Published on 12, July, 2020
Since joining this Community last year, I have seen many a mention of 'seeing things in black and white' and 'black and white thinking'.
I would like to be corrected if I am wrong, but my understanding of this is that it means a person will perceive something to be either this or that, but cannot possibly be both things at the same time. For example, that a person may believe one can feel sadness or happiness, but not both things at the same time.
Have I got this right?
I ask because I have always thought I had the ability to see the shades of grey. Admittedly, not all the time, but certainly sometimes. However, now I find myself wondering if I know myself as well as I thought I did.
If my understanding of what seeing things in black and white means is wrong, I would be grateful if it could be explained to me in simple terms.
Rigid black and white thinking is one of the main issues of ASD.
NT are usually able to give some nuance to their thinking. An NT would say something like "Communism is not perfect, but there are some aspects of communism that make sense and can be incorporated in a society." Same thing for religion, work practices and everything else. NT also have the ability to accept something that is not perfect, but works well enough for now until a better solution can be found.
ASD tend to lack this skill. For them, it's everything or nothing. A religion, politic or practice is either 100% good and perfect, or 100% evil and wrong. They commit 100% to their idea, and cannot understand how anybody in his right mind can accept the opposite. I interacted with fanatics of all colours, and I suspect that many of them were just undiagnosed ASD.
Thank you for your explanation.
However, your final sentence concerns me. I could well be reading too much into it, but it seems (to me, at least) that you're suggesting the majority of fanatics are autistic.
You are, of course, entitled to your own opinion, but having read some of the things you have expressed elsewhere in the forums, it would appear that you have a less than favourable view of autistic people, despite being autistic yourself.
I used to lament over my lack of ability to express the risk and the distress that society causes me, I used hate how others either chose to ignore my difference or didn’t see it at all, I used think for hours about how ‘if my body had less integrity to it then others would see me for what I actually am’..
A pretty intense ideation, as I’m sure you will agree, but it felt like it’d be better than being invisible. Luckily I had an autistic friend, who used to give me harsh-counsel to keep my solution at bay, he was very straightforward with me, which in turn made me think straight..
You remind you of him Judge..
As a certified ASD sufferer, I can tell freely that my view of people with ASD is less than favourable. I refused to attend any group support, and I do not interact with ASD apart for learning on how to act less ASD. If I could choose between keeping my ASD or living as a NT in a wheelchair, I would gladly accept the wheelchair.
Not the majority, but I suspect that many of them are just undiagnosed ASD. That's extremely sad, since they could have had a normal life with some diagnosis and therapy. Instead, they ended up as dangerous fanatics exploited by their leaders. Young ASD people are extremely vulnerable to propaganda and indoctrination.
I remember that I was an impressionable youth with an unsupportive family. If somebody had tried to groom and indoctrinate me, I would have fallen for it.