a pretty strong fear that trans people would try to share locker rooms with either biological gender. The visuals freak them out. Guys don't want breasts and gals don't want penises in their locker rooms even if the person identifies as the same gender. The psychological issue might not as strong after the entire transition was completed but that doesn't describe most trans people. So, in most schools with only two locker rooms, trans athletes would not be allowed into the locker room even if they were allowed to compete. There is also a lot of conflict about day to day use of restrooms.

This causes idiocy like this:
BREAKING: Pella Aquatic Center confirms it allowed teenaged biological female to walk around topless, use men's facilities with boys of all ages due to 'gender identity' - The Iowa Standard

and like this:
No excuse for Iowa's GOP trifecta not to strip gender identity, sexual orientation out of Civil Rights Act - The Iowa Standard

The Iowa Standard is a right-wing mouthpiece, not a real newspaper.

Being a nudie, none of that matters to me. Sadly, most of the country is still intolerant of public nudity.

On the field, there is always the suspicion that a male athlete transitioned to female would still have an unacceptably high level of testosterone, which is what makes male athletes generally bigger, stronger, and faster than female athletes.

Transgender runner ruled ineligible for US Olympic trials

Even a male who has fully transitioned to a female - and has low enough testosterone levels to qualify - still has an advantage because the underlying structure was developed while male and that structure doesn't just go away. There are reasons why transgender females aren't always welcome on female teams that are not just bigotry.

Feminists in particular are having a problem with the whole trans issue. Their whole ideological edifice is based on biological sex. A gay male who looks and behaves in a traditionally feminine manner is ok but a biological male who self-identifies as female is seen as cheating. A biological female who identifies as a male would be a traitor. Crossing the picket lines, so to speak.

Federal law has been interpreted by the courts as protecting trans folks' right not to be discriminated against in housing, education, work and etc. I don't think a majority of people would argue with that.

 

[4gottenLoreKali]

"Au-dar" is a thing, does anyone else have it? Sometimes an individual sets off my audar and I feel this is a friend I haven't met yet, but also if they conform to some of the more unsavory stereotypes of our people, then that's someone I want to steer clear of. Audar isn't 100% reliable and false positives happen.

 

[4gottenLoreKali]

When an autistic person has a solitary, singular obsession with one song, movie, TV show, whatever, and refuses to even entertain the possibility of liking any other, I can't help but speculate about how abusive that person's home life must be. Do they actually enjoy Barney, or do they do only watch it because they'd get their ass beat if caught watching Hellraiser? We are a smothered, infantilized people with little say in our own optics. No word in the English language can quantify how enraged I am on behalf of the "lowest-functioning"-presenting members of our community.

 

[Gift2humanity]

"Au-dar" is a thing, does anyone else have it? Sometimes an individual sets off my audar and I feel this is a friend I haven't met yet, but also if they conform to some of the more unsavory stereotypes of our people, then that's someone I want to steer clear of. Audar isn't 100% reliable and false positives happen.

I don't know what audar is, I googled it but no avail.

 

[4gottenLoreKali]

I don't know what audar is, I googled it but no avail.

I made the word up, it's basically the autistic equivalent of gaydar.

 

[Gift2humanity]

I made the word up, it's basically the autistic equivalent of gaydar.

I think some people are autistic.
we all have cupids bow top lips and philitrums, I looked autistic facial features.
I think my friend is autistic, he scored high on tests.
He is good looking with a cupids bow top lip.

 

[4gottenLoreKali]

I'm not talking about facial features necessarily (with how seldom I give eye contact I tend not to notice) rather things like mannerisms, gait, "catch phrases", any stims shown, or broad-ranged or monotone speech. All things that can contribute to a passer-by "seemng" autistic me or not. I never heard about autistic people being more prone to having a Cupid's bow mouth (although obnoxious relatives glowed over me having one as a kid) - to me this notion seems like a holdover from phrenology. A stereotype doesn't have to be good or bad necessarily, but it can't be taken as an iron rule. Hence why "false positives" on the audar can happen.

Here's my hot autis-take for the day: there is no autist alive today who doesn't also suffer from PTSD like a mofo.

 

[Sylas]

The excessive need that some of the sufferers display of forming a community/identity around it (or indeed any other mental illness) is an unhealthy and immature tendency.

It's understandably why many trend towards this way, after all most crave some sense of community and acceptance, specially in the face of being some sort of disadvantaged minority but a condition you suffer from should not even become the core of your identity, there has to be something more to a person.

 

[Gift2humanity]

I'm not talking about facial features necessarily (with how seldom I give eye contact I tend not to notice) rather things like mannerisms, gait, "catch phrases", any stims shown, or broad-ranged or monotone speech. All things that can contribute to a passer-by "seemng" autistic me or not. I never heard about autistic people being more prone to having a Cupid's bow mouth (although obnoxioud relatives glowed over me having one as a kid) - to me this notion seems like a holdover from phrenology. A stereotype doesn't have to be good or bad necessarily, but it can't be taken as an iron rule. Hence why "false positives" on the audar can happen.

Here's my hot autis-take for the day: there is no autist alive today who doesn't also suffer from PTSD like a mofo.

I think autists who did creative stuff in childhood got away without ptsd, like temple grand in, bill gates, etc.
I researched autistic facial features online.
The autists I know do have a pronounced philitrum and cupids bow.

 

[Magna]

Here's a controversial personal opinion that I've formed after being active on autism forums for nearly five years and also knowing fellow autistic people in person and having autistic friends:

There seem to be two types of autistic people in relation to whether they have a compliant personality or not and it seems to be a "black and white" thing, one or the other rather than a mixture of the two:

Compliant Type: Essentially a type of person who believes what the "masses" believe, is compliant in nature and is averse to questioning authority. This type often seems to have a reverence, love and support for expansive government provided the rules, laws, regs, etc are "for the common good". I have no way of knowing, but I've wondered if at least in a certain amount of cases a Compliant Type autistic went through ABA. I also wonder if this type had a deep desire to "be like everyone else" when they were growing up and devoted a great deal of energy as a child trying to be accepted by and befriended by "everyone else". The level of the embrace of compliance seems to even border on some form of Stockholm Syndrome.

Non-compliant Type: Essentially a type of person who does not align with the "masses" and instead is suspect of things, beliefs, etc that are readily adopted by most people. This is a "I will decide for myself and what I feel is best for me" type of person. A type of person that, as a child, did not spend a great deal of energy trying to be accepted by "everyone else" and instead had little to no desire to do so. They formed an opinion early on that "everyone else" included those that bullied and mistreated them and as such, the last thing they'd want is to try to gain acceptance from the very people who maltreated them. They saw even from an early age that education was institutional and started to develop a guarded and suspect view of authority in all forms, questioning the authoritarian's motives. This type is typically very independent and prides themselves on doing whatever they can to take care of as many needs as they have on their own. This type does not want government to direct their lives from "cradle to grave". This type often has a mindset of: "Leave me be. I'll do me and you do you." This type has spent their lifetimes observing the "masses" from the outside and is acutely aware of how easily manipulated groups of people can be and as such, they have an opposition to peer pressure.

 

[The Lorax]

Autism is a genetic neurological disorder for which each person with autism has specific things that impact them. Naturally, in any group of people there are jerks and a crappy environment can make you a horrible person. Nick Cruz was one of these children when he shot up Parkland. He has autism and ADHD.

But just because an autism person seems to be acting a certain way it doesn't mean they are doing it to be a jerk. Either they don't understand social aspects, they are overwhelmed and can only respond in an extreme way, have anxiety, or a bunch other disabilities.

I know if I get 5 hours of sleep or less I am very irritable the next day and can be easily set off.

Personally, I believe we are all programmed with only a small portion of our brain having free will. This is due to all the studies I have done in neurology and psychology to better help my son that has autism, anxiety, ADD, and over sensitivity.