Published on 12, July, 2020
I wondered if the following situation is commonly experienced by other autistics?
I am out in public, walking along, minding my own business, and some random stranger says, "Cheer up, it might never happen", or words to that effect.
I find it very intrusive and usually cannot find anything witty to say, which would be an ideal response. I am hugely resentful of the concept that I owe it to complete strangers to compose my facial expression to suit their peculiar standards.
I get this a lot in my socially deprived, Labour controlled, working class area in Manchester, in the same circumstances as you describe, but with (shouted aggressively for no reason) commands and instructions from random strangers, usually passing by in cars or on bikes, in a very forceful and aggressive tone, to “shut up moaning” and this happens all the time, both before and after Covid, before and after my diagnosis
Random people shouting at others in the street is quite shocking, I've had various things shouted at me over the years, or muttered at me. The worst one was when my then16 year old daughter and I were walking into town and some bloke walking past us said' why don't you put her down you effing old ***'. Needless to say he got a lot more than he bargained for as both of us turned on him and told him just how wrong he was. It's just not what you expect at around 11am on a saturday morning.
I think some people just have no boundaries at all or maybe a few have tourettes, but they shoud all wind thier necks in. The thing with starting something like that on the street is you're making a lot of assumptions about the person you're shouting at, the person who's just been insulted could be a total nutter with a knife.