'We are not a homogeneous group, and I recognise that a lot of autistic people, particularly the non-verbal community, may have a different lived experience. Learning difficulties and other comorbidities can add an extra complication. But for me there are plenty of positives associated with being autistic, which is why language is so important.'
More:
www.theguardian.com/.../autism-autistic-positive-neurodiversity
I am officially diagnosed with ASD(Asperger's) & schizophrenia. I 'm definitely not one of the 'being autistic is brilliant' crowd. For me both the ASD and schizophrenia are disabilities. I have no friends, and reached pension without ever having a paid job. I fell between 2 stools. On one hand not up to the pressure of a white collar job. On the other hand lacking the manual and practical skills to do a blue collar job to a satisfactory level of competence.
The ASD and schizophrenia have resulted in my drifting downwards socially. I need quite a lot of practical support to lead a rather basic lifestyle. I'm intelligent in ways that don't matter, and unintelligent in ways that do.
All people deserve respect
Not always. Taking a personal example: (of course)
Maqui brings me a huge pigeon with a ring on it's foot in the living room one day, and carefully transfers the completely unharmed (as he knew I liked my presents) bird from mouth to floor in front of me securing it with a paw as he looks up at me with a look of magnanimity upon his (very expressive) little face.
I reach down for it and he withdraws the paw, but I fumble my part allowing the pigeon a few milliseconds to leap from my imperfect grip and fly into the bay window.
Maqui gave me a look that could ONLY be interpreted as "you fecking eejit" and stalked off, leaving me to sort my mess out.
Transitory or very specific disrespect E.G. for "sustained & wilful incompetence" has a place in civil and friendly life I feel.
You only needed to ask...
And "test" because I never know where an answer will appear on this ruddy forum!
I will say as
This is a genuine question on a personal level.
I wish this could be a DM. but sadly we are not yet friends here on the forums in order to DM. so sorry this must be a public message.
I think I'd like to know more facts about Asperger before damning him, although the rumours I've heard are unpleasant.
I picked the name, because it's a term used informally by my kids age group, also "Sperglord" which you missed me picking by a narrow margin..
It says Aspergers/Autism on my "certificate of incompetence" awarded to me by the NHS. so I use the terms interchangeably.
I'm also very keen to help people push past the "victim mentality" that I get a strong smell of around here, and towards a more robust accomodation with their own condition and how we relate to the normies and each other.
I Sperg (so what of it??) I guess is my subtext.
Also there is the pointing out that the difference runs deep and can sink your ship if you aren't careful around people like me.
Unfortunately, Nazi ideology, keeps re-appearing in new guises all the time, in that basic "pick a group and mobilise everyone else against them" strategy used to increase a power base.
I've looked at a LOT of human martial history recently, (last ten years) and the German Third Reich killed a lot less people than several much lesser reviled regimes, excercised far less official sadism that an awful lot of regimes, (They are German after all, I know these people, some of them call me family, and they really aren't special monsters...) but they do it with a hell of a lot of hugo boss style.
So I'm less negatively "energised" by the term Nazi than many.
Not a sympathiser by any means, but my recent experience as a member of the unvaccinated "untermensch" has showed me what a mass formation psychosis can do to normal everyday people, and that propaganda and "opinion forming" science cuts right through modern family ties like a knife through butter, as it did back then..
I actually thought I was in danger of being dragged off to a "camp" just between Leicester and Northampton at one point at the end of 2021! Such was the status of the "Unvaccinated" at that specific time. We were the "selfish, disease spreading, misinformed, "enemy within" that needed to be brought under control" was all the media was telling you. Omnichron saved our bacon, as it blew the narrative up in a crucial way, but that's a story for another day..
Unfortunately my investigations into the right wing ideology, (If you call me a name that I don't understand fully, in the context in which you use it, I WILL go and look into what it actually means) also gave me a firm briefing in Anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism is just beyond horrible, it makes you question the fundamentals that you have believed all your life. Never ever go there, it's like taking a lot of bad acid, man. I Still get flashbacks from that stuff, but thankfully I get none from the psychedelics I took when I was a kid...
But circling back to the original question, if my idea about Hans Asperger is correct in that he abused children whilst following some demented and transitory mind virus that the rest of his society was subject to, told him that was O.K. then keeping his name, means that people will not forget that "just because everyone else around you says it's O.K." does not mean that a particular lifestyle or belief system is actually not evil.
We get tricked into reacting improperly all the time, for a certain small group of humans that are given so many names, using that feature for their exclusive benefit is their primary skill and has been since the dawn of time.
Richard Anton Wilsons trilogy "Illuminatus" is a good simple primer on the subject. :c)
Hi Sperg I don't mean to make you a leader. Or spokesperson. This is a genuine question on a personal level. I really am interesteted in your opinion as I myself used to refer to myself as "aspergic" rather than "autistic" for reasons I'm sure are not too unfamiliar with a lot of people. I myself was very saddend and shocked when I realiesed this term was more controversial than I originaly knew.
I that regard I say: Don't make me a leader!!!
For the greater good we could become merciless, ruthless. Despots. Surely we would be pictured as monsters and our deeds exaggerated.
Than there is being stickler for rules imposed on us as well. Without questioning them. Who are we to do that?
Sperg I hope it isn't too inapropriate to ask, and I really hope you don't take it as an affront in anyway (since aspergers used to serve as a useful delineation term and hasn't been replaced by an appropriate substitute yet) but I have wondered how do you you feel about the term Aspergers since it has come to light about Hans Asperger's involvement with nazi ideology? (I must stress this isn't a trick question in anyway) I simply note that it must still prove a useful (even if perhaps not perfect?) term to you.
I heard a paraphrased version of this and thought it profound. And still do tbh.
The problem is while I don't necessarily need much, I don't want my wife to go without (or children, if we're able to have them). And I do feel difficulties other than the purely financial.
Very well said.
Exactly! I really like that quote.
Hello, Iain. :)
I really posted the article link as a means to open conversation on members' experiences of Autism. As it happens, my own experience isn't 'brilliant'; in truth, though, I am grateful that Autism effectively caused me to meet some very special people on this forum. It will sound corny but, aside from my parents, these are the best, most special people I've ever known...and they're autistic. While I can't speak for them, my sense of deep connection with those people is mind-blowing. Surely all this says a lot for autists and, by extension, Autism itself.
I aim for a realistic optimism.
I'm autistic, and it's hard and exhausting, but I wouldn't change it. Possibly because I'm autistic and resustabt to chsnge!
It's given me so many negative experiences to deal with, but those experiences have made me stronger and more compassionate. I've felt much better about myself since rejecting the influence of social constructs to be more authentically myself, though it's taken a while to work out who that is.
One thing I have heard when the idea of neurodiversity is discussed in the news is that it is only the verbal, "high functioning" (ugh I hate that phrase) who are promiting the idea of neurodiversity, and that "obviously it can't possibly extend to those who are non-verbal or need some support." This is, quite frankly, b*ll*cks.
The people saying this have clearly never read Amy Sequenzia. She is multiply disabled, non-verbal, and writes amazing and passionate work on accessibility by typing, which takes her much longer but is her communication method. Honestly, Google her because it's quite the read.
All people are important and valuable to society, no matter what their abilities. All people deserve respect. I've worked in day centres and care homes and seen the infantalising and dehumanising that can occur. They don't look closely enough to see or understand how alternate communication happens. I have stories.
But I believe that embracing neurodiversity means embracing everyone, even the ones who require more effort to understand. Because even though some of us have often been made to feel lesser, we're all human.
I believe I have the knowledge and process that has worked well for me personally during the Covid event and positioned me at all times where I need to be in terms of my own biological security and that of those with whom I interact.
It differs from yours in several degrees of perspective admittedly, but I'm happy with it and enjoying improved health as a result of improving my knowledge and attitudes towards such things because I suddenly had to!
Vitamin D clearly has a direct effect on how my body deals with certain issues, I've had three years of on/off testing, I know what it's doing for me. I learned about it from the FLCCC website, bought it tried it, derived a huge benefit. I want to share that positive experience with others.
I "friended" you a while ago it appears, which means you must have written something intelligent and honest and interesting to me. That we have what appears to be a widely different perception around Covid to my own, which could be a point of contention, but I am happy to read yours, when you express it and learn what I can.
In the sitcom "Friends" the friends are all very different people but share the same ideology, whereas in the world I experience, my friends seem an awful lot more similar to each other, but seem to have different ideologies!
The world needs those other annoying gregarious disease raddled humans in order to deliver my pizza and internet, which does make them easier to like in aggregate...
Getting back to your orginal point which IS important, you not liking your experience of Autism so far, can I ask (with no trace of any agenda) have you not experienced any "peaks" where your difference really worked for you?
The vaccines are not experimental. The RSA technology has been around for a while now… it may have seemed rushed but actually it was just a case of 1) them adapting existing technology to it and 2) the usual stop-start big gaps being eliminated to get those jabs approved quicker, without any shortcuts in the process/rigour. They know what their doing.
Unfortunately, they only reduce the risk. They don’t eliminate it. But humans gonna human. They obviously cannot do without their cavalcade of cartoonish consumer venues to feel like they’re living a worthwhile life.
As for vitamin D… good that it’s helping you get a balanced nutritional intake. But don’t kid yourself, it is by no means a covid defence. How could it be?
Your last line is so true, (and in "Casa Spergola" here, we say an even ruder version all the time) but never forget the unfortunate fact that the Venn diagram of "people" also includes YOU and ME.
That being said, your line of thinking parallels my own, and I have to report that as I get older, I am getting happier as I solve the unique problems caused by my Autism, and can start to enjoy the increased sensitivity, abillity to communicate with animals etc.
The healthy (literally) reaction to covid, is to get away from the mainstream and go look at flccc website and take their advice. I was not offered a vaccination, and chose not to volunteer, for technical based personal reasons but I also did not want to get Covid, and for some reason all the joined up media seemed to suppress any useful prophylaxis or treatments in favour of a single apparently experimental novel injection.
I know it's tempting fate, but by simply increasing my vitamin d intake (daily oral spray, no nasty tablet) and improving my basic microbiological awareness and hygiene I've literally become the least "sickly" person I know!!
The vitamin D spray has transformed my oral health I haven;t had a spot or an infected cut or a cold etc for nearly three years now! It's a BIG change for me, and I like it very much.
A contributory factor is that I no longer socialise unless I want to, and it turns out that I don't really want to meet new people that much. Although there's a few on this forum I would like to meet (or have had the ability to meet).
