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autism psa:

us autists tend to naturally cluster together socially, when given the chance. we're just more comfortable for each other to be around, as best I can tell. my online social circle is *very* autism spectrum, for example.

which is to say, if you're reading this, you're probably at least adjacent to a cluster of autistic (and trans, plural, depressed, ADHD…) folks.

that's a data point that YOU might be one or several of those things.
other risk factors for being on the autism spectrum:

* people expect you to know things you couldn't possibly know.
* you're crap at remembering people's names and faces.
* people think you're funny, but you suck at jokes.
* the more helpful and thoughtful you are, the more people get mad at you.
* people think you're mad when you aren't.
* "Look at me when I'm talking to you."
* people are basically random.
* you don't know what you look like.
* subtitles.
* the music is too damn loud.
* people expect you to know things you couldn't possibly know (because they are obvious only to those who can see).
* you're crap at remembering people's faces.
* "Look at me when I'm talking to you."
* people think you're mad when you aren't. (not being able to see facial expressions often means you forget to do them yourself)
* you don't know what you look like.
* the music is too damn loud (because not being able to see, you cannot lip-read, and you need your ears to get around).
Well, there have been several debates in the blind community about how it'd help a lot if people would treat us as if we're autistic, exactly because of things like this (and many others!) matching, even if for slightly different reasons. In the end, we are similarly unable to read neurotypicals, because we can't see the "obvious" signs.
So β€” first online, and now increasingly offline as well β€” my social circle is full of amazing autistic folks, as well. Perhaps you've got a point! πŸ‘less_smile:
all of these but one and a half for me. And the half is because I've trained myself to not be.
I'm slightly disturbed by this list of risk factors and the number of them that I recognise.

Self-training to overcome discomfort and be more sociable β€” isn't that what everyone does? No? Oh.

Could some of these be summed up by the phrases "literal-minded" and "binary thinking" (if it's not A then it must be B)?

Could you explain what you mean by "subtitles", please? is that just hearing what people say and missing what they really mean?

@lioness
@MarkusL Maybe subtitles is because of not being as good at picking up on context and inferring what a missing or garbled word might be? As a non-native speaker that's why I like English subtitles when watching something in English.

@Lioness With Mane @be excellent to each other
Oh, and it's quite normal to spend twenty minutes crafting a toot, right?
I personally use subtitles because the sound mix on everything nowadays is a fucking torture to watch. Sound effects are for some reason crazy loud, so you're listening to some dialogue, and then some unnecessarily loud crash or bang or boom or whatever happens, and it upsets me quite a bit. The option of having to sit with the remote in my hand, and reduce and increase volume constantly, is a pain in the ass. I run shows and movies through a compressor (yes, I'm that crazy) but it doesn't fix the issue completely. So I end up still having to watch things at a relatively low volume anyway, and in the process dialogue loses some intelligibility. Ergo, subtitles
See: "the music is too damn loud" πŸ˜…

Completely agree with you, obviously.
This entry was edited (2 years ago)

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