Elections and politics

A lot of people in this thread agree that they're disillusioned with the political system in some way (myself included) but have very different ideas about what the solution should be, or what their position in relation to that system is. I think we as autistic people share a very strong conviction in whatever we believe in and get upset about what we perceive as unjust about the world, but aside from that passionate approach to it our actual political values and opinions are as varied and conflicting with one another as those of people who are not autistic.

In general I don't really buy the idea that autistic people have some unique superpower that enables us to see through bullshit that neurotypical people don't see or that makes us superior to them, and that applies to politics as well. To be honest I would find it much easier and more fruitful to have a discussion about politics with a neurotypical person who shared at least some of the values I held than with another autistic person whose views were diametrically opposed to mine. Of course it can be important for us to form communities for the purposes of discussing and campaigning for issues that affect autistic people as a group, but even that requires a certain degree of shared assumptions about the world and what to do about it - e.g. that we are marginalised in XYZ way, that this is unjust and we have a right to demand an end to it - which by necessity not every autistic person is going to accept.

You can't even think of a name, yet you can write a post like that?  (Insert annoying smart alec emoticon)

I find it easy to get reinforcement of my own beliefs by simply finding a group of like minded peopel on teh internet and talking with them.

BUT the the problem there, is that sooner or later they'll "take it too far", or otehrwise reveal themsleves to be as small minded and annoying as the opposition.

Fortunately it cuts the other way too, I can find a poster who is truly deluded and objectionable in teh extreme but if they persist long enough sooner or later they say something cogent and sensible...

I only learned the last sentence by actually engagiing with peopel who hold different, and in some cases quite alien, points of view to me.

I live in an ASSYMMETRIC world in which people are not and never will be idential, interchangeable, units of human resources. In my world there is no such thing as a "Useless Eater" OTOH no-one including me is anything LIKE as good and wise as they like to think they are.

That's why we all tend to fall back onto our cultural leanrings or belief systems, often forgetting that whilst they work for US they are not neccesarily going to work for others.

You can't even think of a name, yet you can write a post like that?  (Insert annoying smart alec emoticon)

I find it easy to get reinforcement of my own beliefs by simply finding a group of like minded peopel on teh internet and talking with them.

BUT the the problem there, is that sooner or later they'll "take it too far", or otehrwise reveal themsleves to be as small minded and annoying as the opposition.

Fortunately it cuts the other way too, I can find a poster who is truly deluded and objectionable in teh extreme but if they persist long enough sooner or later they say something cogent and sensible...

I only learned the last sentence by actually engagiing with peopel who hold different, and in some cases quite alien, points of view to me.

I live in an ASSYMMETRIC world in which people are not and never will be idential, interchangeable, units of human resources. In my world there is no such thing as a "Useless Eater" OTOH no-one including me is anything LIKE as good and wise as they like to think they are.

That's why we all tend to fall back onto our cultural leanrings or belief systems, often forgetting that whilst they work for US they are not neccesarily going to work for others.