ASD is a fact that explains things about me, not an excuse that forgives the chaos that can emanate from me.

My theory is that autism is actually a condition of authenticity that underlies what have been assumed to be symptoms of autism, I see autistic people as people with a sense of positive liberty instead of negative liberty. You are not offending them, they’re choosing to interpret it as offensive (besides physical offences). What we get upset about are the things we teach ourselves to get upset about, we can always reverse it teaching ourselves not to get upset about it.

Let’s think of social norms for a moment, social norms are actually inherently bad and are just an excuse. Not long ago slavery was part of the social norm, seeing men as greater than women and welcome to more rights was part of the social norm, LGBTQ+ defined as pathological disorders less than a century ago etc… Social norms by their nature are discriminatory and violation of human rights, as we look through history we see the trouble has always been caused by “normal people”.

Daniel said:

autism is actually a condition of authenticity

That's a really interesting concept / theory.  I can see the logic of it and I definitely possess a pervasive demand for autonomy in my life.  I have curiously crafted my life to enable that autonomy and seem able (generally) to avoid the "offence" that is created by breaching "social norms"....but my behaviours do generate actual harm and anguish in the real-world - and that in turn causes actual harm to those around me too.  Have you ever tried not paying a parking ticket for instance?!

Just to be clear - I am not, nor have ever been, a physically violent individual - that is not the type of harm I mean.

Social cohesion is important when there are so many humans around these days so I don't think it would be wise to burn the idea of "social norms" just because they are often ridiculous?  Some rules and expectations (AKA laws and social norms) are needed to maintain peace, surely?

Daniel said:

autism is actually a condition of authenticity

That's a really interesting concept / theory.  I can see the logic of it and I definitely possess a pervasive demand for autonomy in my life.  I have curiously crafted my life to enable that autonomy and seem able (generally) to avoid the "offence" that is created by breaching "social norms"....but my behaviours do generate actual harm and anguish in the real-world - and that in turn causes actual harm to those around me too.  Have you ever tried not paying a parking ticket for instance?!

Just to be clear - I am not, nor have ever been, a physically violent individual - that is not the type of harm I mean.

Social cohesion is important when there are so many humans around these days so I don't think it would be wise to burn the idea of "social norms" just because they are often ridiculous?  Some rules and expectations (AKA laws and social norms) are needed to maintain peace, surely?

“Breaching” social norms is not offensive, it is actually the opposite. All the soldiers who died in World War 2, what were they fighting for and trying to protect? They died fighting for “freedom of choice”, stripping people of their human rights like autonomy and freedom of choice through social oppression is very disrespectful and dishonouring to those people who sacrificed their lives for us.

Gay people are only entitled to marriage because they fought against the social norm, feminists are fighting against the social norm because of gender inequality as a result of social norms, neurodiversity advocates are still fighting for equality in human rights, black people are doing Black Lives Matter as a result of social norms, they were slaves and had no freedom, in the learning disabled they are hindered of human rights because they do not learn in the same way as the social norm, I could go on.

Notice that all the loss of civil rights is the result of social norms, the roots of the problem is the concept of normality when there is no such thing as a normal human. Social norms dehumanising everyone who stands out needs to be challenged and evaluated, we need a paradigm shift out of the concept of normality. Normality naturally marginalises groups of people because diversity in part of humanity, normality and diversity are oppositional, so there’s always going to be people socially oppressed as long as the dogmatic assumption that social norms are inherently good remains unchallenged.

All assumptions must be challenged, as soon as assumptions become public doctrine, we are at risk of permanent dogma.

For the record, a social norm is not determined by laws, rules and regulations, that’s why social norms have a negative impact, social norms directly prevent peace and cause conflict by casting minorities who just can’t fit the social norm out of society to be discriminated. Look at how many people are socially isolated because they don’t fit the social norm, social norms divide, not unify, unity and diversity are not oppositional.

Unknown said:

Have you ever tried not paying a parking ticket for instance?!

I've contested 2. 1 successfully the other ongoing. Of course you don't just 'ignore' the ticket you write an argument gather evidence and file a protest. In both cases I argue that the ticket was given to me in error. That a computer or person made a mistake. That I could prove I'd paid for a ticket to park.

Unknown said:

Social cohesion is important when there are so many humans around these days

Group think is highly harmful though. All kinds of harmful error occur because invalid assumptions aren't questioned.