Published on 12, July, 2020
In a response to a fairly recent thread on how to deal with chuggers I suggested saying nothing and showing an autism alert card as possible tactic. I tried it out a few days ago. I was stopped twice by different chuggers, for the first I entered into a discussion about how I was unwilling to extend my charity donations any further. The second time I said absolutely nothing but showed the person my autism alert card, it worked like a dream, no discussion, all over in a couple of seconds. Result!
I pretend to be on my phone, talking. I just mouth " sorry i'm on the phone or just smile" and keep walking
When approached reasonably and politely; I smile and nod in recognition of what I heard the person saying, wave "good bye" to signal I don't want to talk ...and then walk on by without getting sucked into their vortex.
If they are unreasonable in their approach; more likely, I will firmly say "no thank you" in whichever language I can think of which I also think they are least likely to know ...and just keep walking, if they are of the persistent multiple-pester along the pavement variety ...I keep rotating through different languages until they catch on to - no - we will not be discussing this in English or any other language!
Mr T said:I had meant my comment to be a bit tongue in cheek and obviously fail.
Nah, it is my autistic trait of taking things too literally and trying to explain them.
Subtlety is not something I'm good at picking up on - just ask my wife...
thanks for the explanation of the term.
I had meant my comment to be a bit tongue in cheek and obviously fail. Think merchant banker!!!!
Mr T said:Never heard the term used in that way
It is just an abridging of the words "charity" and "mugger" as they accost you in the street with the intention of getting money from you.
Most get a commission of some sort so your donations do not all go to the charity itself.
I'd not come across an "autism alert" card before. I'm not sure that I could use one. For others who are intrigued, I discovered that you can make your own: https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/resources/downloads/i-am-autistic You can also buy them from NAS shop.
Never heard the term used in that way. There is a completely different connation that springs to the mind of people in Scotland.