Just got diagnostic report and I scored 7 on the Empathy Test

Of course it is a generalisation (I don’t think the ‘massive’ was necessary though) - realistically any statement about a whole population is going to be a generalisation because it will rarely be true for all within that population. However, in my experience, the poster describes something that is true for many people with autism, and I personally find it helpful to explain to others how my experience of empathy is. I used it hear as it appeared to fit with what the OP was discussing.

However, as this is not the case for you then you could use something else that is more appropriate for yourself to explain your experience of empathy to others.

I'm very good at empathising with other people's worldviews... but not at expressing that empathy, which means that when I express sympathy with, say, Israelis, I get accused of being a paid member of Hasbara.

While that poster may be true for you and many others here, it is a massive generalisation.  I have very little compassionate and affective empathy.  My cognitive empathy is based on logic and seems to be better than many with ASD, but it's more of an analytical tool rather than anything emotional because I don't have the the affective and compassionate empathy to back it up.

My EQ score was 1 (one).

I had a conversation about it once. I consider myself pretty empathetic. The conversation ended with "I would have the empathy to not make someone feel like a sociopath, what's your excuse? Are you on the spectrum, a sociopath or are you just being a ***?".

I wouldn't spend too much time second guessing yourself, I did it for a while and it was a waste of time. Nothings changed about you except for a piece of paper.

Xanadu said:

when you stick a label on yourself

Don't stick a label on yourself then! I don't hide what I am but I don't wave a flag either. I only talk about it when it's relevant.

From what I've seen everyone has a bit of fallout after a late diagnosis. I still am sometimes. You know who you are better than anyone else, so *** everyone else.

Ironically the best way to deal with it is not caring what they think!

Well actually for me the score explains an awful lot.  It explains why I'm such a natural at pi**ing people off!!  When I went for my assessment and this was quoted in the diagnostic report !!!  I said "well to be honest if I am not Autistic then the only explanation is that I am just not a very nice person" at which point I cried :(   Actually though this low score does explain why I can do things and just genuinely have a blind spot as to the effect that might have.  I am always very shocked when I've upset people.  My intentions are not to do that.  Most NT don't even tell you do they when you've upset them so you never even get to find out what you've done wrong to do it differently next time.  What a mess it can be!

Ha!

You beat me, well done. 

My score was 6 (out of 80...)

Yes I think the word empathy needs to be removed entirely!! I like things to be properly labelled and I don't think the mention of the word empathy conveys adequately what the real issue is!

That is so true!!!  Actually I find the whole neurotypical presentation very dishonest.  I know it all seems to make people like you but actually if it's not genuine and it's done just to be social then actually it's a tiny bit of manipulation really?  Anyway I know I have blind spots to certain things.  When someone points it out it seems very obvious but I don't get it at first!!

Xanadu said:

I know the differences between the different kinds of empathy but it's not me I'm worried about.  Other people don't know do they?  Other people are still stuck in the dark ages and think Autistic people are devoid of any feeling.

That’s sadly too true, which is why I carry this around with me to help explain:

I also often drop in that people actually want to be more sceptical about those who come off as charming and thoughtful, because psychopaths often present this way i.e. people that appear as though they care may not really care and those who appear they don’t care may actually care but not be very good at expressing it (such as us autistics). That’s usually enough to confound people and make them question their perceptions of others, which is a start...

I don't think the EQ measures empathy. Maybe someone should ask Simon Baron-Cohen if he thinks it does or whether 'Empathizing' was just a convenient word to balance against systemizing. I suppose it may be that many autistic people make moral choices based on general rules about harm and respect rather than depending on how they are feeling. That doesn't mean they can't feel what another person does once they know.

I think we need to turn 'cognitive empathy', which isn't empathy, into a different set of words that is more precise and more understandable to most people in everyday life, and for that matter any professionals who aren't autism researchers. It's been suggested that 'theory of mind'  is instead called 'intuition of mind'. Did you do the 'reading the mind in the eyes' test? (I actually score better than the neurotypical average for this,) Is it that you don't understand non-verbal emotional cues in voice or gesture? I think that is something people might understand better without being tempted to make a moral judgement. Some of the questions in the AQ are also about understanding characters' intentions in fiction, which is a different thing again. Is that a learned skill?

I went through a similar arc following diagnosis, in that I was initially hopeful there would be support and understanding, but it took a few months to realise it wasn't coming any time soon. I'm quite careful how I use the label, and maybe prefer 'autistic' to AS more recently, as it gives people cause for thought about communication - I can obviously speak, so what is it I can't communicate? The fact is that no one knows what autism is, but it's the assumption that someone does that leads people to latch onto the last stereotype they came across.

Also, have you come across the 'double-empathy problem' as described by Damian Milton? In short, there's a lot of education that needs doing, at a personal and organisational level.